Grammargrams Issue 4

by Mary Kay Murray

Stylebooks

Always Remember Who Your Audience Is.

There's no audience for bad, non-standard English. It just confuses and annoys your readers.

Rules And Mechanics

Standard English is not optional (unless you're writing for pirates, maybe). You must use the spelling and usages that all of us can interpret when we read. But whose spellings, and whose usages? There are thousands of reputable guides, and many of them contradict each other.

If your company has adopted a particular dictionary, use it. If your company has an official stylebook, follow it. Otherwise, you'll have to pick out a dictionary and stylebook.

Adopting a Stylebook

Stylebooks are rules that people are to follow consistently, usually within a single company or industry where many people contribute content. They include rules about hyphenating compound terms (on line, on-line, online?), using quotation marks, preferred spellings, grammar, etc.

Choose one based on informal standard English that's clear and friendly, and suited to your audience. Ideally, it will accommodate the two basic rules:

Let your ear be your guide.
If you wouldn't say it (to this audience), don't write it.

And be sure it's designed for the version of English used in your country (e.g., US, UK, India, etc.), so you don't end up saying things like, "Lo, the postilion has been struck by lightning."

A Few Of the Stylebooks Out There

To pick out one of the existing stylebooks, just go to Amazon.com and search on style or stylebook. You'll be overwhelmed with choices.

GrammarGram Favorites

Strunk and White, Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. This clear, common-sense classic is the source of our GrammarGram motto: "Let your ear be your guide." If you have a good ear, you're a good writer.
The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World. Standard grammar, spelling, and usage, plus tips on optimizing webpages, streamlining texts for mobile users, etc.
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. Clear and easy grammar and usage rules with examples like this: "The robot and the dentist tangoed beneath the stars."
The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Guide for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. Another classic, with punctuation rules and examples such as: "I mean, this is not the approving nod of a nincompoop!"

Other Common Stylebooks

Other familiar references include:

Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. Good for quick reference and an overview of copyright and other laws. Good for newspapers, but too formal for our purposes.
UPI Stylebook and Guide to Newswriting. Rules sometimes differ from Associated Press rules. Good for quick reference, but too formal.
The Chicago Manual of Style. A classic. Great reference, but intended for formal scholarly writing.
Gregg Reference Manual. Designed for business writers, this works best as a quick reference manual. More formal than we like, but great on spellings, punctuation, and formatting.
The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need, by Susan Thurman. "For everyone who wants to produce writing that is clear, concise, and grammatically excellent." That sounds like us. Great for beginners.
The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need, by Susan Thurman. "For everyone who wants to produce writing that is clear, concise, and grammatically excellent." That sounds like us. Great for beginners.
The Business Style Handbook: An A-to-Z Guide for Writing on the Job with Tips from Communications Experts at the Fortune 500. Business writing in several genres. Good for beginners, non-native speakers, and anyone who wants a fast answer.
Writing That Works, by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson. Less a stylebook than a compendium of e-writing "tricks" that deliver effective results.

Wired once issued a stylebook that was a little on the trendy side, to our tastes, but it was fun. It's obsolete now, but here's one that uses the same approach:

Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style, by Arthur Plotnick.

(Yes, he's making fun of Strunk and White.)

This too is a bit edgy and self-consciously hip, but you may like it just fine. If you're not self-employed, check with your boss before adopting it. If it's just you, have a party!*

Or Make Your Own Stylebook

If you're on your own, you can make up your own stylebook, just as many individual companies do. But remember, your goal is easy, friendly reading.

Don't use non-standard spellings, terms, or grammar that will simply puzzle or slow your readers down.
Talk to your readers in their own language.
Once you adopt your rules, use them in every case. Inconsistency is puzzling and annoying.

For grammar, punctuation, and usage, we suggest basing your stylebook on whatever existing stylebook seems the closest for you and your audience. Then make the changes you feel are best.

Nothing is Sacred and Everything Changes

Language evolves constantly, and the guides stop being current the day they're published. All stylebooks—yours or a standard guide—must be updated regularly to keep up with standard spoken English. If you make changes yourself, your changes should reflect the changes in spoken English.

Here's a rule from the old Wired stylebook that we like a lot: move in the direction the language is moving. Here's a progression reflected in standard English over the centuries for new compound terms:

They begin as two separately pronounced words, written as two words.
As speakers begin associating them and start to run them together in speaking, the words start being written as a hyphenated term.
As the term becomes common, the words are merged in speaking and written as a single word.

A case in point:

At first coinage: on line
As the term became more common: on-line
Today, as a commonplace: online

Once again—let your ear be your guide.

Finally

The whole point of a stylebook is that it's the standard for your publication. Apart from changes to update the language, use the stylebook version consistently and always.

*DISCLAIMER—DON'T USE SLANG IN YOUR WRITING AT WORK

These GrammarGrams are written in standard colloquial English, because this is a very friendly website and we're talking to fellow designers. In your job, use standard informal English, as if you're talking to your grandfather, the CEO of your company, or your pastor if you have one. Don't say "Have a party" in your work for an outside employer unless your employer is really groovy* and your audience is too.