Recipe for a Style Guide
Wired Online has recently announced its plans to drop capitalization in internet, web, and net, but Wired Magazine continues to capitalize these words. Which should you do? For the most part, it's up to you. To ensure consistency on such tricky words, most editors will have a style guide.
This kind of style is the way you present yourself in words as well as the mechanics of words. Style addresses physical and editorial conventions.
If you don't have the luxury of creating one, there are a few excellent resources for your use. The AP Style Guide and Chicago Manual of Style are the bibles for many editors. When you need to cite another source, use the MLA Handbook or Columbia Guide to Online Style for the rules. Just want a simple, small book you can carry with you? Strunk & White's Elements of Style is a winner.
Be warned that none of the cookbooks has a reference to words like "e-mail" and don't resolve all the issues you may encounter. In this case, you could refer to Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications. Here's what it says about E- words:
"In general, avoid forming new words with 'e-' (for electronic) unless you know your audience will understand. Some words that may be appropriate in certain circumstances are 'e-commerce' and 'e-money.' 'E-mail' and 'e-form' are acceptable. Use lowercase and always hyphenate for clarity."
Here's where creating your own recipe comes in. You can use a few other recipes and throw in your own modifications to come up with what best fits your tastes. Of course, we want to keep our readers in mind when creating the guide.
Start by thinking about the topics you write about. If it is high tech, then it helps to explore all the terms along with the spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Check out the Jargon File, the online version of The New Hacker's Dictionary or Writing for Multimedia's Terminology. If you're in another field, then you'll want to explorer for a similar resource. BBC News has a radio style guide and the GuardianUnlimited Style Guide is for writers and editors. Example of style guides for building Web sites include Lynch and Horton's Web Style Guide and New York Public Library's NYPL:Style Guide. For those in medicine, University of Washington presents the most frequently used entries from the AMA Style Guide.
The next ingredient to tackle is physical conventions. For instance, when starting a new paragraph, do you indent or use a double hard return? What font size, face, and style will you use for titles? Will the titles be capitalized or in sentence case? This is similar to a cookbook. All the recipes are formatted the same way. Even CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a recipe since it ensures formatting consistency.
Once you make the tough decisions, the easy part comes next. You throw all the selected ingredients into one pan, or in this case, one document. The style guide should be organized to make it easy for your writers can find what they need.
Finally, put it where everyone can access it. It doesn't have to be a book. It can be a one or two page document. It's a living document that you can continuously revise. Heck, use a blogging tool to easily manage it.
Now back to the hard part, getting everyone to follow the new guide.
Meryl K. Evans, Content Maven, is the writer and editor of many articles and publications including eNewsletter Journal, Shavlik's The Remediator, and Web Design @ InformIT. To get your feed on things geeky, webby, and wordy or to subscribe to free newsletters, visit her site at http://www.meryl.net/blog/.
MORE RESOURCES:
 Los Angeles Times | Irishman Enda Walsh doesn't let words get in the way Los Angeles Times It was later in the writing process that Walsh introduced the element of farce and the notion of the father trapping the sons, forcing them to perform. ... Irish playwright Enda Walsh on playwriting and screenwriting |
 Contactmusic.com | Bruce Springsteen writing autobiography? Online Rock Radio Bruce Springsteen is reportedly writing his memoirs, according to The New York Post. An unnamed source said the project would be unparalleled in the rock ... Bruce Springsteen Reportedly Writing Autobiography |
A Torah Scribe Pushes the Parchment Ceiling New York Times A mere handful of women do what she does, and an even more select handful are practiced in the especially ritualistic craft of writing particularly holy ... |
Newspaper pay walls have a lot of confused writing on them guardian.co.uk So, this month, the pay walls begin to go up. The next edition of Retail Week you try to read on the internet will come as part of a subscription package, ... |
Rick & Newt: Writing the wrongs of Washington Dallas Morning News Rick Perry has a new writing partner. Perry and fellow Republican Gov. Mark Sanford teamed up as co-authors to bash Washington. In a December op-ed in the ... |
 guardian.co.uk | Enter, finally, the real Alan Bennett guardian.co.uk If writing meant passing this kind of kit inspection, I'd better forget it." Bennett didn't forget it, of course. But having observed Auden at close ... 'Love's a little boy' |
Cross Inks License Partnership With FranklinCovey Products CNNMoney.com (press release) "Cross has world-renowned writing instrument and design capabilities and pairs extremely well with the FranklinCovey brand," said FranklinCovey Products CEO ... |
Swiss death metallers Omophagia have issued the following update about writing ... Metal Underground "I'd just like to tell you what's happening at the Omophagia-camp at the moment. As you all know we are working hard to get the new CD done as soon as ... |
Saturday Starter: Your Writing Origins Tucson Citizen After my visit, I took it home, had it carefully framed and it now hangs on my wall above my writing space, a constant reminder of my writing origins. ... |
Research and Markets: Writing Skills, Tips & Tricks for CFOs TMC Net In Writing Skills, Tips & Tricks for CFOs, the analyst examines specific, easy-to-implement ways for CFOs to become better writers and make more of an ... Research and Markets: Webinar - Writing Skills, Tips & Tricks for CEOs |
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