1

I’m a little worried that when I edit an article, say about My Little Pony, or something most definitely Teen, my edits will make it read more adult-like, and less Teen-like, and mess up its effectiveness. I mean, a kid is not likely to take an article with, for instance, semicolons and adult grammar as seriously as an article written in Kidspeak. The same is true for an article addressed to members of the African American community, or any group where a certain style is used. I could be wrong, but using the wrong vocabulary, or using oppressively correct grammar and punctuation can be offputting. Has anyone dealt with this issue in the past? Is there a particular term for it in the wikiHow community, so that I can recognize it if it comes up again? To give an instance: I tend to replace “if” with the word “whether”, if I think that whether is what was intended. But I have a sneaking suspicion that there are a ton of people out there who have never even _heard_ the word “whether”. I hardly ever see it on the Internet!

2

I agree that article language should be simple with small words, but whatever the target demographic, articles should always be written in proper english with all the proper punctuation. This of it like this, writing “kid” articles in proper english will help the kids learn proper grammar usage. And as a how to manual , articles should always be impersonal and professional.

3

I think there are two issues here worth separating: 1) Could excessive formality be a problem?I don’t think this only applies to teen articles, either. You know, editors in other media and on other sites (not wikiHow editors, who are wonderful) seem to think their job is removing any clues that a text was written by an actual human being; the results are about as enjoyable a read as toothpaste instructions. So yup, excessive formal correctness can be harmful, and this would apply more so to teen/youth-related articles. We should be writing these in a different, less-formal, snappier voice than we would an article about calculating income tax in California . It is a legitimate concern. 2) Is Arch5280 worrying too much?I would say that the answer is yes you definitely are. It’s a known problem that the the teen/youth articles tend towards being low-quality; not because of the “voice” that was used, but because they’re just plain-old-Bad. I will absolutely guarantee that if you edit , you will not make them worse. Happy editing.:slight_smile:

4

We have to be honest here. Most teens arent going to write in the best sort of voice and tone. The articles usually need some cleaning up and I end up surgically altering them in NAB. I think that a lot of our low quality articles come from this sort of thing; Someone whizzing by and making 10 minecraft articles at a time or something to that effect. I think you shouldnt worry about the voice. The more developed the article sounds, the more likely you are to read it. Being a teen, I think teens are more inclined to read well written articles, but less inclined to write articles well.:slight_smile:

5

I think that ‘‘teens’’ (anyone over 12?) would rather have the adult language than the simple language that makes it feel like wikiHow is condescending to them. ‘‘Kids’’ (those below 12?) would probably rather have us use the simple language and not have us use words like “wherefore” that they’ve never heard. However, I think that we do need to use correct grammar and language, so for me the solution would be to just use simple sentence structure/language in the kid articles. “Turn the bowl upside down.” is just as good grammar as “Invert the basin.” However, have another problem. People not knowing which articles are “teen” and which are “kid.” My Little Pony, @Arch5280 , is for little girls-like 4-year-old little girls. It most definitely is not teen. Sorry Arch5280.:wink:

6

I think this is best handled on a case-by-case basis. If you think editing an article to the highest English language standards will alienate the readers, there are plenty of other articles that could use that kind of editing which will not have that issue:slight_smile:In most cases, though, proper English usage makes our articles seem higher quality and more authoritative.