Help:Style Guide

The Overstock.com Guides wiki is an open platform, meaning you are free to add any content you wish, subject to a few easy guidelines created to make this project and everybody’s contributions to it as successful as possible.

How To Write A Guide

Aim to Inspire

Help the reader feel your enthusiasm.

Be Knowledgeable and Engaging

Overstock.com Guides is first and foremost a source of practical and applied knowledge, organized into discrete "guides." As you create your guide, do so with the goal of imparting all the knowledge a reader might need to learn and engage in a specific activity.

If you wish to publish additional content that does not quite meet the "practical and applied knowledge" standard – including related fiction, non-fiction or opinion – you are free to do so on your user page.

Be the Expert

Whether or not you realize it, you’re a true expert at something, though it’s probably not the thing you do to earn a living. Start by identifying that passion of yours that most people around you don’t quite "get," but which you would spend much more time doing if you won the lottery tomorrow and never had to work again.

Find your unique niche

Make your guide as specific as possible, regardless of whether you think more than ten others will find it interesting. For example, instead of merely writing about fishing, you might consider writing about dry fly fishing for brown trout on your favorite river.

Narration over Dictation

Though mechanical "how to" lists will certainly be a part of each guide, they should not form the foundation. Instead, write as though you were teaching another directly.

Involve Others

The software that runs Overstock.com Guides was designed for multiple authors working collaboratively. If you create a new guide, be eager to recruit others to support you. If you’d like to contribute to an existing guide, don’t be afraid to request permission of that guide’s editor.

Be Methodical

Organize your guide into logical sections and re-enforcing sub-sections in order to maintain a logical flow of information and avoid confusion on the part of your less knowledgeable readers. These divisions also make for natural assignment points for team members working together.

Composition Of A Guide

1. Summary: The guide topic and sub-topics
2. Sections: The body, logically broken up
3. Conclusion: Simply summarize the guide and the take away

Importance Of A Summary

A summary acts as your guide's advertisement of what, why, how, when, and where. A successful summary attracts more people to your guide, and more collaborators. Using keywords helps others searching for this topic to find your guide. Have fun with it!

Writing A Successful Guide Summary

1. Explain your background and interest in this topic
2. Answer why someone would want to read your guide
3. Be understandable to a broad audience
4. Use keywords to help others find your guide
5. Add no new content; simply summarize your guide

Examples:

"International travel offers many enriching cultural and personal experiences. In smaller villages and larger cities there are many wonderful suprises to enrich your life and how you see the world around you."

"On the very edge of what is manageable and safe, two explorers reach the Pole by the first rising of the sun over the polar horizon."

Adding External URL's

If you would like to direct readers to your website, please add the URL's on your Talk Page or User Page versus in the guide itself.

Categories: Help