Online Style Guide

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Pam from Dallas.

Pam, welcome.

Well, hello, Pam.

Thank you.

What’s up?

In my job as a copy editor and a proofreader for a website and a think tank, I read a lot of different kinds of articles and studies. And over time, I am increasingly finding more and more references to Internet works. Blogs, e-books, internet radio shows, internet TV shows. And I can’t seem to find a primary go-to resource for how to style them.

I use a lot of AP in Chicago, but they sometimes disagree. So my question is, is there a primary resource for styling titles on the internet?

And this style that you’re in search of is for what kind of publication?

Online. Both websites and also studies, academic studies.

All right.

So this is for a variety of different places or for one place?

For a variety of different places.

I see.

You’re a freelancer or something.

Yes, exactly.

Okay, there we go. Here’s the crux of this whole dilemma. Two things. First, a lot of people have made style guides for the Internet. Most of them have not been widely adopted.

Right.

And second is that style is a matter of either institutional or personal preference. There is no, just by the definition of style alone, there is no universal rule for this kind of thing. It’s what you decide to do or your institution or company or what have you, the publication decides to do.

And so what I would encourage you to do is work up your own personal style guide. Adopt Chicago for the most part. Pick the parts of the AP style guide that you believe to be useful or not in complete contradiction to the Chicago style. And then develop a style that you use that you consistently can fall back on and say, well, I don’t know what this newspaper is going to want from me, but let me use my own personal style because it’s worked so well for me in the past.

Because they’re probably editing the heck out of what you’re writing anyway and changing your style before it reaches print or press, right? Or are you the last line?

I’m more off on the last line, actually, which is why it’s important that I can go to, you know, have a primary resource.

Well, yeah, you need to have a higher power to call down when somebody questions your choices, right?

Exactly.

That would be us. Just call us. We do use both AP and Chicago. It’s only because they conflict sometimes that I wondered if there was yet another source. I know there’s a book out there called Wired, but that’s a 10-year-old book now.

Yeah, exactly.

And, again, it was never widely adopted. I would always prefer Chicago over the AP Style Guide. For one thing, Chicago is more comprehensive. For two, I think it allows for a lot more choice on the part of the writer or copy editor.

AP Style, don’t forget, is for a particular group of journalists. And I know it’s widely adopted within the journalism world, but it’s for the Associated Press. And that’s their business, and it’s their institution, it’s their in-house guide.

A lot of the publications you’re writing for probably have some sort of style guide of their own, don’t they?

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. But I just always wondered if there was something special for these newer kinds of electronic communication that we’re coming out with.

No, to the best of my knowledge, and this question comes up online and often, in person and everywhere. People ask this question of us a lot. And to the best of my knowledge, there is no standard, but a lot of people rely heavily upon Chicago. They love the idea that they can go to this respected work when they’re challenged and say, well, the Chicago Manual of Style, which is used by the universe, says you’re wrong.

Pam, I hope that we’ve come some way to give you an answer.

Well, it’s certainly given me a way to go to my senior editor and say, they said Chicago.

Right, we did.

Well, best of luck to you then, Pam.

All right.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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