Ubuntu Wiki

Summaries for the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter are typically 1-4 sentences each, with the exception being major news in the General Community News section.

In writing summaries, please remember to follow these content guidelines:

• Make your summaries present tense.
  • Good: The author states
  • Bad: The author stated
• We release on very simple wiki-based syntax and export to several formats, including text only, so please avoid:
  • Hyperlinks in summaries
  • Full justification of text
  • Bold, italics, strikethrough
• Do not editorialize.
  • Good:
    • John Smith proclaims "the new release of Ubuntu is great!"
    • This article explains...
  • Bad:
    • The new release of Ubuntu is great!

    • This great article explains...

• Do not add facts or information that are not included in the article.
  • You may know that Mark Shuttleworth founded Ubuntu, but if it's not mentioned in the article, don't mention it.
• Do not change the title text or quotes from what is written by the author.
  • Grammar error in the subject of a blog post? We don't fix it; we keep the title what the author intended (if we know the author, it's acceptable to point out the error but if they don't fix it then we don't fix it).
  • Try not to quote passages that have grammar or other errors. If you do, don't grammar correct; a quote is a quote.
• Spell names properly.
  • This is very important. Names are a very personal thing, and a misspelled name is quite disappointing. Please make every effort to ensure this does not happen.
• Make sure the summary tells us more than the title of the article
  • Short summaries are fine as long as they give some hint beyond the title of what the article is about (this is why 1-4 sentences is suggested).
• Date formats
  • Dates should not be shown in numerical formats such as 10/12/14 as the intended date can be interpreted differently throughout the world. Abbreviated months are fine as long as what is quoted is unambiguous.
• Do not try to make your summary a cliff-hanger

• Always use double quotation marks when quoting directly from a news article or blog post

• Always use the proper name of a website which is usually found at the bottom of the websites's home page, e.g. OMG! Ubuntu! not omgubuntu.co.uk.

And, for some specific grammar reminders:

• When listing more than two verb phrases, each verb phrase should be separated by a comma.
  • Bad:
    • George Smith reports on the user experience, options for customizations and changes in the upcoming release.
  • Good (note the comma after 'customizations'):
    • George Smith reports on the user experience, options for customizations, and changes in the upcoming release.
• When listing only two verb phrases joined by a conjunction (and, but, etc.), no comma is needed.
  • Bad:
    • Bob Jones invites users to contribute feedback, and asks the community to install the application on as many devices as possible.
  • Good (note the missing comma after 'feedback'):
    • Bob Jones invites users to contribute feedback and asks the community to install the application on as many devices as possible.

• If a comma is required (for whatever reason), then the following is correct (note the comma after 'feedback' and the addition of the subject 'he')--these are two complete sentences (both have a subject and verb) joined by a conjunction (and), therefore, a comma is required to separate the two sentences:

  • Bob Jones invites users to contribute feedback, and he asks the community to install the application on as many devices as possible.
• The Oxford comma is preferred. This is the comma attached to the second-to-last item in a list (before "and"). This would be a correct usage of the Oxford comma:
  • Joe writes about foo, bar, and baz.