How to Handle Taxonomy in Web Writing

Sometimes, it's necessary to use taxonomic terminology when writing an article for the web. For example, if composing an article about plants, animals, fungi, or bacteria, you might need to mention a family, genus, or species. 

What Is Taxonomy? 

According to Oxford, taxonomy is "the branch of science concerned with classification, especially of organisms." Any time you hear someone reference a species' "scientific" or "Latin" name, they're talking about taxonomy. If you're reading this, you're a Homo sapiens, and your dog—if you have one—is a Canis familiaris (or Canis lupus familiaris if you want to get hyper-technical).

How Do We Treat Taxonomic Classifications in Writing? 

There are seven major levels in taxonomic classification (there are actually quite a few more, but there are only seven that we non-taxonomists need to be concerned with). From least specific to most specific, these are . . . 

• Kingdom
• Phylum 
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus
• Species

When we discuss taxonomy in our writing, there are certain conventions we must follow. When writing out a species' taxonomic name in an article, only genus and species are usually included (this is sometimes called binomial nomenclature), but other levels may be mentioned tangentially (e.g., "the common starfish (Asterias rubens) is the most common member of the Asteriidae family.").

So what's the deal with some of these words beginning with capital letters and others beginning with lowercase letters? And what's up with all the italics? Well, here are the rules:

• All taxonomic levels except species (and subspecies, variety, etc.) should begin with a capital letter. 
• Taxonomic species (and subspecies, variety, etc.) names should always begin with a lowercase letter.
• Family, genus, and species (and subspecies, variety, etc.) names should be italicized.
• Kingdom, phylum, class, and order names should not be italicized. 

That's it! Feel free to copy and paste this info into your notes to refer to later. 

Note: Different organizations (e.g., the APA, the CDC, the WHO, Wikipedia, etc.) may use slightly different conventions depending on their individual style guides.

Image credit: Biodiversity Heritage Library, Public Domain via Flickr; Canva

Great Places to Get Free-to-Use Images for Your Article

In many cases, it's best to use your own photos in your article. For instance, if you're writing about a recipe you created or a craft you put together, original photos provide important context for your reader and add to your credibility on the subject.

In some cases, however, you may need to source images from elsewhere. For instance, if you have a passion for museum-quality Neolithic-period artifacts but don't personally possess any, you might need to use photos from the public domain or Creative Commons.

If searching for non-original images to use, there are a number of good places to look. To find legal-to-use images from the public domain or Creative Commons, try visiting the following sites:

• Unsplash
• Pixabay
• Flickr
• Wikimedia Commons

You can also perform a Google Images search for the topic of your choice, then open the "Tools" drop-down menu and choose "Usage Rights" then "Creative Commons licenses" to exclude copyrighted material from your search. 

Micah Gomes, From Eight Mile Plains, Queensland, Australia, 0 Fans, 7 Hubs, Joined 2 months ago

Micah Gomes

Micah lives in Queensland Australia and enjoys writing captivating pieces about video games, spicy cuisine, and more. Check out their work! 

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