The Frontier Bylines style guide

This is the working document our contributors edit each other against. It is short on purpose. A style guide that no one reads is a style guide that does not exist. We do not try to anticipate every case. We try to set the posture, list the conventions our pieces actually need, and trust the writers to handle the rest.

Voice and register

Frontier Bylines is a narrative magazine. The default register is unhurried, observational, and grown-up. Sentences may run long when the subject deserves it. We do not pretend to be the kind of magazine that delivers conclusions inside the first hundred words. We deliver them when the writer has earned them.

Avoid: cliché openings ("In an era of…"), throat-clearing transitions ("It is no exaggeration to say that…"), conference-stage adjectives ("disruptive," "game-changing," "revolutionary"), and prose tics imported from venture press ("operator-grade," "elite," "10x"). The magazine reads in real human cadence or it does not read.

How we refer to subjects

  • Full name on first reference. Surname only on subsequent reference. We do not use first-name reference except in direct address inside a quoted exchange.
  • Honorifics (Mr., Ms., Dr.) are not used. We are not a wire service. The byline carries the formality.
  • Self-chosen names — stage names, pen names, pseudonyms — are used as the subject uses them. If the subject also publishes under a legal name, we acknowledge both on first reference and follow the subject's preference thereafter.
  • Age is given as a number, not spelled out, when it is the unit of meaning ("at twenty-four" is acceptable in prose; in stat-block contexts we use the numeral).

Companies and products

  • Company names are spelled as the company spells them. Capitalization quirks are respected when they reflect deliberate brand decisions, not when they reflect a logotype that does not survive in running prose.
  • Product names are capitalized; categories are not. "Web4OS" is a product. "Agentic operating system" is a category.
  • We do not use marketing claim language as if it were neutral description. "The first" is a claim, not a fact. We say "one of the first," "an early," or "a pioneering" when the claim is contested or the writer cannot confirm primacy independently.

Numbers

  • Spelled-out numbers from one to nine when they appear inline in narrative prose; numerals from 10 up. Exception: ages, which we tend to spell out for rhythm ("at twenty-one," "at twenty-four"), and dollar figures, which we always numeralize.
  • Dollar figures: $2M, $10K, $100M, etc. We do not write "two million dollars" except inside quotation.
  • Percentages: numeral plus percent sign ("12%"), not spelled out.

Dates and datelines

  • Dates are written long-form in body prose: "March 13, 2026."
  • Years stand alone where the context makes the month redundant: "in 2021," "by 2024."
  • Datelines appear only on pieces with explicit on-the-ground reporting from a place. Format: CHIANG MAI — in small caps, separated by an em dash from the opening line.

Quotations

  • Direct quotes use straight double-quotation marks set in our prose engine to typographic quotes at render. Inside a quote, we use single typographic quotes for nested quotation.
  • Ellipses inside quotations are typographic ellipses (…) with no surrounding spaces. They mark a place where words were trimmed for length, never a place where meaning was changed.
  • Square brackets are used for inserted clarifications inside a quotation. We do not paraphrase inside brackets. We insert only the bare minimum a reader needs to follow.
  • Quotes from email or chat are noted as such on first reference: "Rollins wrote in a follow-up email…" not as if they were spoken aloud.

Hyphens, dashes, and pauses

  • The em dash (—) is the magazine's default pause. We use it generously. We do not pad it with spaces in the printed prose; rendered HTML lets the typography handle the spacing.
  • The en dash (–) is used in ranges only.
  • The hyphen is used for compound modifiers ("long-form magazine") and is otherwise minimized.

Links and citations

  • Inline links use sentence-cased anchor text inside the prose. We do not link the words "click here." We do not link entire sentences.
  • External links open in the same tab unless the link is a downloadable asset or a social-share intent, in which case they open in a new tab.
  • The site offers a copy-to-clipboard citation tool on every article header. The default citation format is: {Author} ({Year}). "{Title}." Frontier Bylines. {URL}. Writers are encouraged to use that format when they cite the magazine in other work.

Pull quotes and scene breaks

  • Pull quotes are rendered with a plum left rule and italic body. They are quotes lifted from the piece itself, not from elsewhere. We do not insert pull quotes that paraphrase the piece.
  • Scene breaks use a centered floret (✦) on its own line. We do not use rows of asterisks. We do not use blank lines as a scene break — that reads as a typographic accident.

Sensitive topics

  • Mental health, family circumstances, legal trouble, and other sensitive material are reported only when they are genuinely relevant to the subject of the piece, on the record, and with the subject's awareness that they are being asked about it.
  • Where a subject declines to discuss a sensitive topic and the topic is nevertheless relevant, we report the decline rather than report the topic from secondhand sources.
  • Pieces involving health, addiction, or recovery follow the standard wire-service guidance on language. We say "person with a substance use disorder," not "addict." We say "died by suicide," not "committed suicide." We do not romanticize.

The contributor's voice

Three writers carry the magazine. Each of them writes in their own voice. The style guide is a floor, not a ceiling. The point of these conventions is to make sure that when a writer breaks one, they break it for a reason. The magazine reads, deliberately, like three writers rather than one editorial committee.