If you write or edit more than one document a day or work with other writers and editors, you need a style guide to provide guidance on style (language conventions with respect to spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and typographic arrangement and display).
For example, will you write:
- Provider Services Department or Provider Services department?
- post-operative or postoperative?
- Bullet points with periods at the end?
- Zero through nine as words and 10 and above as numerals?
If you want consistency in your documents, you must have a style guide to direct these and hundreds of other style decisions. You can create a style guide at the personal, department, or corporate level (depending on the politics in your workplace). Another name for this type of document is "style sheet."
Base your style guide on a published style manual
Published style manuals are books such as The Gregg Reference Manual or the American Medical Association Manual of Style. You can buy most style manuals on Amazon. Before you shop, however, compare 12 currently published style manuals by downloading the PDF guide to style manuals that I wrote with my colleague Elizabeth Frick (you read that right: the other Elizabeth Frick [Betsy Frick] and I have collaborated on several books and documents).
See my opinionated advice on which style manuals you might choose.
Share with other readers which style manual you use most.
