Style Guides for Proofreading and Editing

Style guides are crucial for proofreading and editing. As a freelancer, you may come to depend on them quite heavily! After all, a good style guide will tell you everything you need to know to edit a document, from spelling preferences to favored citation style.

But which style guides do you need? And where can you find them? Let’s take a look.

What Is a Style Guide?

A style guide is a set of standards for writing and formatting documents. It typically covers everything from spelling and punctuation to citation formats, capitalization, and even tone of voice. Style guides can be compiled by academic institutions, publishing houses, media organizations, or companies looking to maintain a consistent in-house style.

For proofreaders and editors, style guides act as a reference manual that clarifies how to handle commonly disputed issues such as:

• Hyphenation rules (e.g., “cooperate” vs. “co-operate”)
  
• Capitalization standards (e.g., “Internet” vs. “internet”)
  
• Preferred spellings (e.g., “favourite” vs. “favorite”)
  
• Abbreviations and acronyms
  
• Punctuation usage (Oxford commas, em dashes, etc.)
  

By consulting a relevant style guide, you can address these issues quickly and accurately, ensuring consistency throughout a piece of writing.

Why Are Style Guides Important?

Using a style guide helps in the following ways:

1. Reducing errors and improving content quality: Following a style guide makes it easier to spot errors and inconsistencies that might otherwise be overlooked. Catching these errors enhances the clarity and coherence of a piece of writing and results in a more polished, credible final product.
   
2. Saving time and streamlining communication: Instead of needing to conduct research or check in with a client every time you have a style-related doubt, you have a go-to resource for immediate answers.
   
3. Ensuring consistency across documents: Many businesses have a specific brand voice that they use across all of their copy – documents, website copy, social media posts, etc. A style guide makes it much easier to maintain a consistent voice across all published materials. 

If you’re editing documents that switch between different dialects or formatting styles, you’ll find style guides especially helpful.

Do You Always Need a Style Guide?

Style guides are especially useful if you’re working with a client who needs to comply with certain publishing standards (e.g., an academic journal or a formal publication) or, as we touched on above, a client who needs to ensure consistency across multiple documents.

When deciding whether you need a style guide, consider the length and complexity of the document. A short or simple document (e.g., a formal letter or short email) may have minimal stylistic requirements. You can simply confirm the dialect and any specific requirements with the client, and you usually won’t need a detailed style guide. Longer, more complex documents (e.g., a book-length manuscript), by contrast, often benefit from a style guide to keep track of names, descriptions, or specialized terminology.

If a client doesn’t specify a style guide or sheet in their brief, ask politely if they have one or any stylistic requirements they’d like you to follow. If they have no input, you have a few options:

• If the document is simple, a style guide is probably not necessary – just focus on ensuring the writing style is clear, consistent, and appropriate for the intended audience. 
• If the document is intended for publication, check online to see if the publisher has any requirements. Many online journals, for example, will have “Author Instructions” or “Submission Guidelines” pages.
• If appropriate, you could recommend an existing style guide to your client, for instance, MLA or Chicago style for an academic document or AP style for business writing.

The key is ensuring you have enough information to proofread the document effectively. Always confirm your client’s stylistic needs before you start working.

Types of Style Guides

There are many different types of style guides, each tailored to different contexts. Which guide is appropriate often depends on the document’s purpose, intended audience, and required industry standards.

Regional Style Guides

Regional style guides set out the rules for writing in a set dialect (e.g., British English, American English, or Australian English). Famous examples include:

• The Elements of Style (American English)
• Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage (British English)
• The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage (Australian English)
• The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing (Canadian English)

These are most useful if you regularly work on documents in a dialect that is not your own (e.g., if you are American but often work with clients in the UK or Australia). However, for one-off questions, you can usually find information about regional differences online.

Academic Style Guides

Some of the best-known style guides are academic style guides. These are typically created by academic publishers, but many universities, journals, and other academic institutions adopt a style guide for their in-house style, too. Common examples include:

• The Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago style)
• The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA style)
• The Modern Language Association Handbook (MLA style)
• The Modern Humanities Research Association Style Guide (MHRA style)
• The American Medical Association Manual of Style (AMA style)

One major focus of academic style guides is referencing and citations. Some universities may require a specific referencing style (e.g., Harvard or Vancouver), while others specify an established style guide (e.g., APA or Chicago). Even if your client doesn’t mention a style guide, they’ll often specify a referencing format.

Most academic style guides have some basic information available online, with the MHRA even allowing you to download the full style guide for free. Because academic guidelines can change between editions, it’s worth investing in the most recent version of any style guide you use regularly. Always confirm you’re working with the correct edition (e.g., Chicago 17th or APA 7th).

Journalistic Style Guides

Some journalistic organizations publish their own style guides. The most famous is the AP Stylebook, published by the Associated Press. And while this guide focuses on US English, it can be helpful for various types of writing, from journalism to corporate marketing.

Other examples of journalistic style guides include the ABC Style Guide in Australia and the BBC News Style Guide in the UK. These are mostly used within the publishing organizations that created them, but they can also be good reference points for checking dialect variations.

Specialized Style Guides

Beyond academic and journalistic styles, you may encounter additional specialized guides. These can range from legal style guides – which vary by region (e.g., OSCOLA in the UK, The Bluebook in the US, and the AGLC in Australia) – to industry-specific style guides used in technical fields or niche industries. For example, certain medical organizations may require the AMA guidelines, while governmental agencies often have their own guides for formatting and terminology (e.g., the US government’s GPO Style Manual).

In-House Style Guides and Sheets

Finally, we have in-house style guides and sheets. These are used within a specific organization, such as a university, business, or publication. They are often available on the relevant organization’s website, so make sure to check if your client does not provide one. Here are some examples from Mailchimp, the University of Oxford, and the American Economic Review. 

Becoming A Proofreader 

Style guides play a pivotal role in delivering clear, consistent, and professional documents, whether you’re working on a short email, a lengthy academic paper, or a specialized industry report.

Our Becoming A Proofreader course has an entire module dedicated to style. We look at what kinds of stylistic edits are a proofreader’s responsibility, then guide you through key considerations, including tone, word choice, and sentence structure.

Sign up for two free lessons to get a preview of what’s on offer if you invest in the full course!

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How and When to Use Sic in a Quotation Editing Tips: How to Format Block Quotes A Guide to Citing Shakespeare in Academic Writing A Guide to Referencing and Religious Texts