Style Guide: Homebuilding (Home Building?) Terminology

A style guide is a set of standards to follow when creating and working with content. Some of the most widely-used style guides include the MLA Style Manual and the Chicago Manual of Style.

Industry terminology is a standard component of a corporate style guide. In the homebuilding industry, there are numerous ways to write and use common terminology (probably true of most industries). The following is an abbreviated list of just some of these debatable terms. My favored versions are on the left.

• Home vs. House
• Homebuilding vs. Home building
• Homebuilder vs. Home builder
• Homeowner vs. Home owner
• Homebuyer vs. Home buyer
• Backerboard vs. Backer board
• Blown-in insulation vs. Blown in insulation
• Crawlspace vs. Crawl space
• On-site vs. Onsite
• Low-E vs. Low E
• Slab-on-grade foundation vs. Slab on grade foundation
• Watertight vs. Water tight
• Through-wall flashing vs. Through wall flashing
• Thin-set mortar vs. Thin set mortar
• Unfaced batt vs. Un-faced batt
• Whole-house approach vs. Whole house approach
• Shingle-style vs. Shingle-fashion
• Shingle-style vs. Shingle style
• Weatherstripping vs. Weather stripping
• Housewrap vs. House wrap

Must You Always Write in Complete Sentences?

No way! However, complete sentences offer real value. To be complete, a sentence must have a noun, a verb, and punctuation. I write. Sally sits. Bobby bounces. Should you choose to deviate from this path of noun-verb-punctuation, do so only as a master of grammar. As William Strunk, the writing style guru, put it, "Unless he is certain of doing well, [the writer] will probably do best to follow the rules." And as Stephen King in On Writing replied, "If you don't have a rudimentary grasp of how the parts of speech translate into coherent sentences, how can you be certain you are doing well?" Language is wonderfully flexible. An incomplete sentence can be as powerful as a complete one, but know that you have to master the rules first before you break them.

Caveat: Of almost equal importance is the medium. There are many mediums—technical reports are one—where complete sentences are not only the norm but are also best suited to the material and the audience. But that's a discussion for another day.

Read more on a similar topic from one of my earlier blog posts: Writing with Style: Rules vs. Folklore.

Commas in a [Complicated] Series

"This product was chosen because it offers a high thermal performance for its cost, the ability to act as a drainage plane, a sufficient performance as an insulating sheathing material, and a favorable demonstration of cold climate permeability characteristics."

At the basis of this sentence is the following meaning--here is a product that offers four benefits. These four benefits are listed as a series separated by commas. Each comma has an important purpose in the sentence. It tells the reader that one item in the list is ending and a new one is beginning. Basic grammar. However, there are two camps regarding the final comma in the list--the one before the word "and." The first camp says that a comma isn't needed before a conjunction, and the second says that a comma is needed before it. Whether or not you fall into either of these two camps, there are certain cases where a comma is important to ensure the clarity of the sentence, and a complicated series is one of these cases.

What do I mean by a complicated series? While there are different types of complicated series, the one is the example lists items that are composed of numerous words. Here's a recap of the items:

• a high thermal performance for its cost
• the ability to act as a drainage plane
• a sufficient performance as an insulating sheathing material
• a favorable demonstration of cold climate permeability characteristics

At 7-8 words each, the items are lengthy. Commas remind readers that they are seeing a list of items and that they can pause for breath between them. By leaving out the final comma, the writer robs the reader of these reminders. Take a look at the sentence again without the final comma:

"This product was chosen because it offers a high thermal performance for its cost, the ability to act as a drainage plane, a sufficient performance as an insulating sheathing material and a favorable demonstration of cold climate permeability characteristics."

See how the last two items in the list merge? Adding a comma before the conjunction requires little effort on the writer's end and can offer a big benefit on the reader's end--clarity.

Writing with Style: Rules vs. Folklore

"Distinguish real grammatical rules from folklore." - Joseph M. Williams' #1 principle for writing clearly.

There's a real difference between what we learn in high school English class and what we do in real life. In high school essays, we are taught to never begin a sentence with the words "and" or "but," never use a contraction, never use the word "thing," never write using the words "we" and "you," and to always remember to not place a comma before the conjunction in a simple series.

Wait a minute. I was taught to put a comma before the conjunction. And do you know what, sometimes I like starting a sentence with a conjunction! Williams' advice never held so much truth. In fact, we're crossing into the land of re-considering what you learned in grade school to arrive at a different truth--that once you're an expert in the rules of writing, you can refine and manipulate them in order to be a successful communicator. You may have learned one rule in fifth grade and another in ninth, but it's up to you and your style guide to select the proper one based on the overall picture. If you've analyzed the context; the concept; the who, what, when, where, and why; and arrived at the conclusion that you are going to write the piece using the word "you," then go into it with confidence.