* Id: ContentPrimer * Revision: 2 * State: submitted * * Log: * Revision 1 1999/10/26 Roel van der Meulen * Initial submitted version. * * Revision 2 1999/11/09 Roel van der Meulen * Updated version. Return-path: Received: from pop.argonet.co.uk by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.0.5) for mrs@localhost (single-drop); Tue, 09 Nov 1999 20:59:17 +0000 (GMT) Received: from (strw.strw.LeidenUniv.nl) [132.229.214.2] by golden.argonet.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 1.82 #3) id 11lFhE-0002wE-00; Tue, 9 Nov 1999 18:08:44 +0000 Received: from beerze.LeidenUniv.nl (beerze [132.229.214.9]) by strw.strw.LeidenUniv.nl (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id TAA21833 for ; Tue, 9 Nov 1999 19:08:42 +0100 (MET) Received: by beerze.LeidenUniv.nl (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id TAA05291; Tue, 9 Nov 1999 19:08:41 +0100 Message-Id: <199911091808.TAA05291@beerze.LeidenUniv.nl> X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII Subject: Submitted again (revision: 2) Article Content Primer From: vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl (Roel van der Meulen) To: mseaborn@argonet.co.uk Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 19:08:41 +0100 Envelope-to: mseaborn@argonet.co.uk Delivery-date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 18:08:46 +0000 Some comments in the newsgroup made it necessary to add some things here.. Roel 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456 %t Writing A PGG Article, The Bare Minimum You Need To Read Before You Start %n R %s What Should Project Galactic Guide Articles Contain And What Not %a Roel van der Meulen (vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl) %d 19991022 %i PGG Article Content Primer %i Primer For PGG-Article Content %i Article Content Primer %x Format And Style Policy, The Official Project Galactic Guide %x Project Galactic Guide Text Formatting Guide %x Article Writing Guide For Field Researchers And Guide Editors %x FAQ, PGG %k Meta, Writing, Author, Content, Guide %e Before you start writing an article for Project Galactic Guide, which, the editors often state, can be about _anything_, it might be useful for the ambitious field researcher to know how PGG actually defines "everything". As authors have often found out after receiving comments from their editors, there are limits to this "everything". First of all, please don't write any articles that play in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker universe. This means: no references to Vogon Poetry, Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, Improbability Drives, etc. etc.. We, PGG, like to be original, and not get into any possible legal trouble over Douglas Adams' intellectual property [1]. Further, PGG can be described as a `humourous encyclopedia'. This means that it should be like an encyclopedia entry, describing something. Anecdotes don't really fall into this category, but an occasional one can sometimes serve as an illustration. We prefer that you write about the _real_, with only occasional excursions into the unreal to put real things in a different and original perspective. Keep in mind that the editors will check for the presence of at least two of the three following characteristics in your article: 1) The article preferably has to be humourous; 2) Interesting; 3) Informative [2]. Did you notice that plain silly and/or weird doesn't really fall into these categories? Well spotted! We also like an article to have a bit of body, although we don't refuse short articles, especially if they are funny and really to the point. If it is short and doesn't cover everything that is mentioned in the title, we suggest you change the title to something less general, or simply write all the stuff you left out after all. Now you should know enough to avoid editorial comments that require a _major_ rewrite of your article. Good luck with writing!! [1] Although we do allow references to towels and hitchhikers, and the use of the words "hoopy" and "frood". This is mostly for nostalgic reasons. [2] Although it would seem at first sight that informative _or_ humourous articles would automatically be interesting, there are numerous examples of the contrary. Think for instance of jokes, and of an article simply summing up `interesting' numbers of model trains (respectively). %e *EOA*