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Style Guides and Style SheetsPresenters: Kris Fulsaas and Ann Gosch
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 | Examples of information found in style guides are: |
| Whether or not to capitalize or italicize certain words (e.g. or e.g.) |
| Punctuation issues (e.g., U.S. vs. US; farmer's/farmers'/farmers market). |
| Title style (e.g., sentence vs. headline). |
| When to spell out numbers. |
| Variant spellings (grey vs. gray). |
| Whether or not to use the serial comma. |
A style guide may provide rules for consistency across a single document, across a group of documents produced by a company, or across a group of books or magazines produced by a publisher.
Published style manuals include:
| Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition published 2003. |
| Associated Press Stylebook (AP) style guide, updated every year. |
| Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, used for Microsoft documents and many Internet publications |
| The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) Style Manual, used for government contracts. Useful for spelling of countries and their leaders, among other things. |
| The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, used for academic and professional journals. |
| MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing for academic publications. |
| Gregg Reference Manual, corporate/business style manual; includes letters and other business forms. Ann noted this is more "user-friendly" than some of the other style manuals. |
Some publishers use a mix of styles from one or more style guides. An in-house style guide may be based on one of the published guides, but then specify variations based on the publisher's preference. Kris noted that many magazines hybridize their styles.
Kris observed that publishers often specify a dictionary to follow as well as a style manual.
The discussion turned to three types of in-house style sheets that publishers may use.
This sheet largely or completely replaces the standard manuals listed above. Ann produced an extensive style guide for MultiCare's Office of Philanthropy. Its sections included an introduction (purpose of the guide, importance of consistency); grammar rules (e.g., parallel structure, verb agreement); tips on how to enhance readability; a grid covering a wide range of usage topics with examples; and a word list (alphabetical listing of words showing spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, and the like).
This style sheet specifies a published style guide (e.g., AP for magazines/newspapers, CMS for many books). It often identifies variations that the publisher prefers. This general guide may apply to a range of publications produced by a single company.
Some house guides use different manuals for different parts of a publication. For example, one publisher uses the CMS for the essays in book on a scientific topic, and the AP guide for the notes section, which uses lots of numbers.
This type of style sheet applies to a single series of books or magazines, or even to a single book. It generally identifies a style manual as the primary source and then specifies variations. At times it is a single, alphabetical list, with word spellings and usage categories intermingled. Other times it may have various sections explaining topics such as book structure, treatment of headers/page numbers, in-text reference rules, numbers/numerals, and the like.
The CMS gives editors some leeway in how they want to hyphenate compound words; a style sheet may refer to a specific dictionary for guidance. The creation of a style guide gives editors some room for creativity as to specific matters, although clients often have a preference one way or another.
Kris talked about what to do if an author deviates from a publisher's style sheet. First, try to convince the author that the style sheet is important because it keeps books consistent and recognizable. If that's unsuccessful, see if the publisher feels strongly about the issue. Giving authors leeway on small issues they feel strongly about may lead to more cooperation from them on other issues.
The discussion turned to how to create style sheets.
Kris said she usually begins by jotting down points for a style sheet on lined paper. Then about a quarter of the way into the project she transfers the information to electronic form. She uses two windows and adds to the style sheet as the edit proceeds.
Another process is to use a house style guide and to check off items relevant to your project as you go. Later, you can transfer the relevant items to create a project style sheet. Some editors like to use a grid format, with a letter of the alphabet for each square.
You can also take a style sheet used for another client and adapt it to the new project, deleting and adding items as appropriate. Ann has a generic style sheet that she adapts to each project. Kris noted that a style guide may grow from individual project style sheets.
Sample style sheets are available in several reference guides, including The Copy Editor's Handbook (Amy Einsohn); CMS (pp. 73-74); and McGraw Hill's Proofreading Handbook. Ann Gosch also provided a generic sample style sheet (doc).
A style sheet may be a work in progress, evolving through collaboration between editors.
During the Q & A session, participants mentioned several additional style references:
Words into Type, now out of print but a good guide to rules for foreign languages and to English usage. It may be available secondhand from sources such as www.abebooks.com, www.powells.com, and secondhand bookstores.
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (18th ed. pub. 2005), usually known simply as "The Bluebook," is a citation and format guide used for many law-related publications. It includes good information about courts and other government bodies in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions.
The American Medical Association also provides a guide for medical issues, and CSE applies to science issues.
In closing, it was noted that producing a style guide can be a "team
building" exercise for a group of editors working on a large project.
Submitted by Sharon C. Rutberg
