February 2017 Newsletter

February 21, 2017

How to use the alt-text and in-text methods.

 Capitalizing for Equality | Conscious Style Guide

Both Poynter and Columbia Journalism Review have argued for capitalizing black and white when used as racial terms . . .

Lucky Peach talks to Karen Yin about conscious language in the food world.

As “Speechless” character Ray DiMeo explains, inspiration porn is “a portrayal of people with disabilities as one-dimensional saints who only exist to warm the hearts and open the minds of able-bodied people.”

“Simply stop using it. Instead, call a lie a lie. Call a hoax a hoax. Call a conspiracy theory by its rightful name. After all, ‘fake news’ is an imprecise expression to begin with.”

“No concept is inexplicable or un-understandable. When approached properly, with the right examples and the correct flow of thought, even quantum gravity can be easily explained to a high school student.”

 Get Woke, America | Columbia Journalism Review

“If you want to use ‘stay woke,’ it’s important to ‘stay woke’ about its roots.”—Merrill Perlman, editor and journalist

How replacing “I’m sorry” with “thank you” can turn a negative interaction into something “constructive and upbeat.”

Are prompted apologies from children more than empty words? “A recent caution against apology prompting was based on the mistaken notion that young children have limited social understanding. In fact, young children understand a great deal about others’ viewpoints.”

“Striking down the disparagement provision, the government says, would force it to register trademarks ‘containing crude references to women based on parts of their anatomy, the most repellent racial slurs and white supremacist slogans, and demeaning illustrations of the prophet Mohammed and other religious figures.’”

“The relevance of details from Amati’s previous life, such as her former name as a male and before-and-after photos of Amati apparently mined from old social media posts, was never indicated in the story. This left only the ugly perception of editorial sensationalism at Amati’s expense.”

Author Casey Plett has a “brazen request”: “I want cis creators to write complex trans characters. It is possible.”

“At 55, Sara Kelly Keenan finally has an accurate birth certificate, and it’s believed to be the first one in the nation that says ‘intersex’ in the gender field.”

“I call myself ‘Doctor,’ but I clarify that I’m not the helpful kind, which is especially important in case someone faints on a plane.” Author and practicing scientist Adam Ruben polls his friends with science Ph.D.s for this humorous piece on “the ‘Doctor’ question.”

“‘Fat’…is just a word. It does not have the power to define one’s character.”—Nadia Nadeem, writer and student of psychology, neuroscience, and behavior

 How to Emoji Like a Pro | The Zapier Blog

“Like any other element of communication, emoji can be misinterpreted or misunderstood.”

“It turns out that ending your email in Regards or Best could be dooming your response potential. In the 350,000 email threads they examined, Boomerang found Best was the worst performer of them all.”

“Instead of telling them every detail of what happened, keep your explanation simple and focus on what you’re going to do to fix the problem.”

The Conscious Style Guide newsletter rounds up the best news and blog posts from the world of kind, compassionate, mindful, empowering, respectful, and inclusive language. Note: Spotlighting an opinion is not intended as an endorsement. Please send news tips to [email protected].

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