People ask whether to capitalize Internet, web, or net, and which of the following to use: e-mail vs. email, tradeshow vs. trade show, and web site vs. web site. No one likes an indefinite answer, but it’s up to you or your organization. To ensure consistency on such thorny words, most editors rely on a style guide.
If you don’t have the luxury of cooking one, there are a few excellent resources for your use. Many editors reference the AP Style Guide and Chicago Manual of Style. For citing another source, the MLA Handbook does the job as well as the aforementioned two books. Strunk & White’s Elements of Style is an oldie that continues to find new fans after over 85 years in its existence.
For geeky words, you might find a better resource in Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications. Here’s what the former says about E- words:
In general, avoid forming new words with ‘e-‘ (for electronic) unless you know your audience will understand. Some words that may be appropriate in certain circumstances are ‘e-commerce’ and ‘e-money.’ ‘E-mail’ and ‘e-form’ are acceptable. Use lowercase and always hyphenate for clarity.
You can pull content from a few other guides and add in your own modifications to come up with what best fits your cooking style. Of course, keep readers in mind when creating the guide.
The following lists more guides and resources:
- APA Style Guide is a popular style guide, especially with colleges and universities.
- BBC News Style Guide for radio.
- Guardian Unlimited Style Guide is for writers and editors.
- Web Style Guide for web sites.
The next part to tackle is physical conventions. For instance, when starting a new paragraph, do you indent or use a double hard return? What font size, face, and style will you use for titles? Will the titles be capitalized or in sentence case? This is similar to a cookbook. All the recipes are formatted the same way. Even CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a recipe since it ensures formatting consistency.
Throw all the selected style ingredients into one pan, or in this case, one document. The style guide should be organized to make it easy for your writers can find what they need.
Finally, put it where everyone can access it. It doesn’t have to be a book. It can be a one or two page document. It’s a living document that you can continuously revise. Hey, even a blogging tool or wiki can help manage it.
The hardest part? Getting everyone to follow the new guide.