A style sheet helps keep your writing consistent, whether that’s an article, a newsletter, web content, a brochure, or an annual report.
While a style guide like the Chicago Manual of Style or the Canadian Press Stylebook will lay down the basic rules it won’t help you with things specific to your company or industry or the particular document you’re working on.
A style sheet is for when there is more than one correct choice. For example, do you use abbreviations for months of the year or write January and February? Do you write day, month, year OR month, day year? Do you use upper case for titles such as president (or is it President)? What about time – is it a.m. or A.M?
Having a style sheet can save you time revisiting style questions, especially if you write all kinds of different pieces for one organization. It’s a place to record your decisions so you don’t have to decide over and over or undo the work of another writer or editor.
Four steps to creating a style sheet
Step 1: Choose your dictionary and your style guide
Step 2: Decide what to include
Step 3: Design your style sheet
Step 4: Share it
1.Choose your dictionary and style guide
- Which dictionary will you follow, e.g., Canadian Oxford, British or American, Webster’s, Oxford English Dictionary, etc.
- Which style guide, e.g., Canadian Press Stylebook, Chicago Manual of Style, Associated Press Stylebook.
2.Decide what to include
Here’s a start:
Abbreviations and acronyms
- Note abbreviations or acronyms that you use that vary from the standard, i.e., no periods in all-capital abbreviations (UFO, VIP) and abbreviations that begin and end with a capital letter (PhD, PoW). Titles such as Doctor, Professor and Sergeant (Dr., Prof., Sgt.).
Alternative spellings
- Note the spelling of choice if your organization (or the document you are working on) uses words that have alternative spellings.
- Here are some examples: moneys/monies; liveable/livable; acknowledgment/acknowledgement; adviser/advisor; aesthetic/esthetic; archaeology/archeology; collectable/collectible; disc/disk; donut/doughnut; enquire/inquire.
Bulleted lists
- Introduction to the list – short statement if a full sentence will it be ended with a period or colon?
- Short bullets, use a capital letter at the beginning, or not? End the bullet with a period, a semi colon or no punctuation?
Note: Longer bullets that are complete sentences should start with capital letter and end with a period.
Capitalization
Upper or lower case for:
- Personal titles, e.g., minister or Minister; chair of the board of Chair of the Board, President or president, etc.
- Holidays, e.g., Mother’s Day or mother’s day?
- Seasons, e.g., Spring and Summer or spring and summer?
Dates and times
- Do you abbreviate months like Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. or spell them out?
- Is it day, month, year or month, day year? January 1, 2021 or 1 January 2021 (no punctuation)?
- Is it 3 pm or 3:00 pm? Is it a.m./p.m, am/pm or AM/PM?.
Headlines, subheads in the document
- Will you use capital letters for all major words in titles, head and subheads, e.g., How to Run a Marathon or sentence style, How to run a marathon?
Numbers
- Do you follow the general rule with numbers under 10 being written out (eight not 8) and 10 and above are always given as numerals (45, not forty-five)
- Do you put commas in four-digit numbers, e.g., 3,210 or 3210
- Is it metric, imperial or both?
Punctuation
- The serial comma, or not? For example, the dog, the cat, and the donkey or the dog, the cat and the donkey.
- Apostrophe only or apostrophe plus S for plurals such as Charles’ or Charles’s?
Titles (books, other documents, movies)
- Decide how you will write titles of books and other documents and movies, etc. Will it be in italics, or in quotation marks?
3.Design your style sheet
A style sheet can be anything from a simple alphabetized table to a mini dictionary. A lot depends on whether you’re using it to write one document or whether it is to be shared company-wide.
For individual documents, I like to use an alphabetized grid. I keep a paper copy beside me and add to it as needed. Please email me at gwd@ginettewhittenday.com if you would like to see an example of a grid style sheet.
4.Share
Don’t forget to share your style sheet with others who may be working on the same document or with key people in your organization if this is a sheet for company-wide use. A style sheet is a living document so keep it up to date and share any new updates.
