Stylebook Bonanza
How to Choose One, How to Use One
Today in “Why Am I Like This”: Did you know that Shelf Life has its own style sheet? As the writer, copyeditor, proofreader, and publisher of Shelf Life, I try to keep usage consistent by making a note of the decision any time I make a style choice on the fly. If you find a typo in Shelf Life make sure to tell me so I can fire someone from my staff.
I’m cooking up a future article on how to compile a style sheet for your own project if you are ever so moved. Today I’ll go over everything you need to know about understanding and applying style using the materials already out there. I’ve got my editor hat on (it’s a cloche). Let’s go.
Starting With Style
Three relevant terms are used interchangeably but I understand them to have slightly different and specific meanings. For the purposes of this article I’ll be using them like so:
Stylebook. Any book that gives guidance on style, grammar, usage, and mechanics. Includes manuals and guides.
Style manual. A reference book that contains a list of rules governing how to apply style choices to a document.
Style guide. A book, usually with a structure more narrative than referential, that provides guidance on the rules of the language.
There are four things you want to have to start editing a piece of writing. They are:
A style manual. This will inform most of your style choices. If you’re working with a publisher, they have a preference on which manual you should use. If you don’t have a publisher’s guidance on which to use, I’ve included information below on which manuals are used most in which disciplines.
A dictionary. The manual determines your style choices, but you will also need a dictionary to make sure you are consistently using the right spellings and hypenations. You may need more than one dictionary depending on the discipline you’re working in.
The house style manual. Only available if you’re working with a publisher. Most publishing houses have their own proprietary style manual. It explains their preference for words and style rules that countermand and override what is in their preferred manual and dictionary. For instance, a publisher may use a manual that says to lowercase White and Black when referring to race, but the publisher wants them capitalized. That rule then is part of the house style.
The project style sheet. Compiled by the copyeditor and then used by the author, production editor, and proofreader. It lists style decisions for the specific project that either (a) weren’t covered in the style manual or house style manual or (b) are being overridden for the project.
Style Guides
As I mentioned above, a style guide is not a style manual. A style guide provides the basis for understanding how to correctly—and even elegantly—use the language. They’re great to read for understanding all those tricky language rules like when to use that versus which or when to use further versus farther (ie, things that are objectively correct or incorrect, not left to discretion). They suggest best practices for composition. They won’t instruct you on how to make style decisions where the rules are ambiguous (that’s a manual). There are plenty of books of this nature available and two you need to know about.
Strunk and White
That’s White as in E.B. White as in Charlotte’s Web. Multipotentialite and beloved spider apologist. The book itself is called The Elements of Style but everyone just calls it Strunk and White because it’s our best friend. It’s in its 4th edition and has been for my whole editing career. This is an absolute classic and a lot of what you already know about good language use comes from here. Things like using the active voice, being as concise as possible, and not using a long and complex word like multipotentialite when a simpler one will do. Anyone can benefit from reading this book.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Lynne Truss’s ultimate guide to punctuation. I have mixed feelings on this book because Truss is English and the British versus American rules of punctuation are different. On the other hand, there is just no other book I know of that exhaustively examines the use of every single type of punctuation. You would not believe anyone could have so much to say about the apostrophe.
I have both of these books, I’ve read them, I use them. If you were to pick one up, get Strunk and White. Everyone who writes in English or wants to should read it.
Dictionaries
The two dictionaries that are most commonly used in publishing in the United States are Merriam-Webster Collegiate (MWC or just MW) and American Heritage (AHD). (Note that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, or MWD, is a separate product and I’ve not yet met a publisher who prefers it to MWC.)
The AHD is now in its 5th print edition from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. MW is in its 11th print edition. Both have free versions on the web that you can use. MW makes a distinction between the Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary (the online product, not to be confused with MWD) and the MWC (the print and e-book product), noting that the online dictionary is updated, revised, and expanded more often than the print. AHD does not advertise a distinction between their online versus their print/e-book product.
Use your dictionary to decide which spelling to use for words with variants (hint: the first listed spelling in an entry is the one to use). If you are editing for a publisher with a dictionary preference, don’t assume you know “the correct” version or that your word processing software does. There’s not always one right spelling. For example, Google Docs and Microsoft Word will let you get away with advisor but adviser is correct according to AHD and MW. If you Google a word to check the spelling, make sure you’re looking at the result from the correct dictionary’s site.
In certain disciplines you may also need a professional dictionary. For instance, medical writers and editors usually need access to Stedman’s Medical Dictionary. Even the pros sometimes need help spelling otorhinolaryngology. Other professions, like law, have dictionaries as well.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is an incredible resource but isn’t the best for advice on spelling (all the words are spelled Britishly, for one thing). It’s a historical dictionary, so its focus is not on present-day meanings for words but on their origins, histories, and various uses throughout the history of the language.
Style Manuals
This list is not exhaustive. There are always more published style manuals out there. These are the ones you will see the most, and the one you select or are assigned will depend on the discipline in which you are publishing. Heads up: Words Into Type isn’t on this list. It’s out of print now. It’s never coming back. I don’t want to talk about it.
A style manual will give you specific instruction on how to style the things that can be used different ways in English and still be correct, for instance:
Whether or not to use the serial comma
How to present numbers and ordinals (for instance, when to spell them out v using a numeral)
When, if, and how to use text styles like italics, underlining, and boldface
Where to place a period, comma, semicolon, or colon relative to a quotation mark, parenthesis, or bracket
How to construct reference citations
American Medical Association Manual of Style (11e)
AMA style is used for (a) all AMA journals; (b) most other medical journals; (c) many scientific journals in related disciplines (eg, nursing, public health); and (d) many medical and health-related textbooks. This is the manual to know if you want to do any medical writing, editing, or publishing. A great place to learn about people-first (specifically patient-first in this case) language and usage.
Associated Press Stylebook (AP 55e)
AP is the most polarizing manual on the list. Every editor has strong feelings about it. This is the manual most often used in American journalism (the NYT also has a manual). A great thing about AP is that it updates very frequently so new rules and usages are incorporated quickly. A downside for sticklers and grammarians is that AP often suggests omitting punctuation except when needed for clarity. For instance, AP suggests omitting the hyphen in “third grade teacher” because there’s no ambiguity but including it in “small-business owner” because there could be ambiguity otherwise. Some editors hate that these rules introduce inconsistency, while other editors prefer less punctuation. Likewise, AP does not mandate use of the serial comma, instead including it only when needed to clarify meaning. You do not want to be stuck in a room with editors arguing about the serial comma.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA 7e)
This is the definitive style manual for publishing in most of the social sciences—psychology, anthropology, political science, and so on. It’s also sometimes used in business publishing and engineering. Excellent guidance on inclusive and bias-free language. The American Sociological Association puts out their own style manual (ASA 6e) that is very similar to APA and widely used for sociology and its closely related fields (eg, social work).
Bluebook (21e)
Bluebook is great because it doesn’t have a long name to remember and then a separate acronym to remember that may not be derived directly from the title (looking at you literally everyone else on the list). It’s just the Bluebook. This is the style manual used to prepare citations in the legal profession (often used alongside a legal dictionary). What does SCOTUS use for their style? Would they use Bluebook (legal) or GPO (federal government)? They actually have their own style manual but that manual points to GPO for any style items not covered within and to Bluebook for any citation items not covered within.
Chicago Manual of Style (CMS 17e)
CMS was bright orange when I was getting my editorial start. It is no longer orange and I feel all kinds of ways about that. This is the most widely used style manual in book publishing in the United States and is the choice of most publishers who are not affiliated with any of the specific disciplines listed here. It has more detail than most of the other manuals. Includes helpful information on the publishing process. The online interface is very user-friendly and complete, and includes a tool for compiling and saving project style sheets. If you’ve heard people mention “Turabian” style, that is a variant of CMS used for academic and student papers.
Scientific Style and Format (CSE 8e)
This manual is a publication of the Council of Science Editors and is used for many of the scientific publications that don’t use AMA (medical sciences) or APA (social sciences). This manual is published by the University of Chicago Press, so it is part of the CMS family and uses the same great online interface. However, purchasing a CMS subscription won’t give you access to CSE and vice versa—nor is there a way to bundle the two (unfortunately).
US Government Publishing Office Style Manual (GPO 2016)
GPO has the distinction of being the only manual in this article that is completely free. It’s so free that you can’t pay for it if you try. This is the manual that the GPO uses to give instructions on their preference for style and also instruct content producers and preparers on laying out documents for their printing operation. This isn’t the only word in federal government style—many agencies have their own specific manuals—but is the overarching guidance. If you’re writing for the federal government and haven’t been given an agency-specific manual or other guidance, use this.
Modern Language Association Handbook (MLA 8e)
Last and also least, it’s your old friend MLA! The one we all learned in high school and college English class. Because everyone learns this in school, it can feel kind of ubiquitous. I don’t know how to tell you this. You spend your entire life learning MLA in school and then you never use it again. Not a lot of publishers use it, even in the humanities. Among literary studies journals, it’s a toss up between MLA and CMS. Books? Sorry, y’all. Bloomsbury Academic, Oxford University Press, and W.W. Norton all use CMS.
Applying Style as You Go
Depending on what you’re working on, you may need to refer to your manual a little or a lot. If you’re writing fiction, MLA or CMS is what you want to use but you’ll barely look at it. If you’re getting an article ready for submission to a scholarly journal, you’ll need to rely on it heavily. Definitely use your manual for things that have no hard-and-fast rules in the language.
But the first rule of using a manual to apply style as you’re writing is—don’t! The style manual is a must-have for editing, and might have applications for revising if you want to be really particular, but is just not that useful while you’re drafting. Trying to apply style while you’re writing will be more a hindrance than a help if you haven’t memorized the manual (or three). If you’re still in first-draft mode, put this advice aside and come back when you’re ready to edit. Don’t get caught up in this level of detail while you’re just trying to lay down text.
Above all, never forget—every time you put two spaces after a period E.B. White rises from his grave to slaughter a puppy.
If you’re into style, make sure to stay tuned for future content on creating style sheets and on using style and mechanics to write respectfully about your fellow humans. In the meantime, I’ve something great coming your way next Tuesday on the ethical consumption of writing. See you then!
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