Your guide to writing style guides

What is a writing style guide?

Writing style guides set rules and standards for writing, including guidance on punctuation, capitalization, and citations. A wide range of industries use style guides to standardize their written communication, from academic departments to larger corporations. While certain industries use standard style guides, like the Chicago Manual of Style, if you’re running your own business or working on a side hustle, choose your favorite guide to follow. Writing style guides can be useful for individuals, but they’re especially important when working with a team. By using the same set of guidelines, writing from multiple people reflects one consistent style.

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Writing style guides go beyond existing standards—many organizations choose to create their own guide to reflect their unique needs and offerings. Typically, when creating a new style guide for your brand, you’ll want to pull some guidelines from existing guides and put your own flair on them defining standards for writing style, formality, and tone.

Types of different writing style guides

Before you create your own writing style guide, take a look at the most used style guides. In many cases, you’ll be able to use them without adapting them any further. Otherwise, you might decide to mix and match guidelines and add your own creative touch.

Associated Press Stylebook

Also known as the AP style, this guide sets the standard for journalism and news media. Content marketing and blogs typically use this style guide as well. Along with grammar, spelling, and punctuation guidelines, it includes updated information about how to address certain news and cultural topics.

Chicago Manual of Style

As the preferred guide for print publishers and many academic journals, Chicago includes grammar, spelling, punctuation, and citation recommendations. Unlike other style guides, it also includes guidance on manuscript formatting.

Modern Language Association Handbook

MLA Style is typically used in academic settings for citations and formatting guidelines. If you’re looking for guidance on creating citations for your next research paper, you might be required to use MLA to format your paper and cite your sources. While this style guide includes some recommendations for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, it isn’t as extensive as the other major guides.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

The APA style guide is used in scientific writing, primarily to help make it easier to understand for a mainstream audience. With grammar, spelling, and punctuation guidelines, it also includes formatting and citation style.

Beyond the four major style guides, there are other options including style guides focused on content marketing or technical writing. The Microsoft Writing Style Guide provides writing guidance focused on computer technology. If you aren’t able to find a style guide that fits your needs, you can also create your own to use for your brand.

Why you need a style guide

Whether you head up marketing at a small business or are embarking on a passion project, using a style guide helps ensure your writing will be clear and consistent across the board. While many grammar rules remain the same no matter what style guide you use, some may vary.

For example, some writing style guides use the Oxford comma, also known as a serial comma. An Oxford comma is the last comma in a list of things. For example, the last comma in the sentence “She brought her laptop, notebook, and presentation deck to the meeting,” is an Oxford comma. While some style guides, like APA Style, require this comma, others don’t allow it to be used. Small differences between grammar, spelling, and punctuation guidelines could seem abrupt and confusing to a reader, making it important to follow a consistent style guide.

How to choose a style guide

If you’re writing in an academic setting, you’ll likely be required to use a specific style guide based on your field. Although some industries, like journalism or publishing, stick to the same style guides, many businesses can choose a guide based on their preference.

Larger businesses often create their own style guide, taking elements of existing writing guides and adding information specific to their industry or products. Some brands might use existing style guides for grammar and usage guidance and create their own recommendations to define a standard brand personality. Whether choosing or creating your own style guide, consider your primary audience and the type of writing you’ll be doing. Once have settled on a guide, you’ll be able to create cohesive, consistent written materials without struggling to remember what words to capitalize or where to put commas.