3.01 Festileaks Content Styleguide

It is important that we use one clear and consistent style within Festileaks. It makes us look professional and ensures recognition. Below you will find an A-Z list of rules as they have been agreed upon within Festileaks.

Active voice Try to use the active voice, and avoid the passive voice. Write ‘Pinkpop 2018 announces Foo Fighters’ instead of ‘Foo Fighters are announced for Pinkpop 2018’.

Album titles Use italics: Achtung Baby.

Artist names All artists announced for the next edition are in bold, but only the first time you mention them: The Strokes, Tame Impala and The National.

Bullet points We love bullet points! The scannability of your article will improve. I mean, what do you think is easier to read?
New names for Roskilde: Foo Fighters, Muse, Arcade Fire, HAIM, Haiku Hands.
New names for Roskilde:

• Foo Fighters
• Muse
• Arcade Fire
• HAIM
• Haiku Hands

You can add bullet points by changing the purpose of a block. You will find a bullet-point list under ‘Common blocks’. Also see: ‘Columns’.

Columns Do you have a long list, for example of new confirmations? Use columns! You can find them by changing the purpose of a block, and then under ‘Layout elements’.

Contractions Try not to use contractions in articles. Use ‘I am’ instead of ‘I’m’, ‘I cannot’ instead of ‘I can’t’, and so on. In Facebook posts, it is fine to use contractions.

Dates Use the British system, so day before month: 18 October 1997. We also write ‘18’ instead of ‘18th’.

F-pattern Readers read in an F-pattern. This means: they scan headings and the first few words of a paragraph, decide whether it is interesting and then they either read the rest of the text or they do not. Keep this in mind and make headings and first sentences
appealing. Also see: ‘Scannability’.

Line-up (the word) This word remains a mystery. For the sake of convenience and consistency, we always use ‘line-up’ instead of ‘lineup’ or ‘line up’.

Lists (of names) Use bullet points and, when you have a long list, columns. Also see: ‘Bullet points’ and ‘Columns’.

Numbers Write out numbers smaller than 21, as well as round humbers. For example: one, 34, fifty, hundred, 1997. Exceptions are dates and prices.

Present tense Write in the present tense and try to use words that emphasise the topicality. Give readers the feeling that Festileaks helps them stay on top of the news; it is happening now! For example: ‘Pinkpop 2018 announces Foo Fighters.’

Prices In the currency of the festival. For example: €150 or £220.95

Scannability When you read on a screen, you scan and skip and look for valuable keywords. Make sure that your text is scannable. This means: use subheadings, empty lines, hyperlinks and maybe bullet points. Also see: F-pattern.

Sentence length Alternate short sentences with somewhat longer ones, but never use sentences that are too long. Rather split them in two. Example: ‘Pinkpop announces Foo Fighters. Jan Smeets says he is delighted with this booking.’ is better than
‘Pinkpop announces Foo Fighters and Jan Smeets says he is delighted with this booking.’

Song titles Use inverted commas: ‘Paradise City’.

Subheadings Can be found by changing the purpose of a block, under ‘Common blocks’. Use ‘Heading 2’.

Synonyms Alternate in your choice of words. Instead of writing ‘Pinkpop’ three times, you can also use ‘the festival’, ‘Landgraaf’ or ‘the oldest pop festival in the world’. This will make your article more exciting to read.

Quotes Quotes are nice, so do use them. We use double quotation marks and no italics: “I am delighted we have booked Foo Fighters,” says Jan Smeets.

Tone of voice Festileaks’ tone of voice is positive, enthusiastic and personal. We are a website for festival fans by festival fans.

Vocabulary Alternate sufficiently, but do not try to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. The most important thing is that your text is readable and understandable for everyone. We are down to earth and talk in the same way as you would do with friends.