Style guide

2022-07-01T17:30:17Z

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{{short description|Set of standards for the writing and design of documents}}
{{about|guides for writing|style guides as fashion guides, often issued within fashion magazines|List of fashion magazines}}
{{selfref|"Manual of style" redirects here. For Wikipedia's own style manual, see [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]].}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{styles}}

A '''style guide''' or '''manual of style''' is a set of standards for the writing, [[Typesetting|formatting]], and design of [[documents]]. It is often called a '''style sheet''', although that term also has [[Style sheet (disambiguation)|multiple other meanings]]. The standards can be applied either for general use, or be required usage for an individual publication, a particular organization, or a specific field.

A style guide establishes standard [[wikt:style#Noun|style]] requirements to improve [[communication]] by ensuring [[wikt:consistency#Noun|consistency]] both within a document, and across multiple documents. Because practices vary, a style guide may set out standards to be used in areas such as [[punctuation]], [[capitalization]], [[citing sources]], formatting of numbers and dates, [[Table (information)|table]] appearance and other areas. The style guide may require certain [[best practice]]s in [[writing style]], [[usage]], [[Composition (language)|language composition]], [[Composition (visual arts)|visual composition]], [[orthography]], and [[typography]]. For [[Academic publishing|academic]] and [[Technical communication|technical]] documents, a guide may also enforce the best practice in [[ethics]] (such as [[authorship]], [[research ethics]], and [[:wikt:disclosure|disclosure]]) and compliance ([[Technical standard|technical]] and [[Regulatory compliance|regulatory]]). For translations, a style guide may be used to enforce consistent grammar choices such as tenses, formality levels in tones, and localization decisions such as units of measurements.

Style guides are specialized in a variety of ways, from the general use of a broad public audience, to a wide variety of specialized uses, such as for students and scholars of various [[Academic discipline|academic disciplines]], [[Medical publishing|medicine]], [[journalism]], the [[Legal publication|law]], [[Government Publishing Office|government]], business in general, and specific [[Industry (economics)|industries]]. The term '''house style''' refers to the individual style manual of a particular [[publisher]] or organization.

==Varieties==
Style guides vary widely in scope and size.

===Corporate Communications English and Grammar===
Writers working in most large industries or professional sectors reference a specific style guide, written for their industry or sector when writing very specialized document types. The exceptions to the rule are ''[[The Associated Press Stylebook]]'' and ''[[The Chicago Manual of Style]]''. The reason is both style guides focus on "general", third-person English. ''The Associated Press Stylebook'' is, indeed, written for journalists, and ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' is written for academic writing. However, these two industries/sectors also make up the largest segment of professional writers for North American, third-person English. They are also edited and published by hundreds of professional writers who are focused on improving communications across the largest segment of the North American population. No other style guide can claim to follow the same level of scrutiny, review and approval. This is why writers of all types reference one of these two guides more than all other style guides combined for most documentation written within all North American industries and sectors.

Most other style guides are written for industries and sectors unrelated to writing and should only be referenced for peer-to-peer documentation. The goal of most industry style guides is to help writers working in specific industries and/or sectors communicate highly technical information in scholarly articles or industry [[white paper]]s. To reach the largest audience, only ''The Associated Press Stylebook'' or ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' should be referenced. The exceptions would be when these two manuals do not provide styles (e.g. Use of ''The Microsoft Manual of Style'' to describe general software navigation and procedural steps).

===Sizes===
This variety in scope and length is enabled by the cascading of one style over another, in a way analogous to how styles cascade [[style sheet (web development)|in web development]] and [[style sheet (desktop publishing)|in desktop]] cascade over [[CSS]] styles.

A short style guide is often called a ''style sheet''. A comprehensive guide tends to be long and is often called a ''style manual'' or ''manual of style'' (''MOS'' or ''MoS''). In many cases, a project such as one [[book]], [[academic journal|journal]], or [[monograph]] series typically has a short style sheet that cascades over the somewhat larger style guide of an organization such as a [[publishing]] company, whose content is usually called ''house style''. Most house styles, in turn, cascade over an ''industry-wide or profession-wide style manual'' that is even more comprehensive. Some examples of these industry style guides include the following:
* [[AP Stylebook]] for journalism and all types of internal and external corporate communications
* [[The Chicago Manual of Style]] (CMOS) for some corporate communications, as well as, academic writing and publishing
* [[United States Government Printing Office#GPO's Style Manual|USGPO style]] or [[Australian Government Publishing Service|AGPS style]] for government publications
* [[Hart's Rules|Oxford style]] for academic publishing and [[APA style]] and [[ASA style]] for the social sciences
* [[CSE style]] for various physical sciences
* [[ACS style]] for chemistry
* [[AMA Manual of Style|AMA style]] for medicine
* [[Bluebook]] style for law

Finally, these reference works cascade over the [[orthography|orthographic]] norms of the language in use (for example, [[English orthography]] for English-language publications). This, of course, may be subject to national variety, such as [[comparison of American and British English|the different varieties of American English and British English]].

=== Topics ===
Some style guides focus on specific topic areas such as [[graphic design]], including [[typography]]. Website style guides cover a publication's visual and technical aspects along with text.

Style guides that cover [[usage]] may suggest ways of describing people that avoid [[racism]], [[sexism]], and [[homophobia]]. Guides in specific scientific and technical fields cover [[nomenclature]], which specifies names or classifying labels that are preferred because they are clear, standardized, and [[ontology|ontologically]] sound (e.g., [[taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]], [[chemical nomenclature]], and [[gene nomenclature]]).

==Updating==
Most style guides are revised from time to time to accommodate changes in conventions and [[usage]]. The frequency of updating and the [[revision control]] are determined by the subject. For style manuals in [[reference work]] format, new [[edition (book)|editions]] typically appear every 1 to 20 years. For example, the [[AP Stylebook]] is revised annually, and, as of 2021, the Chicago, APA, and ASA manuals are in their 17th, 7th, and 4th editions, respectively. Many house styles and individual project styles change more frequently, especially for new projects.

==See also==
{{Portal|Writing}}
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* [[Citation style]]
* [[Graphic charter]]
* [[Diction]]
* [[Documentation]]
* [[List of English words with disputed usage|Disputed usage]]
* [[English writing style]]
* [[List of style guides]]
* [[Prescription and description]]
* [[Sentence spacing in language and style guides]]
* [[Spelling]]
* [[Style sheet (disambiguation)]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|stylebook|usage}}
* [http://www.theslot.com/style.html But the stylebook says ...] – Blog post about stylebook abuse, by [[Bill Walsh (author)|Bill Walsh]] of ''[[The Washington Post]]''
* Handouts about writing style guides, from a conference of the [[American Copy Editors Society]] in 2007
** {{cite web|author1=William G. Connolly|title=How to Write a Stylebook in 10 Easy Steps|url=http://www.copydesk.org/2007conference/resources/HowtowriteaStylebook.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100821104657/http://www.copydesk.org/2007conference/resources/HowtowriteaStylebook.pdf|archive-date=2010-08-21|author1-link=William G. Connolly}}
** {{cite web|author1=Doug Kouma|title=Creating an In-House Stylebook|url=http://www.copydesk.org/2007conference/resources/CreatingStylebook.pdf|publisher=Meredith Special Interest Media|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100821104652/http://www.copydesk.org/2007conference/resources/CreatingStylebook.pdf|archive-date=2010-08-21}}
* [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2310 Language Log » Searching 43 stylebooks]

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[[Category:Style guides| ]]
[[Category:Bibliography]]
[[Category:Communication design]]
[[Category:Design]]
[[Category:Graphic design]]
[[Category:Technical communication]]

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Style guide