Manual of Style - Spelling
elf-pavlik opened this issue · 2 comments
This issue captures a side conversation started in solid/notifications#162 (comment)
@TallTed Given that we're operating as a W3C CG, I think we should be conforming to the W3C Manual of Style, and to 11.2 Spelling in particular.
The W3C Manual of Style would probably benefit from some attention from the I18n folks, and I'd be happy to adjust my editing to such an update.
IMO a native English speaker preferably stays responsible for proofreading the text and correcting spelling and grammar. They should have the freedom to pick the flavor of English which allows them to deliver the most consistent outcome.
BTW we could also document more of the available tooling. For example, given English as my 2nd language, installing Grammarly as the browser and code editor extensions, has led to quite a bit less of a cleanup left for the person doing the proofreading 😅
Moved here as it concerns the Solid TR contributing guideline: https://github.com/solid/specification/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md (which already refers to W3C Manual of Style).
The W3C Manual of Style is a... style preference, nothing more:
This manual is a guide containing best current practice, written for editors and authors of W3C technical reports. No requirements for W3C publications are in this document. All requirements for W3C publications are in W3C Publication Rules.
And no W3C pubrule requires a particular spelling.
The role the Editor of a document is to ensure that the text is easy to read and implement, among other responsibilities. Anyone, including native English speakers, may contribute with improvements, without additional intellectual responsibilities or ownership. In conclusion, it is the Editors' call.
Consistency is key. I propose to add the following recommendation under the https://github.com/solid/specification/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#publication-rules
Use consistent spelling throughout the document.
Proposed in #509