Documentation style

This document defines writing conventions for SPECial file bodies.

1. References

SPECial's style conventions build on established documentation standards. When SPECial style guides do not address a specific question, consult the following in order:

Reference	Focus	URL
Google Developer Documentation Style Guide	General technical writing: voice, tense, word choice, formatting	developers.google.com/style
Microsoft Writing Style Guide	Tone, accessibility, global-readiness, UI terminology	learn.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide
Diátaxis	Documentation structure: tutorials, how-tos, reference, explanation	diataxis.fr

Where these references conflict with each other, prefer Google. Where any of them conflict with this document, this document takes precedence.

Note

Diátaxis is particularly relevant to SPECial's scope hierarchy — its four documentation modes map loosely onto SPECial's scope levels, though the alignment is not one-to-one.