Creating effective style sheets

Ian Howe

Why use a style sheet?

To ensure adherence to house style

To ensure consistency

To provide a quick and handy reference guide

To familiarise yourself with the style of the publication and to act as a memory aid

To provide information on style choices to the proofreader, author and publisher

To ensure consistency within titles in a series

Who needs the style sheet?

… and when do they need it?

Proofreader Copy-editor

Author Typesetter

Publisher Designer

Indexer

EVERYONE! . . . and as soon as possible

But bear in mind that you may have to compile it yourself from the text!

What should a style sheet include?

Spelling style (-ize/-ise) Deviations from house style

UK or US English Quotation marks

Spacing

Hyphenation For fiction titles:

Numbers (words/figs) Character names/characteristics

Reference style World-building rules

Rubric Maps and timelines

Some suggestions from the conference session (this list is not exhaustive!)

House styles, design specifications and style sheets

There is clearly some overlap between house styles, design specifications and style and spellings sheets.

A sample design specification (page 1)From Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning, courtesy of Publishing Training Centre

A sample design specification (page 2)From Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning, courtesy of Publishing Training Centre

Example of a very concise house style guide

A.N. Other Publishers PLC House Style

Spelling • -ize verbs where the alternative exists • Preferred spellings as given in the current edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (COED) and the

Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (ODWE) • Do not capitalize articles, conjunctions or prepositions with titles of publications, works of art, etc. • German translations: use ‘ss’, not ß (Eszett) • Use ‘while’, not ‘whilst’ Punctuation • Use serial comma only to avoid ambiguity • Double quotes, with single quotes inside • Spaced en dashes • Ellipsis: three points only (use alt + ; on keyboard) • Closed-up em rule for abrupt break in a word in dialogue • Spaced em rule for abrupt break in a sentence in dialogue • No full point after contractions: e.g. Mr, Mrs, Dr, St; or in acronyms and upper-case initials: e.g. NATO, BBC,

TV • Full points after abbreviations: e.g. Co., Inc., abbr. • Closed-up en rule for non-adjectival compounds: e.g. Anglo–French consortium • Hyphens in compound adjectives: a tenth-century building, a five-year-old boy, an up-to-date opinion • No hyphens in adverbial phrases • No hyphen in ‘cooperate’; see ODWE for other guidance • No hyphens in unjustified text Numbers •Spell out up to and including 99 • Spell out above 99 when used imprecisely: about two hundred years ago, a crowd of five hundred people • Spell out all ordinal numbers: e.g. third, fifteenth • Do not begin a sentence with a numeral: revise or, if impossible, spell out • Use comma in numerals of more than three digits – e.g. 1,200, 15, 232 –other than dates • Use ‘from X to Y’ and ‘between X and Y’, or connect with en rule: ‘X–Y’; do not use ‘from X–Y’ or ‘between

X–Y’ • elide ranges to the fewest number of digits and use an en rule: 1981–5 • Use ‘per cent’ and ‘percentage’, not % Dates • Use ‘day month year’: 1 January 2004 • No apostrophe in dates: 1980s, not 1980’s • AD precedes, BC follows date; mark for small caps Measurements • Use imperial, unless circumstances demand metric Italics • Use for foreign words that are not Anglicized: refer to ODWE • Use for genus and species: e.g. Homo sapiens • Use for parties in citing legal cases • Use for title of publications, series broadcasts, albums, works of art and performing art, etc. • Use for names of ships: e.g. HMS Endeavour

Sometimes a single sheet of A4 is sufficient for a house style, but most publishers’ style guides run to many pages.

Creating a style sheet

A simple style sheet

Title 

 

Spellings 

 

Hyphenation 

 

Quotes 

 

Order of punctuation

 

Commas 

 

Possessives 

 

Ellipsis 

 

Dash 

 

Abbreviations & contractions

 

Spacing(units, initials)

 

Numbers (words/figures)

 

Elision of numbers

 

Thousands 

 

Decimal point 

 

Variablesand vectors

 

Dates 

 

Cross-references

 

Caps in headings

 

Lists 

 

Special sorts 

 

Based on Nicola Harris, Basic Editing (Publishing Training Centre, 2003)

A sample style sheet sent out to self-publishing authors

Spellings 

UK or US spellings? If UK, should verb endings use ‘-ise’ or ‘-ize’?

Hyphenation 

Guidance on preferred use of hyphens, e.g. with prefixes (or follow an agreed style guide such as OUP).

Quotes 

Single or double (and double or single for quotes within quotes)?

Order of punctuation

US or UK (e.g. in US style commas and full points (periods) always come before the closing quotation mark)

Commas 

Serial comma or not? (i.e. A, B and C (without serial comma, usual in UK usage) or A, B, and C (with serial comma, usual in US).

Possessives 

Especially after names ending in ‘s’ (i.e. should there be an ‘s’ after the possessive apostrophe or not?)

Ellipsis 

Three spaced points (. . .) or single Word ‘ellipsis’ character (…)

Dash 

Spaced en rule or unspaced em rule (former usual in UK style, latter usual in US)

Abbreviations & contractions

Normal UK style is for abbreviations to end with a full point (e.g. etc.) but contractions (where final letter is included) to have no full point, e.g. Mr, Dr, but US style uses full points for both. Should there be a comma after ‘e.g.’ and ‘i.e.’ (usual in US style, less usual in UK style)?

Spacing(units, initials)

Should there be a space between initials (H. G. Wells or H.G. Wells); and between figures and units: 1mm or 1mm.

Numbers (words/figures)

Numbers in words up to ten, twenty or one hundred (and in figures above those amounts)?

Elision of numbers

In page ranges or in date (year) ranges, how many figures should be elided? Min figs (1975–7), no elision (1975–1977) or intermediate (1975–77)?

Thousands 

Should there be a comma in figures over a thousand (i.e. 1250 or 1,250) or only above ten thousand (i.e. 12,500)?

Dates 

Order of dates, e.g. 12 April 2014 (UK) or April 12, 2014 (US)? Should there be a comma? Should centuries be in words or figures

Times Format of times, e.g. spacing and use of points in ‘am’ (a.m.), colon or point between hour and minute etc.

Notes, citations and references

Define style for citations in text and also style for reference lists and bibliographies (only usually needed in text books and not relevant for works of fiction)

Caps in headings

Should chapter and subheadings use sentence case, minimum capitals, all capitals or capitalise significant words?

Lists 

Styles of lists used, e.g. bulleted, numbered (preference for roman or arabic numbers?), alphabetised etc.

Special sorts 

Any non-standard or special characters, such as unusual accented characters or symbols.

This is sent out together with a blank style sheet, to provide an explanation of what is covered by each heading.

It is useful to focus the author’s mind on aspects they may not have considered!

A more comprehensive style sheet based on the same template

Elision of numbers

Elide numbers except in measurements: 21–4, 130–3, 115–19. Note that numbers from 11–19 retain the first ‘1’, i.e. 11–18, rather than 11–8. Dates: elide, but not if first date is first year of a century (thus 2000–2008). No elision in BCE dates.

Thousands Use a comma in thousands and larger numbers: 6,580.Decimal point 0.5, not .5Prelims and endmatter

Order of prelims: see publisher guidelines

Dates 

1 May 1975. Spell out centuries (but figures are acceptable (no superscript). 1930s, not 1930’s, thirties or Thirties. ‘The mid-fourteenth century’ (noun) but ‘an early-fourteenth-century prelate’ (adjective). Times: 8.00 am. (US prefer May 1, 1975 and a.m.) Solidus in e.g. financial or academic year: 1895/6. BC dates should not be elided. For circa, italicized c. spaced from date.

Citations and references

Use Harvard or short title, and ensure consistency (preference is no comma and colon for page, e.g. West 1979: 141–6). Use ‘forthcoming’, not a future date. For four or more authors use et al. (not italic). Do not use ibid. in the text; re-cite the reference (but OK to use it in notes; not italic). Do not use op. cit or loc. cit: use short title instead. Cross-references to page numbers don’t work well in digital formats; use headings if possible. Don’t separate the author’s name from the reference (date). Use full URLs in references, with access dates if possible in square brackets. In ref. list or bibliography always repeat author name in multiple entries.

Caps in headings

Min caps in headings (including chapters). Table/figure captions initial cap only. Proper nouns and brand names take initial cap. North, South etc. initial cap if part of a political division.

Lists etc. 

Number as 1., 2., 3. etc. (no brackets). For numbered paragraphs use (1), (2), (3), etc.. Apply consistent punctuation in lists dependent on length of entries.

Italic 

Titles of books, names of ships, foreign words in an English sentence, to identify letters (‘the letter t’) and passim.

Figures Show position in text with: [Figure 2.3 here]. Figure numbers for authored book can be either 1, 2, 3 or by chapter (1.1, 1.2, 2.1 etc.); for contributed volumes they must be by chapter. Credit lines can be included in list in prelims to avoid putting them in captions too.

Tables Show position in text with: [Table 2.1 here]. Numbering styles as for figures. Source style: Source: F. Sayer, Public History (London: Bloomsbury, 2015).

Measurements Prefer metric unless case where official system is imperial. Spell out units in the text, abbreviate in tables, lists, captions etc.

Spellings 

Preference is UK -ize (but follow author preference if consistent) and preferred reference is Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Quotes 

Single, curly quotation marks (double within) (US: reverse). Indent and display quotations of over 60 words (indent or not after dependent upon whether a new paragraph or a continuation); source normally run on at end (in parentheses) unless poetry (or epigraph) when new spaced line, ranged right.

Order of punctuation

UK

Commas 

No serial comma (except in US style), but use a comma when linking two main clauses, e.g. ‘The sky was blue, and the sun was shining.’

Possessives 

Use ’s for the possessive case in English names and surnames wherever possible; in ancient classical names use s’: Mars’, Venus’. For singular possessives ending with an -s that has an ‘s’ sound, use -s’s.

Hyphenation Major-General, Vice-President etc.Ellipsis 

Ensure that proper ellipses characters are used (… not three full stops), and that the spacing around ellipses is consistent. Three points only. Omit ellipses at beginning of quotations.

Parentheses and brackets

( ) are called parentheses. Brackets are square: [ ]. Do not use angle brackets (this can cause problems with XML tags). Reserve square brackets for interpolations within quotations or round uncertain data in references (for instance, if the date or place of publication is ascertainable but does not appear in the book). Do not use them to avoid having parentheses within parentheses

Dash Spaced en rule.Abbreviations & contractions

No final point on contractions, or on some abbreviations (e.g. measurements), but no., e.g., i.e, et al., vol., seq. (BUT full point on contractions in US style). No full points on plural contractions: vols, eds, nos etc. No full points in upper case acronyms/sets of initials, e.g. USA, UN.

Spacing(units, initials)

5 kg, 6 km (space). Style examples prefer spaced initials: H. G. Wells.

Numbers (words/figures)

Use words for numbers one to ninety-nine (except for a series of quantities). From 100 upwards use figures. However, follow the author's predominant style if it is consistent. Spell out per cent in text; use % symbol in tables and notes. In a list, write ‘£6.00’ and ‘£0.25’, not ‘£6’ and ‘25p’; spell out in text up to ninety-nine. Use of figures in text for ‘2 million’ is acceptable. Use figures to avoid too many hyphens: ‘a 62-year-old man’. Spell out ‘per cent’ in text and use figures unless start of a sentence; use ‘%’ only in tables.

Some very comprehensive examples

Katharine O’Moore-Klopf

KOK Edit

http://www.kokedit.com/library_stylesheets.php

Style sheets and spellings lists

From Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning, courtesy of Publishing Training Centre

A basic spellings list

Style sheets in PerfectIt 3.1 (shown in Word 2016)Advanced settings menu

Some suggestions from the session:

Create drop-down menus on your standard style sheet to save time when completing it.

Use the style sheet to provide feedback to the author or client.

A consistency checker (such as PerfectIt or a suitable macro) can speed up the process of checking the styles used for e.g. -ize/-ise spellings or capitalisation in a text if you have to compile your own style sheet.