Style guide

A style guide is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents.^[1] A book-length style guide is often called a style manual or a manual of style (MoS or MOS). A short style guide, typically ranging from several to several dozen pages, is often called a style sheet. The standards documented in a style guide are applicable for either general use, or prescribed use in an individual publication, particular organization, or specific field.

A style guide establishes standard style requirements to improve communication by ensuring consistency within and across documents. They may require certain best practices in writing style, usage, language composition, visual composition, orthography, and typography by setting standards of usage in areas such as punctuation, capitalization, citing sources, formatting of numbers and dates, table appearance and other areas. For academic and technical documents, a guide may also enforce the best practice in ethics (such as authorship, research ethics, and disclosure) and compliance (technical and regulatory). For translations, a style guide may even be used to enforce consistent grammar, tones, and localization decisions such as units of measure.^[2]

Style guides may be categorized into three types: comprehensive style for general use; discipline style for specialized use, which is often specific to academic disciplines, medicine, journalism, law, government, business, and other industries; and house or corporate style, created and used by a particular publisher or organization.^[3]

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Style guides vary widely in scope and size. Writers working in large industries or professional sectors may reference a specific style guide, written for usage in specialized documents within their fields. For the most part, these guides are relevant and useful for peer-to-peer specialist documentation or to help writers working in specific industries or sectors communicate highly technical information in scholarly articles or industry white papers.

Professional style guides of different countries can be referenced for authoritative advice on their respective language(s), such as the United Kingdom's New Oxford Style Manual from Oxford University Press; and the United States' The Chicago Manual of Style from the University of Chicago Press. Australia has a style guide, available online, created by its government.^[4]

The variety in scope and length is enabled by the cascading of one style over another, analogous to how styles cascade in web development and in desktop cascade over CSS styles.

In many cases, a project such as a book, journal, or monograph series typically has a short style sheet that cascades over the larger style guide of an organization such as a publishing company, whose specific 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. Examples of industry style guides include:

• The Associated Press Stylebook (AP Stylebook) and The Canadian Press Stylebook for journalism
• The Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) and Oxford style for general academic writing and publishing
• Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) style and American Sociological Association (ASA) style for the arts and humanities
• Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) and Bluebook style for law
• US Government Publishing Office (USGPO) style and Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS) style for government publications

Finally, these reference works cascade over the 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 British, American, Canadian, and Australian English.

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 as well as text.

Guides in specific scientific and technical fields may cover nomenclature to specify names or classifying labels that are clear, standardized, and ontologically sound (e.g., taxonomy, chemical nomenclature, and gene nomenclature).

Style guides that cover usage may suggest descriptive terms for people which avoid racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. Style guides increasingly incorporate accessibility conventions for audience members with visual, mobility, or other disabilities.^[5]

Since the rise of the digital age, websites have allowed for an expansion of style guide conventions that account for digital behavior such as screen reading.^[6] Screen reading requires web style guides to focus more intently on a user experience subjected to multichannel surfing. Though web style guides can also vary widely, they tend to prioritize similar values concerning brevity, terminology, syntax, tone, structure, typography, graphics, and errors.^[6]

Most style guides are revised periodically 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 editions typically appear every 1 to 20 years. For example, the AP Stylebook is revised annually, and the Chicago, APA, and ASA manuals are in their 17th, 7th, and 6th editions, respectively, as of 2023.^[update] Many house styles and individual project styles change more frequently, especially for new projects.

Look up stylebook or usage in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• But the stylebook says ... – Blog post about stylebook abuse, by Bill Walsh of The Washington Post
• Handouts about writing style guides, from a conference of the American Copy Editors Society in 2007
  • William G. Connolly. "How to Write a Stylebook in 10 Easy Steps" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 August 2010.
  • Doug Kouma. "Creating an In-House Stylebook" (PDF). Meredith Special Interest Media. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 August 2010.
• Language Log » Searching 43 stylebooks