Skip to content
New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Pronouns and Gender #1

Open
wants to merge 1 commit into
base: master
Choose a base branch
from
+24 −20
Open

Pronouns and Gender #1

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
44 changes: 24 additions & 20 deletions readme.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ This style guide is dedicated to the minutiae. Is it "gcode" or "G-code"? One

* The Wikimedia copyright notice is unnecessarily verbose. We use <pre>"Image title" by <a href="http://mediapage.Url">Creator</a> CC-BY-SA 3.0</pre>

* Attribution: We do it whenever possible. If you read about it somewhere, include: (Is this already in Quick-start Guide?)
* Attribution: We do it whenever possible. If you read about it somewhere, include: (Is this already in Quick-start Guide?)
* Tipsters: We thank them. (More here)

* References to any Web resource is included in the body text as an HTML link. If you're making a reference to a printed book, best is usually to cite it in text: (See _Understanding Digital Signal Processing_ by Richard G. Lyons). If you have enough non-Web citations to warrant a bibliography, you can use a [1] notation. Talk to an editor if you do this.
Expand All @@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ This style guide is dedicated to the minutiae. Is it "gcode" or "G-code"? One

* Never use two headings in a row -- it looks bad with our style. Come up with an introductory paragraph to lead off the new section.

* Don't tell the reader where the image is ("as you see in the figure to the left") because editors often move images, and they may move around on their own in a (future) mobile-first Web design. You _can_ presume that the reader can see the image, though, and you can refer to it.
* Don't tell the reader where the image is ("as you see in the figure to the left") because editors often move images, and they may move around on their own in a (future) mobile-first Web design. You _can_ presume that the reader can see the image, though, and you can refer to it.

## Tenses and Voices

Expand All @@ -40,39 +40,43 @@ This style guide is dedicated to the minutiae. Is it "gcode" or "G-code"? One

## Genders

* There is no singular, gender-neutral pronoun in English that refers to people. This sucks.
* If you can find out the hacker's preferred gender, don't be afraid to use it.
* "He or she" is acceptable, but sounds stilted.
* Using the hacker's name can help: "[Pat] flashed the firmware".
* If you're really stumped, you can re-construct the sentence in the passive voice. "The firmware was flashed." It's not as nice as the active version, but it's probably the lesser of two evils.
* "They" is plural. (Anyone want to talk about this? I'd be stoked to change my mind. It would be handy, because the hacker's gender is often irrelevant, and it's just a hassle.)
* English has a very interesting and intersectional history where pronouns are concerned. Here are a few tips for how to navigate the fields of gender and pronouns in writing:
* If you can find out the hacker's preferred gender, don't be afraid to use it. Some individuals use pronouns you might not have heard of [(xem, xyr)](https://s3.amazonaws.com/contenthub-static/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/11.jpg) as a linguistic representation of the [non-binary](https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/40428_Chapter2.pdf) [nature](https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/40428_Chapter2.pdf) of [gender](https://arstechnica.com/science/2012/09/pregnant-males-and-pseudopenises-complex-sex-in-the-animal-kingdom/).
* When you're unsure, using the hacker's name can help: "[Pat] flashed the firmware".
* "They" is [generally](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbinary-they) [accepted](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/he-or-she-versus-they) as a [gender-neutral](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/education/edlife/a-university-recognizes-a-third-gender-neutral.html?_r=1) [singular/plural](http://www.npr.org/2016/01/13/462906419/everyone-uses-singular-they-whether-they-realize-it-or-not) pronoun among linguists: "the use of plural pronouns to refer back to a singular subject isn’t new: it represents a revival of a practice dating from the 16th century. It’s increasingly common in current English and is now widely accepted both in speech and in writing."- [Oxford Living Dictionary](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/he-or-she-versus-they). Moreover, [some individuals](https://www.grammarly.com/blog/use-the-singular-they/) prefer the they/them as personal pronouns over the historically dominant he/him or she/her pronouns. For these reasons, "they" was voted as the [word of the year](http://www.americandialect.org/2015-word-of-the-year-is-singular-they) for 2015 by the [American Dialect Society](http://www.americandialect.org/). More information about pronouns: ['Ze' or 'They'? A Guide to Using Gender-Neutral Pronouns](http://www.citylab.com/navigator/2015/09/ze-or-they-a-guide-to-using-gender-neutral-pronouns/407167/), [Why Pronouns Matter
](http://www.gsafewi.org/wp-content/uploads/Why-Pronouns-Matter.pdf), [The Need for a Gender-Neutral Pronoun](https://genderneutralpronoun.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/the-need-for-a-gender-neutral-pronoun/), [Pronouns](https://lgbt.williams.edu/resources/trans-resources/pronouns/)
* Examples of the use of they/them include:
* "Each and every one of my colleagues at the university will express their own opinion."
* "Everyone was absorbed in their own business."
* "Nobody wants to return to the car park and find that their car has been clamped." Quotes from the [Oxford Living Dictionary](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/using-they-and-them-in-the-singular)
* If you're really stumped, you can re-construct the sentence in the passive voice. "The firmware was flashed." It's not as nice as the active version "They flashed the firmware", but it's probably the lesser of two evils.

* Go with the gender that the hacker identifies him or herself as. He or she gets to choose, not you.
* Go with the gender that the hacker identifies themselves as. They get to choose, not you.

## Punctuation, and its (Ab)uses

* Commas come in the sentence where you would take a breath or pause for a beat. This does not mean that every pause requires a comma.

* Commas separate independent clauses: "She is smart, and she wields a mean soldering iron."
* Commas separate independent clauses: "She is smart, and she wields a mean soldering iron."
* Commas don't separate two actions that occur in sequence: "She finished her tee and left."
* Commas separate list elements: "sex, drugs, and Arduinos".
* Hackaday style is to use the [serial comma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma) -- the one just before the "and" -- in lists. The best justification I've ever seen for this is the sentence "I love my parents, Lady Gaga and Humpty Dumpty".
* Commas offset parenthetical elements in a sentence: "[john doe], who we've featured before, is an anonymous hacker."

* The hyphen (single dash) makes a single unit out of two or more words, when the compound word modifies another and it's needed for clarity. It's like parentheses in math, but for language.
* The hyphen (single dash) makes a single unit out of two or more words, when the compound word modifies another and it's needed for clarity. It's like parentheses in math, but for language.
* "his awesome 3D-printing skills". "3D-printing" modifies skills, but it's two words, and you could be confused if he had awesome, 3D, (printing skills). A "flat-bed truck" is not a flat (bed truck).
* Contrast: No dash in "3D printing is awesome" because 3D is a single word modifying printing.
* The dash is _never_ needed when an adverb is one of the modifiers: "his simply fantastic prose" is fine, even though it's parsed as "(simply fantastic) prose". The fact that it's an adverb is your clue that there are multiple modifiers at work.
* The hyphen is also used in ranges. "Pages 12-18", "1971-2007", etc.

* The em-dash (double dash) is an informal substitute for the parenthetical comma above. It should be used in cases that are just slightly more parenthetical. They should be offset on either side with a space. "He hacked a Furby -- for whatever reason -- into a router."

* Parentheses are for material that doesn't fit the normal flow of the sentence. In practice, when you have something to say that doesn't work in the sentence, it's best to split your sentence in two and re-write the parenthetical part so that it can stand on its own. If you absolutely can't, parenthesize.
* Parentheses are for material that doesn't fit the normal flow of the sentence. In practice, when you have something to say that doesn't work in the sentence, it's best to split your sentence in two and re-write the parenthetical part so that it can stand on its own. If you absolutely can't, parenthesize.
* Entire parenthetical sentences, or asides, are useful if you are inserting your own opinion in piece that is otherwise written with the "Hackaday We" (he said).
* Flag links to something other than a webpage with parentheses: "For details, check the documentation (PDF)." Or "[Meatballman7000] has a great video (YouTube)..."
* Definitions and clarifications can work with parentheses. "He danced the cha-cha (a derivative of the mambo) until dawn."
* Definitions and clarifications can work with parentheses. "He danced the cha-cha (a derivative of the mambo) until dawn."

* Semicolons separate two complete sentences that nonetheless are part of a unitary whole. They're a strange beast, but useful when you need them. "I'd like a wheat beer; my dog will have the IPA." Unlike the period, the second sentence is not capitalized.
* Semicolons separate two complete sentences that nonetheless are part of a unitary whole. They're a strange beast, but useful when you need them. "I'd like a wheat beer; my dog will have the IPA." Unlike the period, the second sentence is not capitalized.

* Regular colons precede: lists, descriptions, definitions, and explanations. I can't tell you why: it simply is that way.

Expand All @@ -85,7 +89,7 @@ This style guide is dedicated to the minutiae. Is it "gcode" or "G-code"? One

* Do the same with units. "Seven megabytes" but "28 GB".
* Seventeenth, but 23rd.
* When mixing and matching, the digits win out. "He took between 17 and 25 hours" is more readable than "he took between seventeen and 25 hours".
* When mixing and matching, the digits win out. "He took between 17 and 25 hours" is more readable than "he took between seventeen and 25 hours".
* Exceptions:
* When the number is the name: "Pin 5" or "Pier 17".
* Bits. We've used "8-bit" forever. No reason to change.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -121,9 +125,9 @@ Define an acronym on first use. "Did you know that using a real-time operating

* Exceptions are widely-known acronyms, where you'd just feel silly writing them out: "16 GB RAM", for instance. This is a moving target. This section needs fleshing out, or maybe just a list of the acronyms that _don't_ need spelling out.

## Miscellanea
## Miscellanea

* That / which: "That" is for details that are essential to the meaning of the sentence, and "which" is for additional info. "To defuse the bomb, cut the wire that is flagged with tape." "To defuse the bomb, which was planted by [Evil McNasty], our hero cut the wire." You need to know which wire, but you don't need to know who planted the bomb, at least for the meaning of the sentence.
* That / which: "That" is for details that are essential to the meaning of the sentence, and "which" is for additional info. "To defuse the bomb, cut the wire that is flagged with tape." "To defuse the bomb, which was planted by [Evil McNasty], our hero cut the wire." You need to know which wire, but you don't need to know who planted the bomb, at least for the meaning of the sentence.



Expand All @@ -143,20 +147,20 @@ Here is a list of proper nouns / names that appear often, and this is how they'r
* Ethernet
* Bluetooth
* WiFi
* eBay
* eBay
* GitHub
* DEF CON
* mbed
* G-code
* GNU
* Emacs
* GCC
* GCC
* Arduino
* BlackBerry

Acronyms that you'd think are capitalized, but have fallen out of fashion:

* laser
* laser
* radar
* sonar
* scuba
Expand Down