Tone of voice

Hi there! 👋

Out of respect for the humans that sporadically visit this site, as well as out of a desire to grow, I concluded that having some sort of guidelines - and guardrails - will help me streamline the process, accelerate my learning, improve my writing faster.

⚠️ A work in progress: still figuring out what I sound like it.

Values first

I want to stay honest and true to my mission and my values.

If I am writing - and pretending that someone else is reading - then I am growing and learning in collaboration, inspiring others to do the same.

Call me an idealist. 😂

Positive

I love talking about possibility, dreams, ideals.

I might occasionally rant about something - automobiles for instance - but the focus is always on aspiring to create something better, greater, totally awesome - such as bicycles and cycle lanes.

Seriously laid back

I try to treat every subject with the utmost respect because every thing is eventually loved by someone out there in ways that I can’t even begin to understand.

I am writing to learn, to practice, to eventually connect with other humans. I might be passionate about a few things but I don’t pretend to be an authority on any of those things. In the end, writing here is just a hobby.

Real voice

When I am writing, I am reading it back.

I frequently search for synonyms and take inspiration from articles and books. But I always try to imagine my voice saying the words. Now and then, when there’s no one around the house, :sweat_smile” I even vocalise it.

If it sounds like not me, not André Torgal, then I don’t use it.

In other words, I am not writing anything here that I wouldn’t say during a chilled eventing around the coffee table.

Purposeful structure

Guidelines:

• Have some to say, say it.
• Identify the main point early.
• Use structure to breakdown the thing(s) / topic(s).
• Use narrative to get you started.
• Use rhythm to take you the distance.
• Use bullet points to summarise.
• Use links to make the journey more direct.

This last point is a powerful driver of information architecture requirements and authoring experience. I want to use new page + new link as much as possible in my workflow and I want that authoring experience to be seamless.

Accessible

Use accessibility mechanisms to talk directly to different audiences.

Assorted, diversified, multifaceted

This website, especially the blog section, is a weird mix of personal and work related stuff.

The work related posts range from boring details about something specific, to thinking about complex systems and having everything is connected kind of epiphanies.

While the personal ones go from candid introspection on serious matters to rambling about what doesn’t matter.

I find it helps to allow the vibe to vary a lot from post to post. But it’s important to apply it consistently throughout the article.

I need to take special care when editing old drafts or revising articles and pages published a long time ago.

Emoji

Yes! I embraced it. 😚 emojis.

• Emoji go after punctuation, 👈 after comas, periods, and question marks? 🙃
• Avoid using more than 2 emojis per paragraph.
• In the darkest, most serious page, make sure there is at least one face. 😬
• Occasionally throw a party and invite everyone in: 🥁 🔥 💥 🐉 👺

🇬🇧 Spelling

I am sticking to English of course.

I am using a spelling extension in VS Code: Spell Right because:

• It’s fast: tested on huge documents with thousands of spelling errors
• Works entirely offline.
• UX: quick to apply suggestions and add to dictionary using keyboard only.
• Easy to track separate user and workspace dictionaries.

Curious note

🤯 everyone but Cambridge seems to think that trade-off should be spelled trade-off and not tradeoff:

• Cambridge: tradeoff
• Oxford: trade-off
• Merriam Webster: trade-off
• macmillan: trade-off
• Collins: trade-off

The free dictionary believes both tradeoff and trade-off are the same thing, and both equally :uk-flag: and :en-flag: … :sweatsmile: