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List of style guides

A style guide, or style manual, is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field. The implementation of a style guide provides uniformity in style and formatting within a document and across multiple documents. A set of standards for a specific organization is often known as an "in-house style". Style guides are common for general and specialized use, for the general reading and writing audience, and for students and scholars of medicine, journalism, law, and various academic disciplines.

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:

Other style guides that cover international usage:

Australia

General

Law

Science

  • Australian manual of scientific style (AMOSS) by Biotext; illustrated by Biotext. 1st ed.

Canada

European Union

New Zealand

For general writing

For electronic publishing

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, many major periodicals, academic institutions, and large companies have their own style guides; otherwise, they normally rely on New Hart's Rules, available in the New Oxford Style Manual.

For general writing

  • Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford (1893), more commonly known as Hart's Rules. First edition circulated privately. Fifteenth edition (first for publication): 1904. Thirty-ninth (final) edition: 1983. Later editions published under new format under the title New Hart's Rules; see entry below for New Oxford Style Manual.
  • The King's English (1906), by H. W. Fowler and Francis George Fowler. Third (final) edition: 1931.
  • Author & Printer: A Guide for Authors, Editors, Printers, Correctors of the Press, Compositors, and Typists; With full list of Abbreviations; An Attempt to codify the best Typographical Practices of the Present Day (March 1905), by F. Howard Collins. Reprinted under its more familiar title, Authors' and Printers' Dictionary, in 1909.
  • A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), by H. W. Fowler. Second edition, edited by Sir Ernest Gowers: Fowler's Modern English Usage (1965). Third edition, edited by Robert Burchfield: New Fowler's Modern English Usage (1996). Fourth (latest) edition: Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage, edited by Jeremy Butterfield (2015). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • The Complete Plain Words (1954), by Sir Ernest Gowers. An amalgamation of the author's Plain Words: A Guide to the Use of English (1948) and his ABC of Plain Words (1951). The first edition of 1954 was published to popular acclaim; a second edition, revised by Sir Bruce Fraser, was published in 1973 and was also warmly received for its wit and charm. The latest (fourth) edition, edited by Gowers' great-granddaughter Rebecca Gowers, was published in 2014.
  • Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook (1975), by Judith Butcher. Fourth (final) edition: Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • New Oxford Style Manual (2016 ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. Combining New Hart's Rules and The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, it is an authoritative handbook on how to prepare copy.
  • Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English (1948), by Eric Partridge.

For legal documents

For academic papers

For journalism

For electronic publishing

For the computer industry (software and hardware)

  • Acorn Technical Publications Style Guide, by Acorn Computers. Provides editorial guidelines for text in RISC OS instructional publications, technical documentation, and reference information.
  • RISC OS Style Guide by RISC OS Open Limited. Provides design guidelines, help and dialogue box phrasing examples for the software user interface.

United States

In the United States, most journalistic forms of mass communication rely on styles provided in the Associated Press Stylebook (AP Stylebook). Corporate publications typically follow either the AP Stylebook or the equally respected Chicago Manual of Style, with in-house modifications or exceptions to the chosen style guide.

A classic grammar style guide is Strunk & White's Elements of Style.

For general writing

For legal documents

For scientific publications

For other academic writing

For journalism

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
  • The Yahoo! Style Guide, by Chris Barr

For business

For the computer industry

  • Apple Style Guide, published online by Apple Inc. — provides editorial guidelines for text in Apple instructional publications, technical documentation, reference information, training programs, and the software user interface
  • DigitalOcean Style Guide, published online by DigitalOcean
  • GNOME Developer Documentation Style Guidelines, published online by GNOME
  • Google Developer Documentation Style Guide, published online by Google — provides a set of editorial guidelines for anyone writing developer documentation for Google-related projects
  • The IBM Style Guide: Conventions for Writers and Editors, by Francis DeRespinis, Peter Hayward, Jana Jenkins, Amy Laird, Leslie McDonald, and Eric Radzinski for IBM Press
  • Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors, by Michelle Carey, Moira McFadden Lanyi, Deirdre Longo, Eric Radzinski, Shannon Rouiller and Elizabeth Wilde for IBM Press
  • Mailchimp Content Style Guide, published online by Mailchimp
  • Microsoft Writing Style Guide, published online by the Microsoft Corporation
  • MongoDB Documentation Style Guide, published by MongoDB
  • Mozilla Writing Style Guide, published online by Mozilla
  • Read Me First!: A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, by Sun Technical Publications
  • Red Hat Technical Writing Style Guide, published online by Red Hat
  • Salesforce Style Guide for Documentation and User Interface Text, published online by Salesforce
  • The Splunk Style Guide, published online by Splunk
  • SUSE Documentation Style Guide, published online by SUSE
  • Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age, by Constance Hale and Jessie Scanlon for Wired

Editorial style guides on preparing a manuscript for publication

See also

References

External links

General use of style guides
American English
Style Manuals & Guides listed by the University of Memphis Libraries (updated page Style Manuals).
Bartleby Searchable Usage Guides.
U.S. government publications
U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual.
British English
BBC News Style Guide.
Economist.com Style Guide.
The Guardian Stylebook.
Canadian English
York University Style Guide – Adapts CP Stylebook for university student use.
Australian English
Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers - online version of the Australian Government manual
The ABC Style Guide - the style guide of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
International organizations
WHO English Style Guide
EU Interinstitutional Style Guide.
English Style Guide ("A handbook for authors and translators in the European Commission" – executive branch of the European Union.)
Academia
Citation Management Online research tutorial to documentation style guides from Cornell University Libraries.
"Style Manuals & Writing Guides" from the California State University, Los Angeles Library.
Medical journals
ICJME Uniform Requirements: Sample References.
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (Updated February 2006).
Scientific journals
Advances in Physics — Style Guide for physics journal published by Taylor & Francis Group (Taylor & Francis journals).
Writing for a Nature journal for Nature.
The Lancet: Formatting Guidelines for Authors: Formatting Guidelines for Electronic Submission of Revised Manuscripts.
WWW
OSNews Style Guide: Rules and Guidelines for Publishing and Participating on OSNews, by T. Holwerda. OSNews, 2007.
Web Style Guide, 2nd ed., by Patrick Lynch and Sarah Horton.