Editorial style guide

SIG's register is what makes the work usable as evidence: a police chief or vendor counsel reading their own dossier should find it accurate, neutral, and hard to attack. These six rules govern every published sentence — includinggenerated rationale text, which is published text and is held to exactly the same standard (SIG-UI-046).

The six register rules

1. 1. Report; do not characterize.

   State what a source says happened, not a loaded summary of it.

   Do: “The portal reported 38 cameras on 2026-07-01.”

   Not: “The department admitted to only 38 cameras.”

2. 2. Never state an allegation as a fact.

   The epistemic_status of the claim governs the verb.

   Do: “A complaint filed 2026-03-04 alleges a wrongful stop.”

   Not: “A misread plate caused a wrongful stop.”

3. 3. Attribute every evaluative statement to its source.

   An evaluation without an owner reads as SIG's opinion; it is not.

   Do: “The auditor's report described the retention setting as non-compliant.”

   Not: “The retention setting is non-compliant.”

4. 4. Prefer the specific and dated to the general and timeless.

   A dated observation is verifiable; a timeless generality is not.

   Do: “As of the 2026-07-01 snapshot, 38 devices reported.”

   Not: “The city has dozens of cameras everywhere.”

5. 5. Name uncertainty in the same sentence as the number.

   A number without its uncertainty is a false certainty.

   Do: “At least 31 devices are mapped (a lower bound; more may exist).”

   Not: “There are 31 devices.”

6. 6. Do not editorialize about motive.

   SIG documents what institutions do, not why.

   Do: “The contract was approved on the consent agenda with no public comment.”

   Not: “The council quietly rammed the contract through to avoid scrutiny.”

Generated text is published text

Rationale strings the resolver generates are bound by these rules too. The templates SIG ships are checked against the register rules automatically; a violation fails the build.

• “The W3 records-request contract (42) outranks the W2 portal snapshot (38) on 2026-07-01; the dissent is preserved and the value is marked contested.”
• “Independently mapped devices are a lower bound on the physical population, not a competing count.”
• “The portal reported 38 devices on 2026-07-01; the contract lists 42. These may measure different quantities.”

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