A style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field. The implementation of a style guide provides uniformity in style and formatting of a document.
A set of standards for a specific organization is often known as "house style". Style guides are common for general and specialized use, for the general reading and writing audience, and for students and scholars of various academic Academia, Acadème, or the Academy are collective terms for the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research disciplines, medicine, journalism, the law, government, business, and industry.
Organizations advocating for social minorities sometimes establish what they believe to be fair and correct language treatment of their audiences.
Some style guides focus on graphic design Graphic design is a creative process — most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form — undertaken in order to convey a specific message (or messages) to a targeted audience. The term "graphic design" can also refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines that, focusing on such topics as typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the and white space. Web site A website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed relative to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL), often consisting of only the domain name, or the IP address, and the root path ('/') in an Internet Protocol-based network. A web site is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a style guides cover a publication's visual and technical aspects, along with text.
Many style guides are revised periodically to accommodate changes in conventions and usage. The Associated Press The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to, for example, revises its stylebook annually.
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Types of style guides
Publishers' style guides establish house rules for language use, such as spelling Spelling is the writing of a word or words with the necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted standard order. It is one of the elements of orthography and a prescriptive element of alphabetic languages. Most spellings attempt to approximate a transcribing of the sounds of the language into alphabetic letters; however, completely, italics In typography, italic type is a cursive typeface based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, such typefaces often slant slightly to the right. Different glyph shapes from roman type are also usually used—another influence from calligraphy. It is distinct therefore from oblique type, in which the and punctuation Punctuation marks are symbols which indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud; their major purpose is consistency. They are rulebooks for writers The word is almost synonymous with author, though somebody who writes, for example, a laundry list, could technically be called the writer of the list, but not an author. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images, whether fiction or non-fiction. There are estimated to be 3.2 Million skilled writers living today, ensuring consistent language. Authors are asked or required to use a style guide in preparing their work for publication; copy editors Copy editing, also written as copy-editing or copyediting, is the work that an editor does to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text. Unlike general editing, copy editing often does not involve changing the substance of the text. Copy refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication. Copy editing is done are charged with enforcing the publishing house's style.
Academic organization and university A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is a corporation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, roughly meaning "community of style guides are rigorous about documentation formatting style for citations Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source .[citation needed] More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression (e.g. [Newell84]) embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of acknowledging the relevance of and bibliographies Bibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from Greek -λογία, -logia). On the whole, bibliography is not concerned with the literary content of books, but rather the "bookness" of books.[citation needed] used for preparing term papers for course credit and manuscripts for publication. Professional scholars are advised to follow the style guides of organizations in their disciplines when they submit articles and books to academic journals An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research. Content typically takes the form of articles presenting original research, and academic book publishers in those disciplines for consideration of publication. Once they have accepted work for publication, publishers provide authors with their own guidelines and specifications, which may differ from those required for submission, and editors may assist authors in preparing their work for press.
A page from an "identity standards manual"—so named for the field of graphic design Graphic design is a creative process — most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form — undertaken in order to convey a specific message (or messages) to a targeted audience. The term "graphic design" can also refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines that that focuses on corporate identity In marketing, a corporate identity is the "persona" of a corporation which is designed to accord with and facilitate the attainment of business objectives. It is usually visibly manifested by way of branding and the use of trademarks design and branding A brand is the identity of a specific product, service, or business[page needed]. A brand can take many forms, including a name, sign, symbol, color combination or slogan. The word brand began simply as a way to tell one person's cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. A legally protected brand name is called a trademark. The word brand—that identifies color standards to be used.Some organizations, other than those previously mentioned, produce style guides for either internal or external use. For example, communications and public relations Public relations is a field concerned with maintaining public image for high-profile people, organizations, or programs. Public relations (PR) concerns professions working in public message shaping for the functions of communication, community relations, crisis management, customer relations, employee relations, government affairs, industry departments of business and nonprofit organizations have style guides for their publications (newsletters A newsletter is a regularly distributed publication generally about one main topic that is of interest to its subscribers. Newspapers and leaflets are types of newsletters. Additionally, newsletters delivered electronically via email have gained rapid acceptance for the same reasons email in general is gaining popularity over printed, news releases A press release, news release, media release, or press statement is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value. Typically, they are mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and/, web sites A website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed relative to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL), often consisting of only the domain name, or the IP address, and the root path ('/') in an Internet Protocol-based network. A web site is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a). Organizations advocating for social minorities sometimes establish what they believe to be fair and correct language treatment of their audiences.
Many publications (notably newspapers A newspaper is a regularly scheduled publication containing news, information, and advertising. By 2007 there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a day (55 million in the U.S). The worldwide recession of 2008, combined with the rapid growth of web-based alternatives, caused a serious decline in advertising and) use graphic design Graphic design is a creative process — most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form — undertaken in order to convey a specific message (or messages) to a targeted audience. The term "graphic design" can also refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines that style guides to demonstrate the preferred layout and formatting of a published page. They often are extremely detailed in specifying, for example, which fonts In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface. For example, the set of all characters for 9-point Bulmer italic is a font, and the 10-point size would be a separate font, as would the 9-point upright and colors to use. Such guides allow a large design team to produce visually consistent work for the organization.
Examples
International
Several basic style guides for technical and scientific communication have been defined by international standards organizations A standards organization, standards body, standards development organization or SDO is any entity whose primary activities are developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise maintaining standards that address the interests of a wide base of users outside the standards development organization. These are often used as elements of and refined in more specialized style guides that are specific to a subject, region or organization. One example is ISO 215 — Presentation of contributions to periodicals & other serials.
Australia
- Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers Snooks & Co for the Department of Finance and Administration. 6th ed. ISBN 0701636483.
Canada
- The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing: by Dundurn Press in co-operation with Public Works and the Government Services Canada Translation Bureau. ISBN 1550022768.
- CP Stylebook: Guide to newspaper style in Canada maintained by the Canadian Press The Canadian Press , known in French as La Presse Canadienne (PC), is Canada's national news agency established in 1917 as a vehicle to permit Canadian newspapers of the day to exchange their news and information. The Toronto-based company is a private, not-for-profit cooperative, owned and operated by its member newspapers. It is similar to the U. ISBN 0920009387.
United Kingdom
General
- Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors and Publishers Judith Butcher. 3rd ed. 1992 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted Letters Patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest continually operating book publisher ISBN 0 521 40074 0
- Fowler's Modern English Usage A Dictionary of Modern English Usage , by Henry W. Fowler, is a style guide to British English usage, pronunciation, and writing. Ranging from plurals and literary technique to the distinctions among like words (homonyms, synonyms, etc.), to foreign-term use, it became the standard for most style guides that followed — thus, the 1926 first. Ed. R. W. Burchfield. Rev. 3rd ed. London: Clarendon Press Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative, 2004. ISBN 0-19-861021-1 (hardcover). Based on Fowler's Modern English Usage A Dictionary of Modern English Usage , by Henry W. Fowler, is a style guide to British English usage, pronunciation, and writing. Ranging from plurals and literary technique to the distinctions among like words (homonyms, synonyms, etc.), to foreign-term use, it became the standard for most style guides that followed — thus, the 1926 first, by Henry Watson Fowler Henry Watson Fowler was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for both A Dictionary of Modern English Usage and his work on the Concise Oxford Dictionary, and was described by The Times as "a lexicographical genius".
- The King's English, by Henry Watson Fowler Henry Watson Fowler was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for both A Dictionary of Modern English Usage and his work on the Concise Oxford Dictionary, and was described by The Times as "a lexicographical genius" and Francis George Fowler.
- The Oxford Style Manual (2003 ed.). Combines The Oxford Guide to Style Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford was an authoritative reference book and style guide published in England by Oxford University Press . Hart's Rules originated as a compilation of rules and standards by Horace Hart over almost three decades during his employment at other printing establishments, but they were and The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, which concentrates on common problems.
- The Complete Plain Words The Complete Plain Words is a style guide for British English written by Sir Ernest Gowers and published in 1954. It has never been out of print. It comprises expanded and revised versions of two pamphlets that he wrote at the request of Sir Edward Bridges ; Plain Words, published in 1948 as a two-shilling pamphlet aimed at civil servants and An, by Sir Ernest Gowers Sir Ernest Arthur Gowers GCB GBE Hon. D.Litt Hon. ARIBA (2 June 1880–16 April 1966) was a British civil servant, now best known for work on style guides for writing the English language.
- Usage and Abusage, by Eric Partridge Eric Honeywood Partridge was a noted New Zealand/British lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang.
Journalism
- The BBC News Style Guide: by the British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation is the largest broadcasting organisation in the world. The BBC is an autonomous public service broadcaster that operates under a Royal Charter. Within the UK, it is funded principally by an annual television licence fee, which is charged to all United Kingdom households, companies and organisations using any.
- The Economist Style Guide: by The Economist The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a "newspaper", each issue appears on glossy (UK The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land).
- The Guardian Style Guide: by The Guardian The Guardian is a British national daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation (the Scott Trust, via the Guardian Media Group). It is known for its left-of-centre political stance. At the 2010 election it supported the Liberal Democrats (United Kingdom)
- The Times Style and Usage Guide, by The Times The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of News International. News International is entirely owned by the News Corporation group, headed by Rupert Murdoch. Though traditionally a moderately centre-right newspaper and a supporter of the Conservatives, it supported the Labour Party in.
- The Associated Press Stylebook, by The Associated Press The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to.
United States
In the United States, most nonjournalism writing follows the Chicago Manual of Style The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 15 editions have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publishing. The CMS deals with aspects of editorial practice, from American English grammar and usage to document preparation,[1] while most newspapers A newspaper is a regularly scheduled publication containing news, information, and advertising. By 2007 there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a day (55 million in the U.S). The worldwide recession of 2008, combined with the rapid growth of web-based alternatives, caused a serious decline in advertising and base their style on the Associated Press Stylebook The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, usually called the AP Stylebook, is a style and usage guide used by newspapers and in the news industry in the United States. The book is updated annually by Associated Press editors, usually in June. A classic style guide for the general public is The Elements of Style The Elements of Style (aka Strunk & White), by William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White, is an American English writing style guide. It is the best-known and most influential prescriptive treatment of English grammar and usage, and often is required reading and usage in U.S. high school and university composition classes. The original, 1918.
General
- The Careful Writer, by Theodore Bernstein.
- The Elements of Style The Elements of Style (aka Strunk & White), by William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White, is an American English writing style guide. It is the best-known and most influential prescriptive treatment of English grammar and usage, and often is required reading and usage in U.S. high school and university composition classes. The original, 1918. By William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White Elwyn Brooks "E. B." White was an American writer. A long-time contributor to "The New Yorker" magazine, he also wrote many famous books for both adults and children, such as the popular Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, and co-authored a widely used writing guide, The Elements of Style, popularly known by its authors' names,. (Commonly called "Strunk and White")
Academic papers
- A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations , is a style guide for writing and formatting research papers (such as the arrangement and punctuation of footnotes and bibliographies), Seventh Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, by Kate L. Turabian. (Commonly called "Turabian A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations , is a style guide for writing and formatting research papers (such as the arrangement and punctuation of footnotes and bibliographies)".)
- MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers by Joseph Gibaldi. (Commonly called "MLA".)
- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by the American Psychological Association. Primarily used in social sciences. (Commonly called "APA".)
Journalism
- The Associated Press Stylebook. By the Associated Press (AP).
General publishing
- The Chicago Manual of Style, by University of Chicago Press staff.
- Words into Type, by Marjorie E. Skillin, Robert M. Gay, et al.
Web publishing
- Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing and Creating Content for the Web, by Chris Barr and the Yahoo! Editorial Staff
See also
- Citation
- Diction
- Documentation
- Disputed usage
- English writing style
- Grammar
- List of style guides
- Prescription and description
- Punctuation
- Sentence spacing in language and style guides
- Spelling
- Stylistics
References
- ^ Casagrande, June. Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun and Spite. Penguin, 2006.
External links
| Look up stylebook or usage in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- What is a Style Guide and Why Would I Need One?.
- But the stylebook says ... -- Blog post about stylebook abuse, by Bill Walsh of The Washington Post
- Handouts about writing style guides, from a conferences of the American Copy Editors Society in 2007
- How to Write a Stylebook in 10 Easy Steps, by William G. Connolly
- Creating an In-House Stylebook, by Doug Kouma of Meredith Special Interest Media
- Language Log » Searching 43 stylebooks
- OnlineStylebooks.com
Categories: Bibliography | Style guides | Technical communication | Communication design | Graphic design | Design | Style (fiction)
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