Another Definition of StyleMany good discussions start from a dictionary, so let us begin by seeing what the arbiters of meaning have to tell us. The sixth and final sense of the word style given in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition) is as follows:a convention with respect to spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and typographic arrangement and display followed in writing or in printing. This definition is perfectly accurate, but it may be helpful to expand it a little for the benefit of those readers who have not actually had to adapt their writing to fit a particular style before.It may, in the first place, seem slightly odd to talk about "a convention with respect to spelling, punctuation, [and] capitalization." It is hardly surprising that printers and publishers should choose to arrange and display the material on their pages in various different ways depending on their preferences and the type of book they are producing. But as far as spelling and punctuation are concerned, surely there are only two ways, the right way and the wrong way. A grammarian might say, "the normal convention is that a sentence should end with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point," but the ordinary citizen takes this to be a rule not a convention. If a convention is, loosely, a rule or practice that the majority of people agree to observe, then most ordinary citizens cannot recall agreeing to observe the rule for ending a sentence. From their school days, they were taught how to do it properly, and if they ended a sentence in any other way, they were informed that they had made a mistake. The same applies to spelling. In American English, the word vigor is spelled as shown here, and that is all there is to it. If you spell it vigour, you are probably British, and if you spell it vigur, you are probably ignorant.Now, as far as the basic principles of punctuation and the spellings of most ordinary words are concerned, there is no question of a choice of conventions. But, there are small areas of the language where a degree of flexibility exists or is allowed. For instance, if you look in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, you will find an entry for the word cliff-hanger; if you look in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, however, you will find an entry for the word cliffhanger. Similarly, both dictionaries inform us that the same words can be spelled lovable or loveable and sizable or sizeable, yet they differ slightly on the standard word for a farewell: Merriam-Webster's offers good-bye or good-by, where American Heritage offers good-bye, goodbye, or good-by, both of which immediately follow entries for good book and Good Book, respectively. It is obvious that there is a some scope for variation within the tolerance limits of American English, as defined by two of the foremost authorities on the subject, as well as within those of the ordinary spell-checker.In all the cases mentioned above the differences are minor: the presence or the absence of a hyphen, the letter e, and capital letters. None of these differences is likely to affect the average reader's understanding of a text, as exemplified in the two examples below:In a powerful series cliff-hanger, lovable life-insurance adviser Johnny Delgado is seen handing his girlfriend a copy of the good book and kissing her good-bye before running out into the street, apparently in front of a car driven by jealous schoolteacher Ruth Brooks. In a powerful series cliffhanger, loveable life insurance advisor Johnny Delgado is seen handing his girl friend a copy of the Good Book and kissing her goodbye, before running out into the street apparently in front of a car driven by jealous school teacher, Ruth Brooks. But the number of such small differences that can be worked into a single sentence might make us pause for a moment and wonder whether they are so minor after all.ConsistencyMinor or not, variations of this nature are what style, in the sense in which we are now using the term, is mainly concerned with. What concerns publishers and printers is not the question of whether it is more correct to write lovable than loveable, but the fact that it is bad practice to use two different spellings in the same text. If Johnny Delgado is described as a lovable life-insurance adviser on page 2, he ought not to be described as a loveable life insurance advisor on page 10 and as a loveable life-insurance advisor on page 110. It looks bad. The sharp-eyed reader who notices such discrepancies will quite rightly accuse the publisher of sloppy editing.What style sets out to achieve, therefore, is consistency. Consistency is perhaps an underrated virtue, but it has been mentioned before in this book. Consistency of tone and register is important, because if you lurch wildly from, say, formality to informality, the reader may not know where he or she stands. If you are serious when you are formal, does that mean that what you write in informal mode is mean to be taken as a joke?Presentational consistency is also important. Readers might not be confused or even irritated by the presence or absence of a hyphen in a word when that word is scattered more or less haphazardly throughout the text, but think of instances where the same word occurs several times in the space of a few paragraphs, or sections of a work in which many items containing similar information are placed together in a block. Think, for example, of the list of works cited at the end of an academic text. You do not have to be a publishing purist to feel that it is much easier on the eye, and on the mind, when all the entries present their information in the same way and in the same order, and when all the book titles are easily distinguishable from all the article titles, because the former are printed in italic and the latter in roman type.Once you have conceded that much, you have begun to recognize the importance of consistency, and once you have recognized the importance of consistency, you have begun to appreciate the merits of style in the sense in which we are now using the word. Most publishers prize consistency of presentation so highly that they try not only to make separate publications internally consistent but to impose consistency through all the titles that appear under their imprint. To do this, they evolve what is usually known as a "house style."House StylesA house style, as far as writers are concerned, is a set of preferences with regard to the sort of minor issues discussed earlier, established by a particular publishing company or by some other organization that oversees the writing and publication of large numbers of books, periodicals, or other documents. The house style is usually set out in a book, pamphlet, or Web document, which is usually called a stylebook or stylesheet, a style manual or manual of style, or a style guide.Standard Style GuidesIf you are commissioned to write something by a publishing company or institution, then you will probably be sent a copy of its style guide or referred to one of the widely used manuals. The Associated Press (AP) publishes a stylebook that is used by most journalists; the American Psychological Association (APA) publishes a style guide and a publication manual that lay down guidelines for the presentation of written work in the social sciences; the Modern Languages Association (MLA) issues both the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, which set standards for a great deal of academic work and for articles in scholarly journals. Perhaps the most authoritative guide of all is The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press. Publishing companies frequently make a list of basic styles that they wish authors to observe and refer them to, for example, The Chicago Manual of Style for all outstanding issues. Another useful and commonly used reference is Words into Type.Style guides commonly cover issues such as- spelling variants
- punctuation
- abbreviations
- numbers
- the construction of tables and lists
- the selection of headings
- the citation of references
- the presentation of statistics
When you are referred to a particular style guide, you should obviously use it. Full or usefully condensed versions of many standard style guides are accessible via the Web.If you are not a writer who is about to be published or who is writing for an institution that lays down particular standards for the presentation of written work, the question of house styles may seem to be of little relevance to you. But in the absence of someone else imposing a house style, you should adopt a house style of your own.Writers and House StyleWhile most writers and publishers treat reputable manuals of style as authoritative, the manuals themselves do not always make such high claims. John Grossman, the managing editor of The Chicago Manual of Style, says in his preface to the 14th edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993, vii):the renunciation … of an authoritarian position in favor of common sense and flexibility has always been a fundamental and abiding principle. At the heart of that principle is a respect for the author's individuality, purpose, and style, tempered though it is with a deeply felt responsibility to prune from the work whatever stylistic infelicities, inconsistencies, and ambiguities might have gained stealthy entrance. Style manuals exist to serve authors and their work, in other words, not the other way around. e. e. cummings is one obvious example of an author who had his own style of presentation, and the British dramatist G. B. Shaw is another. Shaw willed that the greater portion of his estate should be devoted to the rationalization of English spelling and practiced what he preached in his plays and other writings, consistently using dont and cant, for instance, for don't and can't, respectively. No editor would have dared to cite a style manual, however authoritative or authoritarian, against writers of such distinction.Writers who are, as yet, less distinguished may feel that they are in a weaker position vis-à-vis editors and publishers. Nonetheless, if your individuality and style are at stake, you do, as an author, have some rights in insisting on presenting your material in your own way. But this is not necessarily a matter for confrontation. Publishers, working in accordance with the principles set out in the Chicago Manual preface will frequently give instructions to copy editors and proofreaders to allow any reasonable style adopted by the author—usually, however, with the all-important rider, as long as it is consistent.Consistency, again, is the operative factor. As a writer, you should adopt your own "house style," in the sense that once you have adopted one form, you should stick to it. If you write Washington, D.C., on page 1, you should not write Washington, DC, on page 2. If you are writing a play or screenplay, do not use the speech prefix Miss Blue: in scene 1, and then indicate that the same character speaks again in scene 2 by using another, for example, Miss B: or Betty:. And if you start out giving your stage directions in italic—Miss Blue enters in a rush—do not suddenly change to capitals—MISS BLUE EXITS SLOWLY—further on. An awareness of style issues and maintaining consistency throughout the text will give your work a much more professional finish.Copy Editors and ProofreadersCopy editors and proofreaders are people employed by publishers to ensure that an author's text reaches the reader in a correct and orderly state. They have various functions; one among them is to act as a monitor of style.CopyeditingThe copy editor takes your manuscript (abbreviated as MS or ms.) or typescript (TS or ts.)—even a typewritten or computer-printed script is often referred to as a manuscript—and marks it up on the basis of guidelines provided by the editor in charge of the project and the book designer for the benefit of the keyboarders or typesetters. "Markup" is the usual name for detailed instructions as to how a piece of text is to be set, for example, the level of heading, if a line space should be inserted, where a table or illustration should appear, and if boldface or italics should be added or removed. The copy editor will also edit your text in accordance with the publisher's style, as well as for sense and grammar. However, a major part of the copy editor's job is to liaise with you, the author, and alterations that affect the wording or the basic look of your manuscript should be submitted to you first for your permission. A good copy editor will approach you in a courteous manner, making suggestions for improvements and corrections: It is generally wise to accept his or her advice.Tight budgets often mean that publishers cannot afford to spend large amounts on copyediting standard texts that do not involve complicated typography. Often you, as author, will be expected to submit your manuscript in at least a semi-edited state. This is especially the case when your book is prepared with the aid of computer technology and submitted on disk. This is one more reason why it is good to cultivate habits of consistency and to evolve your own house style if the publisher does not impose one on you.ProofreadingWhen your text has been keyboarded or typeset, copies are printed off so that they can be checked against the marked-up manuscript to ensure that no errors have crept in during the keyboarding or typesetting process. These first copies are known as "proof copies" or "proofs," or more specifically, galleys. A person whose job is to read, check, and correct the proofs is known as a proofreader.At various points in this book, you have been advised to proofread your work. You will probably have interpreted this as meaning that you should look carefully through your work, correcting errors and making small improvements. This is, indeed, the essence of the task. But it is worth, at this point, considering the job in a little more detail.Professional proofreaders generally work on paper. They have two sets of pages in front of them: the manuscript marked up by the copy editor and the newly printed proofs. They go through the two texts line by line, to check that the two match up and that any instructions given in the former have been carried out in the latter. Their job is primarily to monitor presentation and correctness, not to assess content.Most writers nowadays work on screen. In addition, try as they may to concentrate on the purely presentational aspects of their work, it is usually very difficult for them to banish all awareness of what their work is saying and how it is saying it, all feelings of satisfaction when something is well expressed, all feelings of irritation when something has not come out quite right, and all desire to polish the text the little bit further. Alternatively, they are so weary of the text that they can hardly bear to look at it again and are longing to hand it over to somebody else to deal with. As a result, writers are often not the best people to proofread their own work. Yet it is a job they have to do. You will always be sent a set of proofs of a work of yours that is about to be published to examine and correct. If you have written an e-mail, a letter, or an essay on your own machine, you will probably have no choice but to do your own proofreading.It is very hard to distance yourself from your own work, but this is something you have to try to do if you are to proofread it effectively. It is your intimate familiarity with the text, in fact, that militates against your looking at it searchingly and dispassionately with the trained proofreader's eye. It is amazing what obvious errors authors sometimes fail to spot, either because they have been involved with the text from the first draft, seem part and parcel of it, and the eye slips over errors, or because the errors result from a last-minute revision that authors have no time to revise further.There is not a great deal that you can do to counteract this vulnerability. If your work is being published, you should be protected by the fact that an editor and proofreader will be working with you. If you are not being published, then you can at least do the following:- If at all possible, ask somebody else to check or at least scan through the text.
- Allow some time to elapse between finishing the final draft and proofreading it.
- Change the medium; that is to say, if you have written your text on screen, print it out in order to proofread it.
- Try to forget content, and concentrate on spelling, grammar, punctuation, and general consistency of presentation.
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