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Style Guide
All words should be spelt using Australian English. Colour, not color. Please respect this, for the internal consistency of the tool.
Prefer active voice over passive voice. This is general advice, not a hard-and-fast rule. There are times when you may want to consider using the passive voice, particularly when:
- the identity of the actor is unknown, unimportant or being intentionally concealed (e.g., "The jewels were stolen.")
- the focus of the sentence is the thing being acted on (e.g., "JFK was assassinated.")
- you need to put the "punch word" at the end of the sentence
- the passive sounds better
Prefer simple present over present continuous, unless the action's timing is relevant.
- ✓ "I was singing when the bard hit me."
- ✗ "The barkeep is laughing."
Use the word “colour” when the colour itself is relevant. Otherwise, just name the colour.
- ✓ "The orb's colour is eerie."
- ✓ "The stone is slate grey."
- ✗ ”The mushrooms are green coloured."
- ✗ "The monster's blood was a terrible red."
Remember adjectival precedence!
opinion size age shape colour origin material purpose noun
lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife
Adjectival precedence is subverted when the last adjective and noun create a noun phrase. For example, you can describe a great zombie that is green as a "green great zombie", even though the order of the adjectives is backwards.
- ✓ The mean-looking old red dragonborn.
- ✓ The tiny rectangular wooden hunting cabin.
- ✗ The small nice-looking green Faerunian rug.
- ✗ The wooden dirty floor.
A phrasal adjective is a combination of words that modifies a noun as a single "unit". Hyphenate a phrasal adjective if it appears before the word; don't hyphenate if it comes after.
- ✓ "That is a high-quality sword."
- ✓ "The armor was of especially poor quality."
- ✗ "It was a well traveled road."
- ✗ "The wooden floor is roughly-hewn."
Prefer "x" over "x-looking" unless the difference between x’s appearance and its nature is relevant. Shy away from long stacks of adjectives ("large, crude, hand-drawn painting").