This article is a W.I.P.
Style Guide for Informal Writing
Note
This guide is written primarily in formal(ish) style, but examples of informal style will be supplied.
Capitalization
Sentences start lowercased, with only proper nouns and the word “I” being capitalized. In the event a proper noun has an official preferred style, use that in place of capitalizing only the first letter. E.g. write “LaTeX,” not “Latex” to refer to the typesetting system.
Quotation
Use straight quotes "", rather than smart quotes “”. Punctuation goes
outside quotation marks for clarity.
Parenthesis
They’re great. If you’re writing a sentence, and think of an adendum, use a parenthetical. Informal writing is aided by these additions, as it seems like you are writing down your thoughts exactly (side-tangents and all).
Emoticons
“Conversation for the sake of conversation” is frequently littered with “:-)” (← note the inclusion of “-” as the nose) emoticons, or the Unicode “☺”. Although the Unicode smiley is risky, as it may be converted into an emoji on certain devices.
Misc
Names can be written in their native script. E.g. “・・” in place of “Santa”.
Punctuation is used as in formal writing, but with the final period omitted. E.g.
some sentence. final sentence
a sentence on its own