A style guide or style manual is a set of standards for design and writing of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication or organization. Style guides are prevalent for general and specialized use, for the general reading and writing audience, and for students and scholars of the various academic disciplines, medicine, journalism, the law, government, business, and industry. Some style guides focus on graphic design, covering such topics as typography and white space. Web site style guides focus on a publication's visual and technical aspects, prose style, best usage, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and fairness. The strict implementation of style guide regulations provides uniformity in style and formatting of a document.

Many style guides are revised periodically to accommodate changes in conventions and usage. For example, the stylebook of the Associated Press is updated annually.

For academia and publishing

Publishers' style guides establish house rules for language use, such as spelling, italics and punctuation; their major purpose is consistency. They are rulebooks for writers, ensuring consistent language. Authors are asked or required to use a style guide in preparing their work for publication; copy editors are charged with enforcing the publishing house's style.

Academic organization and university style guides are rigorous about documentation formatting style for citations and bibliographies used for preparing term papers for course credit and manuscripts for publication. Professional scholars are advised to follow the style guides of organizations in their disciplines when they submit articles and books to academic journals and academic book publishers in those disciplines for consideration of publication. Once they have accepted work for publication, publishers provide authors with their own guidelines and specifications, which may differ from those required for submission, and editors may assist authors in preparing their work for press.

Indexing of the published work, which can be a tedious task, can be done by the author, by a professional editorial indexer, or by computer software. If done by the author or close collaborators of the author who are not professional indexers, the work is called "self-indexed".

For general use

Some style guides are created for the general public, and may adopt the approaches of publishing houses and newspapers. Others, such as Fowler's Modern English Usage, third edition, report how language is practiced in a given area and outline how phrases, punctuation and grammar are actually used.

Specialized guides

Some organizations, other than the aforementioned ones, produce style guides for either internal or external use. For example, communications and public relations departments of business and nonprofit organizations have style guides for their publications (newsletters, news releases, Web sites). Organizations advocating for social minorities sometimes establish what they believe to be fair and correct language treatment of their audiences.

Graphic design guides

Many publications (notably newspapers) use graphic design style guides to demonstrate the preferred layout and formatting of a published page. They often are extremely detailed in specifying, for example, which fonts and colors to use. Such guides allow a large design team to produce visually consistent work for the organization.

Examples

International

Several basic style guides for technical and scientific communication have been defined by international standards organizations. These are often used as elements of and refined in more specialized style guides that are specific to a subject, region or organization. Some examples are:

• EN-15038:2006 — European Standard for Translation Services Annex D (informative)

• ISO 8 — Presentation of periodicals

• ISO 18 — Contents lists of periodicals

• ISO 31 — Quantities & units

• ISO 214 — Abstracts for publication & documentation

• ISO 215 — Presentation of contributions to periodicals & other serials

• ISO 690 — Bibliographic references — Content, form & structure

• ISO 832 — Bibliographic references — Abbreviations of typical words

• ISO 999 — Index of a publication

• ISO 1086 — Title leaves of a book

• ISO 2145 — Numbering of divisions & subdivisions in written documents

• ISO 5966 — Presentation of scientific & technical reports

• ISO 6357 — Spine titles on books & other publications

• ISO 7144 — Presentation of theses & similar documents

• ISO 9241 — Ergonomics of Human System Interaction

Australia

• Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers Snooks & Co for the Department of Finance and Administration. 6th ed. ISBN 0701636483.

Canada

• The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing: by Dundurn Press in co-operation with Public Works and the Government Services Canada Translation Bureau. ISBN 1550022768.

Newspapers

• CP Stylebook: Guide to newspaper style in Canada maintained by the Canadian Press. ISBN 0920009387.

• The Globe and Mail Style Book: Originally created to help writers and editors at the Globe and Mail present clear, accurate and concise stories. ISBN 0771056850

United Kingdom

General

• Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors and Publishers Judith Butcher. 3rd ed. 1992 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 40074 0

• Fowler's Modern English Usage. Ed. R. W. Burchfield. Rev. 3rd ed. London: Clarendon Press, 2004. ISBN 0-19-861021-1 (hardcover). Based on Fowler's Modern English Usage, by Henry Watson Fowler.

• The King's English, by Henry Watson Fowler and Francis George Fowler.

• The Oxford Style Manual (2003 ed.). Combines The Oxford Guide to Style and The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, which concentrates on common problems.

• The Complete Plain Words, by Sir Ernest Gowers.

• Usage and Abusage, by Eric Partridge.

For legal documents

• Oxford Standard for Citation Of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA), by the University of Oxford Faculty of Law

For journalism

• The BBC News Style Guide: by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

• The Economist Style Guide: by The Economist (UK).

• The Guardian Style Guide: by The Guardian (United Kingdom)

• The Times Style and Usage Guide, by The Times.

United States

In the United States, most non-journalism writing follows the Chicago Manual of Style, while most newspapers base their style on the Associated Press Stylebook. A classic style guide for the general public is The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White.

For general writing

• Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting It Right, by Bill Bryson.

• The Classics of Style — presents writing guidance from William Strunk, Jr., Emerson, Whitman, Poe, and other writers.

• The Careful Writer, by Theodore Bernstein.

• The Elements of Style. By William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. (Often referred to as "Strunk and White".)

For legal documents

• The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Jointly, by the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, and Penn Law Review.

• ALWD Citation Manual, by the Association of Legal Writing Directors

For academic papers

• A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, by Kate L. Turabian. Often referred to as "Turabian."

• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. By Joseph Gibaldi. (Often referred to as "MLA.")

• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, by the American Psychological Association (APA)

For journalism

• The Associated Press Stylebook. By the Associated Press (AP).

• The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. By Allan M. Siegal and William G. Connolly.

• The Wall Street Journal Guide to Business Style and Usage, by Ronald J. Alsop and the Staff of the Wall Street Journal.

For technical writing

Style guides are particularly important in technical writing projects. Where technical writing is undertaken in a large team or project, it is important that the finished documentation is devoid of any one individual's discernible personal style. A style guide is just one of the tools that can be used to help achieve this along with the use of specific standards, e.g., AECMA S1000D in the aerospace and defense industries. Some disciplines use a style guide published by a professional society, such as the one offered by the American Physical Society or the one from the American Chemical Society referenced below.

For electronic publishing

• The Columbia Guide to Online Style, by Janice Walker and Todd Taylor.

• Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites, by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton.

For the computer industry (software and hardware)

• Apple Publications Style Guide by Apple Inc. Provides editorial guidelines for text in Apple instructional publications, technical documentation, reference information, training programs, and the software user interface.

• Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, by Microsoft Corporation. Provides a style standard for technical documentation including use of terminology, conventions, procedure, design treatments, and punctuation and grammar usage.

• Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, by Sun Technical Publications.

Editorial style guides on preparing a manuscript for publication

• The Chicago Manual of Style, by University of Chicago Press staff.

• Words into Type, by Marjorie E. Skillin, Robert M. Gay, et al.

Academic

• A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (frequently called "Turabian style")—Published by Kate L. Turabian, the graduate school dissertation secretary at the University of Chicago from 1930 to 1958. The school required her approval for every master's thesis and doctoral dissertation. Her stylistic rules closely follow those in The Chicago Manual of Style, although there are some differences.

• ACS Style Guide—for scientific papers published in journals of the American Chemical Society.

• American Medical Association Manual of Style—for medical papers published in journals of the American Medical Association.

• American Psychological Association Style Guide—for the social sciences; published by the American Psychological Association.

• American Sociological Association Style Guide—for the social sciences; published by the American Sociological Association.

• Geoscience Reporting Guidelines—for geoscience reports in industry, academia and other disciplines.

• IEEE Style—used in many technical research papers, especially those relating to computer science.

• MHRA Style Guide—for the arts and humanities; published by the Modern Humanities Research Association. Available as a free download (see article).

• MLA Style Manual, 3rd ed., and the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed.—for subjects in the arts and the humanities; published by the Modern Language Association of America (MLA).

• Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 7th ed—for scientific papers published by the Council of Science Editors (CSE), a group formerly known as the Council of Biology Editors (CBE).

• The Chicago Manual of Style—required by some academic publishers for books and journal publications.

• The Style Manual for Political Science—used by many American political science journals; published by the American Political Science Association.

See also

• Citation

• Diction

• Documentation

• Disputed usage

• English writing style

• Grammar

• Prescription and description

• Punctuation

• Spelling

• Stylistics