User:John/style

My stylistic hates (aka "Wikipedia shoot-on-sight")


 * The proliferation of flag icons on pages where they add nothing, like biographies or band articles; see this MoS page for the arguments about good and bad use of flags.
 * Ethnic categories applied to biographical articles by assertion. ("She looks black" or "his mother was Indian") See WP:NOR and WP:BLP
 * Botswanan: in two years living there, I never heard this variant. The preferred adjective is Botswana. See this discussion.
 * Chemical elements wrongly capitalized; it's "iron", "oxygen" and "boron", not "Iron", "Oxygen" and "Boron". Simple. Also Over-Capitalization Of Section And Article Titles.
 * "It should be noted" and even the word "notable". If it isn't notable, it doesn't belong here. 'Ironically'; who found it ironic? Actually; in fact; these are the equivalent of saying honestly and may make a statement less believable, not more. Used is usually better than utilised or utilized.
 * Humourous. Honourary. Hypercorrection at its most extreme. See here for details.
 * Seminal. Legendary. Iconic. Epochal, used as intensifiers rather than their literal meanings. Unless it's sourced, no. See peacock words.
 * Would wrongly used instead of the past tense, as in "1995 would be a difficult year for Yeltsin". Was is fine.
 * However and other linking words deployed without thought as to their meaning. See User:John/however. Although can be like this too.
 * Overlinking in general.
 * A number of: I prefer "a few" or "several"; zero, pi and negative nine are perfectly valid numbers.
 * Simply; in real life things are almost never simple and there is seldom or never a need to use this word in an article
 * It was not until (for example, Civil traffic began in 1922 when flights were conducted flying newspapers from Chester, although it was not until 1933 that a regular, sustained civil air service started. -> ..., and a regular civil air service started in 1933.) and its cousin "not only .... but also ...."
 * Tabloidese Tabloid journalism almost exclusively uses verbs like "reveal", "vow", and "slam", as this is what they think their uneducated and semi-literate readers like. Encyclopedias use sober, neutral language, never this sort of stuff.
 * Other words to watch: Acclaim, additionally, aforementioned, although, eventually, finally, manage, meanwhile, moreover, therefore, while, whilst. (On artist bios) Success(ful), garnered, critical, praise. See also WP:RECEPTION.
 * Seasons used as time signifiers, as though they were the same all over the world. They aren't.
 * Some as in "The body was found some 330 miles away." It means approximately, but all measurements are approximate and this doesn't need to be stated.