What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when I say the words “style guide”? Maybe Tan France working wonders on Queer Eye or Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen shocking this week’s homeowner with his latest bit of bonkers interior decoration?
Let me be clear: that is not what I’m going to be talking about in this blog post. Nor am I going to discuss any aspect of graphic design or branding.
This article is instead about the kind of style guide that’s used by writers and publishers: what it is, why it’s important, where you can find one and when you might want to consider making one of your own.
Style is a matter of preference
Writing is not an exact science – and that’s especially true when it comes to matters of presentation.
No matter what some people might claim, there’s no rule that says you must always use bold in this situation but italics in that one. The abbreviations AM and PM can be written in lower case or upper case, and with or without a full stop or period after each letter. The symbol % and the words “per cent” or “percent” are all equally correct.
What we’re talking about here are simply preferences. Person A believes that “metres” should be written as a complete word, while person B believes that it should be represented by the letter “m”. And they’re both right. Both of them have a perfectly valid reason for doing it their way.
When two styles collide
If person A and person B are both writing for their own blogs, and they don’t have to consider anyone else’s opinion, then there’s no problem. They can happily use whichever style they prefer.
But what happens if they need to write a post together, or if one of them is commissioned to write an article for a well-known magazine or newspaper? Now things become more complicated.
Imagine that you’re reading an article and in some sentences you see the abbreviation “mph”, while in other sentences you see the abbreviation “mi/h”. In some places the figure $10,000 contains a comma, but in other places there’s just a space separating the “10” and the “000”. Perhaps that “$” symbol itself is sometimes replaced by “US$” or the word “dollars”.
At the very least, you’re likely to think that it all looks a bit messy. You might even be confused or, in the worst case, come away thinking that “mph” and “mi/h” are entirely different measurements.
For everyone’s sake, we need to agree
Now imagine that you saw these differences and dozens or even hundreds of others throughout the pages of a newspaper, journal or book. I don’t think there’s any question here: reading that publication would be a very frustrating experience. Even if the content was written by world-class experts, your trust in anything it had to say would be seriously undermined, you’d probably never buy another copy, and you might well have some harsh words for the editor.
And that is precisely why we have style guides.
Presenting the style guide
A style guide, also known as a style sheet or a style manual, avoids these problems by making decisions about the writing and formatting of documents. It ensures consistency within a publication or across a range of publications by telling authors and copy editors which approach to take.
Again, it’s important to understand that a style guide does not, for the most part, tell you the “correct” way to do things. If that were the case, then we’d only ever need one style guide and not the dozens that currently exist. If you take a look through these style guides, you’ll see that while they might agree on some points, they’re just as likely to violently disagree on others.
A style guide simply tells you the way that the publisher or author of that particular style guide would like you to do things.
What’s in here?
So, what will you find inside a style guide?
The areas of focus typically include:
- Abbreviations
- Capitalisation
- Hyphenation
- Punctuation
- Use of British or American English (and –ise or –ize spellings)
- How to write numbers, times, dates, currencies and units of measurement
- Treatment of quotations
- Formatting of references
- Use of type styles such as italic, bold and underlining.
A style guide might also include general advice on good grammar, how particular words should be used, and a list of preferred spellings – for example, whether to write something as one word, two words, or two words with a hyphen between them.
The style gurus
All publishers use style guides – and in fact it’s common for different style guides to be used for different series of books or even individual publications.
Some of the most well-known style guides in use today include:
In Great Britain
- The Economist Style Guide
- The Guardian Style Guide
- The Oxford Style Manual
- The Times Style Guide
In the US
- APA style
- The Associated Press Stylebook
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage.
But there are literally dozens of published style guides, as well as general guides to good writing such as Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage and Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.
Picking a style
So, with all these options to choose from, which style guide should you use?
Writing for a publisher
If you’re writing for a specific publisher or a specific publication, then the answer is simple: ask them. They’ll tell you which style guide they follow – and if they’ve created a style guide of their own, they’ll either send you a copy or point you to its location on the Web.
Once you have this guide, you should digest it and follow it closely when you write. You might not agree with everything it says, but you should understand that this is the style that’s going to be used. End of story. If you ignore it, your text will simply be changed for you once the editor gets his or her hands on it. It’s far better to show an understanding of this and a willingness to cooperate, and then you’ll be much more likely to get more work from that publisher in the future.
Writing for yourself
If you’re writing for yourself, then of course you can choose whichever style guide you like – or even create one of your own. I think it would be sensible, though, to read at least a couple of the leading style guides in your country or your subject area and see what they recommend. A lot of thought has been put into these guides, and they’re usually based on years of practical experience. That means there are good reasons for the advice they give; the authors didn’t just decide things on a whim.
If nothing else, reading these style guides will give you an overview of generally accepted practice, and that will help you make your writing more polished and more marketable.
Staying in character
Following a style guide will also make your writing more consistent, and that plays a big role in making it look professional. This is especially important when you’re publishing something yourself.
Even if you decide not to follow the advice of a style guide on some particular issue, you should still demonstrate consistency in your own approach. For example, if you prefer to write “i.e.” or “e.g.” without full stops (periods) between the letters, then make sure that you always write them that way. Don’t include a mixture of the two styles.
It can be helpful to make brief notes about decisions such as this – and also less obvious decisions that you might make while writing a book, such as defining an abbreviation only the first time it appears in each chapter. These notes will become your own style guide, and you’ll find them invaluable when it’s time to review your work.
Now that’s what I call teamwork
If you decide to hire a freelance editor, be sure to let them know which style guide you’ve used or would like them to use. If you have a style guide of your own, send them a copy. That way, the editor will be better able to meet your expectations.
A good editor won’t have any problem in adapting to the requirements of a particular style guide. They’ll understand that these issues are just a matter of preference, and they’ll happily set aside whatever style they might use in their own writing while they’re working on your document.
If your style guide includes any unusual or contradictory instructions, the editor might query them to make sure that’s what you want. It’s worth taking a few minutes to consider any issues they raise. If they’re experienced, they’ll have dealt with similar situations many times in the past, so they’ll be aware of potential pitfalls that might not be obvious when looking at things in isolation.
If you’re not sure which style guide to use, that’s fine too. An experienced editor will have a good understanding of typical practice and will keep the document consistent within itself.
Roll out the red carpet
So, now you know what to do: pick yourself a style guide and get ready to dazzle your audience. A consistent, considered style is what separates the professionals from the wannabes. Never underestimate its power.
For more hints and tips to help you polish your prose, why not download my free eBook, Supercharge Your Writing? To get your copy, just scroll down and click the button.
