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Style Guides

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The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications is our house style guide, of course. It contains information specific to computer terminology and usage (e-mail, toolbar), and it also gives guidance for general writing (that vs. which, tone and the reader). The broad coverage makes it very useful as a single reference that I can direct writers to.
Our secondary style guide is The Chicago Manual of Style, which I rarely have to use. I'm glad I don't need it very much; I'm so used to our online version of the Microsoft guide that I find it difficult to locate items in the Chicago manual without a good deal of searching.
I also like to read general and popular style manuals to get an idea of the different points of view in the editing and writing world. Right now I am alternating between Torn Wings and Faux Pas by Karen Elizabeth Gordon and Lapsing into a Comma by Bill Walsh. Reading through these guides gives me a better idea of what I should look up in my official style guide when I see it the topics I edit.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2005
    "..that I can direct writers to."

    Is it OK to end the sentence with "to" ?

    :-)
  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2005
    I think that dangling prepositions are pretty well accepted now. The alternative may be "correct" but is awkward. It's really not anything to worry about.
  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2005
    Well, let's see the Microsoft style guide says :-):
    "There is no rule against ending a sentence with a preposition, nor is there a rule requiring it. The preposition should go where it makes the sentence easiest to read."

    I still feel a little self-conscious when I end with a preposition, but I just keep telling myself "it's OK, it's just a myth..." I'm usually more strict about prepositions in formal writing than in a blog, though, just because I don't want people who believe that it's wrong to get distracted by what they perceive to be sloppy editing. But, that said, moving the preposition into the sentence can sometimes cause some really convoluted syntax--if it can't be rewritten, I just go with whatever sounds best.
  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2005
    A preposition is something you never want to end a sentence with. :-)
  • Anonymous
    June 27, 2006
    In regards to the so-called "dangling prepositions", isn't it time to stop calling them "prepositions"--rather perhaps "adverbs", separated parts of an interrogative or demonstrative compound word--such compound words as "what--of" or "that--of" or parts of compound verbs.        English is a Germanic language ("Germanick" used in a broad sense.  I believe it is generally accepted that Germanic languages in general are more free in the ways in which they use the little words that more or less indicate time or location than the Romance languages are. For instance there are such English usages as "thereof" and the German (in the strict sense"") of "separable verb prefixes"--both usages being different from what Romance languages allow.
  • Anonymous
    July 11, 2006
    On a slightly different topic, do you find that you apply the MS Manual of Style to other kinds of writing you do? Do you use it unconsciously when writing letters to your mum?
  • Anonymous
    July 12, 2006
    The comment has been removed