If “Writing” were a game, its interface would be terrible; its gameplay counterintuitive; and its tutorial even worse. If “Writing” were a game, it would be a Souls-like that offers little to no instruction, can frustrate you around every corner, and punishes you with a giant mallet. Fortunately, Vol of Duty believes it shouldn’t have to be that way, so we offer our “style guide” — a site’s agreed-upon writing format, style, and content – as a quick workshop. Think of this part like the Writing’s missing manual.
The Writing Toolbox:
Below is a list of writing skills required for every submission. We’ve adapted it from UTK’s “style guide” for writing college papers, so lucky for you, you likely already know these tools.
A Paragraph — This is the building block of a written composition. A paragraph is a unit of thought in a larger composition. It consists of sentences that all refer to one idea. In a Call of Duty gaming review, for instance, a paragraph would consist Call of Duty’s online play (and only issues related to online play) in an article about its pros and cons. It can vary in length depending on the paragraph’s purpose (i.e., a paragraph that in provides context might be longer than a paragraph that informs) For Vol of Duty articles, we require that paragraph have a maximum of four full sentences. We require these for two reasons: 1) it’s the industry standard for online game articles (for online reading anything longer would lose a gamer’s interest); 2) it will help you stay on the topic of that one idea by encouraging you to make every sentence count.
Opening Paragraphs — For Vol of Duty, these paragraphs consist of the hook and a sentence that introduces the game being reviewed/written about. A hook is a sentence or phrase that is written in a way to catch a reader’s attention.
Introductory Paragraphs — For Vol of Duty, these paragraphs either introduce formally the game you’re reviewing and for what particular reasons, or introduce a subsection that goes into the aspects (the finer concrete items of your reasons).
Concluding Paragraphs — For Vol of Duty, these are paragraphs that sum up the review or the experience of the game in any way that you see fit.
Topic Sentences — These are a paragraph’s press agent: they announce the content about that one idea in your paragraph. Technically, a topic sentence is a one-sentence statement about the paragraph’s main content. For Vol of Duty articles, only the opening paragraph and transition paragraphs lack topic sentences.
Thesis Sentence — This sentence defines the point of a review or feature piece. In a review, this would simply be the features of the game you will explore (listed in a clear manner), the full title of the game. Thesis statements occur in the Introductory Paragraph.
