A style guide is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of

document A document is a writing, written, drawing, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of nonfiction, non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ', which denotes ...

s. A book-length style guide is often called a style manual or a manual of style. 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 Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

by ensuring consistency within and across documents. They may require certain

best practice A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to alternatives because it tends to produce superior results. Best practices are used to achieve quality as an alternative to mandatory standards. Best practice ...

s in

writing style In literature, writing style is the manner of expressing thought in language characteristic of an individual, period, school, or nation. Thus, style is a term that may refer, at one and the same time, to singular aspects of an individual's writing ...

, usage, language composition, visual composition,

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

, and

typography Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

by setting standards of usage in areas such as

punctuation Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of writing, written text should be read (silently or aloud) and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, c ...

, capitalization, citing sources, formatting of numbers and dates, table appearance and other areas. For

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and

technical Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical area, an area which a manager, other coaching personnel, and substitutes are allowed to occupy during a football match * Technical advisor, a person who ...

documents, a guide may also enforce best practices in

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

(such as

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

ship,

research ethics Research ethics is a discipline within the study of Ethics, applied ethics. Its scope ranges from general scientific integrity and scientific misconduct, misconduct to the treatment of human and animal subjects. The social responsibilities of sc ...

, and disclosure) and compliance (

and regulatory). For translations, a style guide may even be used to enforce consistent grammar, tone, and localization decisions such as units of measure. 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 Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

, law,

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

, business, and other fields; and house or corporate style, created and used by a particular publisher or organization.

Varieties

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 to communicate highly technical information in scholarly articles or industry

white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...

s. Professional style guides from different countries can be referenced for authoritative advice on their respective language(s), such as ''

Hart's Rules ''Hart's Rules'' is the oldest continuously updated style guide in the English language, providing advice on topics such as punctuation, citation, and typography. Printer and biographer Horace Hart first issued the work in 1893 for the comp ...

'' from

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

and ''

The Chicago Manual of Style ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' (''CMOS'') is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 18 editions (the most recent in 2024) have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publ ...

'' from the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

. Australia has a style guide, available online, created by its government.

Sizes

The guides' variety in scope and length is enabled by the cascading of one style over another, analogous to how style sheets cascade in web development and in

desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online co ...

with CSS styles. In many cases, a project such as a

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

, journal, or

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

series typically has a short style sheet that cascades over the larger style guide of an organization such as a

publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

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 * ''Hart's Rules'' and ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' for general academic writing and publishing * Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) style and American Sociological Association (ASA) style for the humanities and social sciences * ''

Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities The ''Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities'' (''OSCOLA'') is a style guide that provides the modern method of legal citation in the United Kingdom; the style itself is also referred to as OSCOLA. First developed by Peter ...

'' (''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 English orthography comprises the set of rules used when writing the English language, allowing readers and writers to associate written graphemes with the sounds of spoken English, as well as other features of the language. English's orthograp ...

for English-language publications). This, of course, may be subject to national variety, such as British, American, Canadian, and Australian English.

Topics

Some style guides focus on specific topic areas such as

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

, including

. 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 Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. (The theoretical field studying nomenclature is sometimes referred to as ''onymology'' or ''taxonymy'' ). The principl ...

to specify names or classification labels that are clear, standardized, and ontologically sound (e.g.,

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

chemical nomenclature Chemical nomenclature is a set of rules to generate systematic name#In chemistry, systematic names for chemical compounds. The nomenclature used most frequently worldwide is the one created and developed by the International Union of Pure and Appli ...

, and gene nomenclature). Style guides that cover usage may suggest descriptive terms for people which avoid

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...

, homophobia, etc. Style guides increasingly incorporate accessibility conventions for audience members with visual, mobility, or other disabilities.

Web style guides

Since the beginning of the digital era, websites have allowed for an expansion of style guide conventions to account for digital behavior such as screen reading. Screen reading requires web style guides to focus more intensively on a user experience that is subject to multichannel surfing. Though web style guides can vary widely, they tend to prioritize similar values about brevity, terminology, syntax, tone, structure, typography, graphics, and errors.

Updates

Most style guides are revised periodically to accommodate changes in conventions and usage. The update frequency and

revision control Version control (also known as revision control, source control, and source code management) is the software engineering practice of controlling, organizing, and tracking different versions in history of computer files; primarily source code ...

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 every other year (since 2020). ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' is in its 18th edition, while the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

(APA) and ASA styles are each in their 7th edition as of 2025. Many house styles and individual project styles change more frequently, especially for new projects.

References

External links

But the stylebook says ...
– Blog post about stylebook abuse, by Bill Walsh of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' * Handouts about writing style guides, from a conference of the American Copy Editors Society in 2007 ** **
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