tudor/school_compare
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style(copy): remove em dashes from the site's prose

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The em dash is one of the clearest tells of machine-written text, which
is the exact impression this work exists to remove. Rewritten rather
than substituted: where a dash was carrying a real aside the sentence is
split or recast, not patched with a comma.

Covers the About page, the two Callout labels an editor sees in the
admin panel, and PUBLISHING.md, which defines the house style and should
follow it. The rule is now recorded in that house style and in the
spec's voice rules, so it survives this branch.

Code comments are left alone: they are not copy, and the surrounding
codebase uses the same punctuation throughout.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_017YmbBhr8s7GusjDE12hrZM
This commit is contained in:
TudorandClaude Opus 5 committed 2026-09-02 18:33:27 +01:00
1 parent 124c6702a9
commit 3f3c5953f6
4 files changed
+30 -23
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nextjs-app/app/(frontend)/about/page.tsx
+12 -11
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@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ export default function AboutPage() {
<div className={styles.prose}>
<p className={styles.lede}>
I&apos;m a parent in south-west London. When we started looking at
primary schools, I found the information I needed was all published —
primary schools, I found the information I needed was all published,
and almost impossible to hold in one place.
</p>
@@ -68,11 +68,11 @@ export default function AboutPage() {
</p>
<p>
What I do have is the problem itself — I&apos;m going through primary
admissions right now — and a working knowledge of data, which is what
I do for a living. That combination is enough to take published
figures and present them honestly. It is not enough to tell you which
school is right for your child, and this site never tries to.
What I do have is the problem itself. I&apos;m going through primary
admissions right now, and I work with data for a living. That
combination is enough to take published figures and present them
honestly. It is not enough to tell you which school is right for your
child, and this site never tries to.
</p>
<h2 className={styles.subheading}>Where the numbers come from</h2>
@@ -96,9 +96,10 @@ export default function AboutPage() {
<p>
A school is not its results. The figures here describe one year group,
on a handful of days, measured in a way that suits national statistics
rather than your child. A small cohort makes percentages swing wildly
— in a class of thirty, one pupil is more than three points. Results
say nothing at all about whether a child will be happy somewhere.
rather than your child. A small cohort makes percentages swing wildly.
In a class of thirty, one pupil is worth more than three points.
Results say nothing at all about whether a child will be happy
somewhere.
</p>
<p>
@@ -113,8 +114,8 @@ export default function AboutPage() {
<h2 className={styles.subheading}>If something&apos;s wrong</h2>
<p>
Tell me and I&apos;ll fix it. Genuinely — if a figure looks wrong, or
a page gives a misleading impression of a school, I want to know.
Tell me and I&apos;ll fix it. If a figure looks wrong, or a page gives
a misleading impression of a school, I genuinely want to know.
It&apos;s the fastest way this gets better.
</p>
nextjs-app/blocks/Callout.ts
+2 -2
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@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ export const Callout: Block = {
type: 'select',
defaultValue: 'caveat',
options: [
{ label: 'Caveat — what this does not show', value: 'caveat' },
{ label: 'Note — useful aside', value: 'note' },
{ label: 'Caveat: what this does not show', value: 'caveat' },
{ label: 'Note: useful aside', value: 'note' },
],
},
{ name: 'body', type: 'textarea', required: true },
nextjs-app/docs/PUBLISHING.md
+14 -10
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@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
# Publishing to the blog
The blog is Payload CMS, running inside the Next.js app. There is no separate
service and no second deploy — writing a post is done in the browser and takes
service and no second deploy. Writing a post is done in the browser and takes
effect on the live site within seconds.
## Signing in
`https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/admin` — one account, no registration. If you
`https://www.schoolcompare.co.uk/admin`, one account, no registration. If you
need the account seeded on a fresh environment, run against the container:
```bash
@@ -24,29 +24,29 @@ password there.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| **Title** | The `<h1>` and the browser tab. |
| **Slug** | The URL segment, in the sidebar. **Never change it after publishing** — it is the canonical URL, and changing it breaks every existing link and discards the page's accumulated search signal. |
| **Slug** | The URL segment, in the sidebar. **Never change it after publishing.** It is the canonical URL, and changing it breaks every existing link and discards the page's accumulated search signal. |
| **Published at** | The date shown on the post and in the feed. |
| **Excerpt** | Max 200 characters. Shown on the index *and* used as the meta description, so write it as a standalone sentence rather than a teaser. |
| **Hero image** | Optional. Becomes the social share image; without one, the site's generated card is used. |
| **Content** | Rich text. `/` inserts a block. |
**Save as draft** while you're working — drafts are not public. **Publish** when
**Save as draft** while you're working; drafts are not public. **Publish** when
it's ready.
### The callout block
One custom block, `Callout`, with two tones:
- **Caveat** — what a number does *not* show. This is the one that matters: it
- **Caveat**: what a number does *not* show. This is the one that matters. It
is how a post states a limitation in context rather than burying it in a
closing paragraph.
- **Note** — a useful aside.
- **Note**: a useful aside.
### Images
Every image requires alt text; the editor will not let you save without it.
Uploads go to a Docker volume on the host, which is backed up separately from
Postgres — an image is not reproducible from the pipeline the way school data
Postgres. An image is not reproducible from the pipeline the way school data
is.
## How publishing reaches the live site
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ is.
so a new post appears immediately.
- `/blog/[slug]` is cached after its first request. Publishing or editing fires
a `revalidatePath` from the collection's `afterChange` hook, which drops that
cached copy — so edits appear immediately too.
cached copy, so edits appear immediately too.
If a change doesn't show, it is far more likely the post is still a draft than
that the cache is stale.
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ that the cache is stale.
These rules are why the blog exists. A post that ignores them makes the site
read more machine-generated, not less.
- **First person singular.** "I built", "I found" — never "we provide".
- **First person singular.** "I built", "I found", never "we provide".
- **Concrete over general.** "When we were looking at schools in Wandsworth"
beats any amount of stated warmth.
- **State limits before someone else finds them.** Every post that presents a
@@ -73,10 +73,14 @@ read more machine-generated, not less.
human wrote it: generated content does not volunteer its own weaknesses.
- **No mission statements, no "passionate about", no invented team.** There is
one person here.
- **No em dashes.** They are one of the clearest tells of machine-written
prose, which is the whole problem this blog exists to fix. A full stop, a
colon, a semicolon or a pair of commas does the job and reads as though a
person chose it.
- **Short sentences.**
- **Never publish a surname, an employer, or a child's name.** The site's author
is "Tudor". See `/about`.
- **Never invent a figure**, even illustratively. On a site whose whole
proposition is official data, a made-up number attached to a real school is
the one thing it cannot do — and no illustrative intent survives being
the one thing it cannot do, and no illustrative intent survives being
screenshotted.