Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age

by Constance Hale, Jessie Scanlon

A hip, indispensable guide to surviving the idiosyncrasies of cyberspeak offers practical advice for navigating the informal waters of digital prose by decoding acronyms, covering geeks' lingo, and answering those frequently asked questions. Original.

Genres: Reference, Writing, Technology, Nonfiction

198 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 1997

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Might have been three stars in 1999, but awarded an additional two stars fifteen years later for being an excellent artifact of the early web.

[Juniper Dempsey]

if they made it today they'd have to put furry in there

[Nicole Galloway-Miller · Rating 1 out of 5]

Beware students of linguistics, language theory, literature, as well as writers, editors, publishers, agents and anyone else who has nightmares of technology ruining standard English language. Do not allow this insulting and infuriating book into your house, do not touch this book because it might catch fire like a witch tied to a stake; it is wicked, evil and must be destroyed immediately like the devil's demon Harry Potter.

To prove my point, this is the only book I have ever thrown to the ground on purpose while shivering as if large cockroaches were crawling all over my body. It is also the only book I have ever skimmed, because I was terrified what insulting thing would be written next.

How dare this book label itself "Principles of the English Standard" and then spread the idea that Standard English is the devil and blogging and emailing are the literature of this modern age!

I have three questions for the anonymous writers of these articles. If I pretended to know everything about computers while every word I spoke proved I knew nothing about computer parts, would you let me update or rebuild your computer? Would you allow me to publish a nonfiction book on the "modern" principles of computer hardware? Would you feel insulted and disrespected when I informed you that everything you know about computers is outdated news and must be ignored, and I added that the most innovative and important computer hardware was a dollar store calculator with a dead battery?

Yes. You would?! In fact, you are so outraged that you are typing in all caps.

"Wired," you should stick to what you know. I need help deciding which computers, programs, and apps will be best for me.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

When one is employed by a company and needs to officially communicate a fair level of technical information, when one enjoys having style guides on hand as jumping-off points for developing an in-house style, when one discovers a significant style guide to add to their personal collection for only $2.50 at Powell's...any (or in my case, all) of these reasons are a great reason to acquire this digital literary resource.

Sure, the original hardback was released when The Net was released in theaters, and the paperback edition was released when the Blackberry was first released...but does that mean that we may never need to look up the term "baud" or harken back to when "Web site" was two words, and capitalized? No! Arguably this guide has not been updated simply because of many of these terms becoming so mainstream, but this guide will be a great resource to have on hand anyway. Serious props to Wired's editors for being of the Chicago ilk. Can't wait to start using this one at work.

[Jacky · Rating 2 out of 5]

A literary trip back to 1996. I was amazed by the amount of modern internet lingo that already existed back in 1996 (LOL, IRL, ROFL) and some that doesn't exist anymore (TTYTT, SMTOE, FYFS). The most important piece of information contained within this book states that "GIF" is pronounced with a hard "g" and not with a soft "g", because "GIF" isn't a brand of peanut butter. So if that doesn't change the minds of you soft "g", "jif" advocates, then you can unfriend me on Goodreads right now and get out of my life.

Overall, the book barely passes as reference material on the modern internet. It's 20 years old. When this book was published, the writers were still fantasizing about 1+ Mbps download speed, and Mulder and Scully were still faxing evidence to each other.

[carolyn rhea drapes · Rating 4 out of 5]

For its time, the Wired manual attempts to standardize new terms connected to the culture/use/development of the Internet with an old school method of delivery (hardcopy book.) Today, the same information would be configured for digital delivery to any number of ebook formats/devices. (Would like to see how this would be translated for an iPad.) The overall physical package belies its era, which for me is quite charming: slipcase, black spiral bound, choice of black/red (ala Roger Black) color scheme, and minute sans serif (Helvetica?) typography. This is a true Internet artifact from the late 90s.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I bought this book, I did not realize it was 20 years old. So the technology is absolutely dated. However, I got something in this book I hadn't expected - a time capsule. Reading about writing on technology before Google, before Facebook... it was like a time machine. I remembered a lot of good times as a kid, building Frankenstein PC computers from spare parts, hanging out on CompuServe, AOL, Usenet, BBS, and IRC. I grew up reading Wired, so I always considered them the definitive authority on writing about the intersection of tech and culture. In my opinion, as a style guide, the book holds up well for its age - I'm so glad I found it!

[Bianca]

Should be required alongside the AP Style book in all journalism courses.