Editorial Guidelines

These guidelines set the editoral values and standards I strive to hold myself to and serve as a personal reminder. At the end of the day, these are only guidelines – so I'll try my best. But if you hadn't noticed by now, I do love a documented standard.

Core Philosophy

Latitude48 is a personal, independent site built to share my own thoughts, ideas, and projects. It is a space for me to document a random mix of sustainability, environmental management, sim racing, and anything else I find interesting – always driven by genuine curiosity.

Voice & Tone

• Voice: Authoritative yet accessible, articulate, clear, and subtly dry or witty. The style is that of a knowledgeable peer with a typically British sense of humor and self-deprecation.
• Tone: Flexible based on context. Technical explanations must be structured and direct; personal commentary or creative pieces can lean into flowing, expressive prose.
• Avoid: Jargon-heavy corporate bullshit speak, excessive exclamation points, generic buzzwords (synergy, game-changer, groundbreaking), and sensationalized clickbait headers.

Language & International Standards

• Spelling & Grammar: All content is written in British English (e.g., visualisations, colour, organise, centre).
• Date & Time (ISO 8601): Full numerical dates follow the ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD, e.g., 2026-08-19). When date are written in long form, formatting follows standard British order without ordinal suffixes (e.g, 19 August 2026).
• Country Codes (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2): When using short-form abbreviations for countries in data tables, metadata, or technical contexts, follow two-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes (e.g., SE for Sweden, GB for the United Kingdom).
• Currency Codes (ISO 4217): In technical or data-driven posts, reference currencies using three-letter ISO 4217 codes alongside standard symbols (e.g., SEK, GBP).
• Units of Measurement (SI / ISO 80000): Use metric units following the International System of Units (SI). Always leave a non-breaking space between the value and the unit symbol (e.g., 10 km, 25 °C), except for angular degrees (90°).

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI Policy)

• AI as an Assistant, Not an Author: AI tools may be used as sounding boards for research, proofreading, code debugging, or structure brainstorming.
• Human Oversight: Generative AI is never permitted to write end-to-end articles, generate fake personal anecdotes, or operate independently.
• Accuracy & Fact-Checking: Every claim, statistic, or date gernated or assisted by AI must be independently verified by myself before publication
• Transparency: Any content that is generated by myst be noted in the post or image caption. This must only be used in cases where it is of value to the overall context of the article.

Typography, Punctuation & Formatting

• Headings: Use sentence case for section headings and titles unless specifically styling proper nouns or branded products (PowerPoint, GitHub, LinkedIn).
• En Dashes: Use spaced en dashes ( – ) to introduce parenthetical thoughts or strong breaks in a sentence.
• Lists: Use bullet points generously for three or more itemized concepts to ensure scannability.
• Quotes: Use double quotation marks ("...") for direct quotes; single marks ('...') for nested quotes.

Images, Captions & Alt Text

• Alt Text: Every inline image must include descriptive alternative text for accessibility (e.g., alt="Ferrari 499P during the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans").
• Captions: Keep captions brief, informative, and properly formatted.
• Sources: All images on this site are either taken by myself, sourced from licence-free imagery platforms (e.g., Unsplash, Pexels), official press kits and PR assets, public domain, fair use, or relevant Creative Commons imagery.
• Attribution: Where licences require, attribute external photography or assets using clean hyperlinked text rather than raw URLs. These URLs link directly to the source, or the required attribution URL.

Links & Data Ethics

• Tracking Parameters: Always manually strip tracking queries (UTM parameters, affiliate tags, ?ref=) from outbound links before publishing.
• No Affiliates: Content is strictly unbiased. I do not use paid affiliate links or sponsored placements.
• Hyperlink Placement: Embed links directly into descriptive anchor text rather than writing raw web addresses or generic phrases like "click here."
• Source Quality: Link only to reputable primary sources, official documentation, verified editorial outlets, and in the case of any products – directly to the manufacturer pages, not storefronts (e.g., Amazon).

Corrections & Updates

• Post Revisions: Minor typos or formatting fixes are corrected silently as soon as identified.
• Substantive Edits: Significant updates to factual information or retracting a claim should include a brief note at the end of the post (e.g., "Update [2026-08-19]: An earlier version of this article stated that the New York Jets are a decent football team. This has been updated to reflect that, in fact, the New York Jets are terrible.").