Style Guide

I learned with MLA, but recommend

I've used Chicago, AP, and APA. My first choice would be Chicago. I believe several of the front desk staff are scheduled to attend a proofreading seminar in the near future. I'll try to find out what the seminar will be teaching. I expect many of the questions below will be answered by the style guide--as soon as we select one. Still, it will be good to pull out a few of these items and make a one-page reference sheet.

Usage

I recommend two volumes.

Other

Some of these will be covered in the style guide, but others will not:

  • Internet or internet (or both and when)

Capitalize only at beginning of sentences.

  • Writing numbers

one to ten and 11+ or one to ninety-nine and 100+? Don't mix in the same paragraph? The convention is to spell out one through ten and write the remaining numbers as numbers. I don't there is a problem mixing and matching a paragraph as long as the previous guidelines are adhered to.

actually there are multiple conventions, of which I've listed two. That's why we're doing this. The style manual we choose should win. I'm thinking here also of something along the lines of rule 2: http://www.grammarbook.com/numbers/numbers.asp

  • Active, consistent voice and phrasing

All objectives: student will or the student will or X Active voice is generally best but shouldn't be used religiously.

''My main point: consistency with all three of these attributes. I don't mean passive all the time, but consistent-- yes. There's almost never a good time for the passive voice in a document intended to be read rather than just filed away."

Some instructors write first and second person ("I will grade your first exam by Friday at noon.") Particularly in BB courses, I think it adds a sense of instructor presence. Other instructors write in a less personal tone--or even third person ("Contact your instructor with any questions.") Do we need consistency across all syllabi, or just consistency within a single document?

  • Consistent use of lists

Goals - bullet list Objectives - numbered list

  • List punctuation

My training says to leave punctuation off the end of each list item

Again, one of many conventions that might be solved by the style guide. At least we can be consistent within a document

  • Specify difference between goals, objectives, and work to complete
  • Web links: http:// or no

Not really necessary

I agree

  • When to use Title Case

This seems to be a frequent abuse. People (me included, sometimes) throw in title case rather randomly. For example, do we use title case on headings within a document? Subheads? Referencing an online field ("Username")?

  • Correct use of hyphens
    • hyphen for hyphenated words
    • en dash for time/date duration
    • em dash for clauses
  • Convention for a.m. and p.m.

The style manual should specify. I was taught to use small caps without punctuation (no periods).

  • Placement of punctuation within quotations
    • periods always inside the quotation mark
  • Formatting for referring to
    • Section Titles/etc of books
    • Sections/links on web sites (aka 'click Student Resources')
    • actions in software and web sites (press ALT-RIGHT, use File > Open As..., etc)
  • In general, use specific page number references (InDesign has to be able to automate this with labels or something) rather than (or in addition to) abstract references to previous lessons, activity titles, etc.
  • Email or E-Mail

For the love of God - Email.

I agree

Upper case, then? Never email?

  • Rubric and Evaluation pieces need consistent voice and tense
  • Proper use of Paragraph and Character styles to make revision process consistent
  • What items should we share with faculty developing material?
  • What items are only for them

(don't use multiple spaces after periods, don't align with tabs or spaces, if using images provide X, etc)

Don't type in all caps for headings (if we decide to use all caps, we can do that with a software option).


Page last modified on December 11, 2007, at 12:24 PM