Style guides generally give guidance on language use. Some style guides consider or focus on elements of graphic design, such as typography and white space. Web site style guides often focus on visual or technical aspects.

Overview

Traditionally, a style guide (often called a style manual or stylebook) dictates what form of language should be used. These style guides are principally used by academia and publishers.

In such works, style can have two meanings:

• Publication conventions for markup style, such as whether book and movie titles should be written in italics; expression of dates and numbers; how references should be cited.
• Literary considerations of prose style, such as best usage, common errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling; and suggestions for precision, fairness and the most forceful expression of ideas.

Some modern style guides are designed for use by the general public. These tend to focus on language over presentation.

Style guides don’t directly address writers’ individual style, or “voice,” although writers sometimes say style guides are too restrictive.

Like language itself, many style guides change with the times, to varying degrees. For example, the Associated Press stylebook is updated every year.

Academia and publishing

Style guides used by publishers set out rules for language use, such as for spelling, italics and punctuation. A major purpose of these style guides is consistency. They are rulebooks for writers to ensure language is used consistently. Authors are often asked or required to use a style guide in preparing their work for publication. Copy editors are charged with enforcing the style.

Style guides used by universities are particularly rigorous in their preferred style for citing sources. Their use is required of scholars submitting research articles to academic journals.

General interest

Other style guides have as their audience the general public. Some of these adopt a similar approach to style guides for publishing houses and newspapers.

Others, such as Fowler's Modern English Usage (3rd edition) report how language is used in practice in a given area, outline how phrases, punctuation and grammar are actually used. Since they are for the general public, they cannot require one form of a word or phrase to be preferred over another, though they may make recommendations, and sometimes strong recommendations at that. These guides can be used by anyone interested in writing in a standard form of a language.

To give an idea of how this approach, it is useful to consider what Burchfield and observers have stated about Fowler's. On one hand, Burchfield notes: 'Linguistic correctness is perhaps the dominant theme of this book'. But he also writes: 'I believe that 'stark preachments' belong to an earlier age of comment on English usage'. Indeed, John Updike, writing in The New Yorker commented: 'To Burchfield, the English language is a battlefield upon which he functions as a non-combatant observer'.

Specialized guides

Some organizations other than those above also produce style guides, either for internal or external use. For example, some communications or public relations departments of business and nonprofit organizations have guides for their publications, such as newsletters, news releases and Web sites. Also, organizations that advocate for minorities may set out what they believe to be more fair and correct language treatment.

Examples of style guides

United Kingdom

General

• R.W. Burchfield; Fowler's Modern English Usage (Third edition); Clarendon Press; ISBN 0-19-861021-1 (revised 3rd edition, hardcover, 2004) (original Fowler's Modern English Usage by Fowler)
• The King's English by the Fowler brothers, Henry Watson Fowler and Francis George Fowler
• Oxford Style Manual: The 2003 work combines The Oxford Guide to Style and The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors with the latter concentrating on common problems.
• Plain Words by Sir Ernest Gowers

Journalism

• PDF version of the BBC News Style Guide (http://www.bbctraining.com/pdfs/newsStyleGuide.pdf): from the British Broadcasting Corporation
• The Economist's style guide (http://www.economist.com/research/StyleGuide/), (United Kingdom)
• The Guardian Style Guide (http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/0,5817,184913,00.html): from The Guardian (United Kingdom)
• The Times Style and Usage Guide (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,2941,00.html): from The Times (United Kingdom)

European Union

The European Union's official English style guide (based on UK English), intended primarily for English-language authors and translators.

• European Union English Style Guide (http://europa.eu.int/comm/translation/writing/style_guides/english/style_guide_en.pdf)

United States

Two of the most widely used style guides in the United States are The Chicago Manual of Style and the Associated Press stylebook. Most American newspapers base their style on that of The Associated Press, but also have their own style guides for local terms and individual preferences. The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White, is considered a classic. Bill Walsh, in "Lapsing into a Comma" and at his Web site, The Slot, addresses contemporary conundrums such as nonstandard orthography in names, as in "Yahoo!" for the Internet portal.

General

• The Chicago Manual of Style: mostly publishing conventions; ranks high in sales figures by Amazon
• The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, United States
• Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson
• Usage and Abusage by Eric Partridge

Books and general interest

• The Chicago Manual of Style; University of Chicago Press; ISBN 0-226-10403-6 (15th edition, hardcover, 2003). Margaret Mahan wrote the preface, but is not credited as editor.

Web sites

• Janice Walker and Todd Taylor The Columbia Guide to Online Style; Columbia University Press ISBN 0231107897 (paperback, 1998) and ISBN 0231107889 (hardback, 1998)

Newspapers

• Associated Press Stylebook: self-indexed; the foremost guide to newspaper style in the United States.
• The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, revised edition. Allan M. Siegal and William G. Connolly. New York: Times Books, 1999. ISBN 0812963881. Self-indexed.
• Wall Street Journal style guide

Academic

• ACS Style Guide: style for scientific papers published in journals of the American Chemical Society
• American Medical Association Manual of Style: style for medical papers published in journals of the American Medical Association
• APA style: academic style for the social sciences by the American Psychological Association
• American Sociological Association Style Guide: academic style for the social sciences by the American Sociological Association
• Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers: style for scientific papers published by the Council of Science Editors, a group formerly known as the Council of Biology Editors
• The Lancet: Formatting guidelines for electronic submission of revised manuscripts (http://image.thelancet.com/lancet/extra/Diskettes.pdf) Formatting requirements for The Lancet; academic styl for research and other articles for submission.
• MHRA Style Guide: academic style for the arts and humanities published by the Modern Humanities Research Association; available for free download (see article); based in the United Kingdom
• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers: academic style for the arts and humanities by the Modern Language Association of America
• "Turabian": popular name for a widely used academic style guide based on the Chicago Manual
• Words into Type: publishing conventions, less scholarly, more accessible than the Chicago Manual

For a summary and comparison of academic style guides, see Style Manuals and Writing Guides (http://www.calstatela.edu/library/styleman.htm) by the UCLA University Library

See also

• English writing style
• Diction
• Disputed usage
• Grammar from a linguistic perspective.
• House style
• Prescription and description
• Punctuation
• Spelling
• Usage
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style

External links

Style guides for American English:

• Government Printing Office Style Manual (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/stylemanual/index.html)
• The University of Memphis list of Style Manuals & Guides (http://exlibris.memphis.edu/instr/style.htm)
• The Slot (http://theslot.com/), by Bill Walsh

Style guide for Australian English:

• Queensland government style guide (http://education.qld.gov.au/publication/production/print/style.html)

Style guides for British English:

• The Economist's style guide (http://www.economist.com/research/StyleGuide/)
• The Guardian's style guide (http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide)
• The Times's style guide (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,2941,00.html)
• European Union English style guide (http://europa.eu.int/comm/translation/writing/style_guides/english/style_guide_en.pdf)

Miscellaneous:

• Design style guide tips (http://www.ronreason.com/personal/style.html), by Ron Reason, United States
• Stylebook advice (http://www.copydesk.org/2002conference/style.htm): Tips on creating, revising and using style guides; report from a conference session by the American Copy Editors Society
• Style Matters: What the AP Isn't Telling You (http://www.ibiblio.org/copyed/hughespro.html), research on style guides by Beth Hughes, United States
• Web style guide (http://www.webstyleguide.com/), by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton, United States