December 2004/January 2005

Volume 45, Number 3

Usability Testing Opportunity

Stylistically Speaking: Book Reviews on Style Guides

by Deb Lockwood

The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers 15th Edition
University of Chicago Press Staff, editor. 2004. 15th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. [ISBN: 0-226-10389-7. 984 pages. $55.00 (cloth cover), $95.00 (cloth with CD), $55.00 (CD-ROM).] http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/
cmosfaq/about.html

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law
Norm Goldstein, editor. 2004. 39th ed. Redmond: Microsoft Press. New York: Basic Books. [ISBN. 0.465.00488-1 378 pages. $17.95] http://www.apbookstore.com/

I began using The Chicago Manual of Style when I was in college, and have been using it ever since to answer all matter of style questions including citations, punctuation, legal references, and editing marks. Although some of my colleagues use the AP version (see review below), I will stick with The Chicago Manual of Style to answer my burning style questions. However, I recently found out that my 14th edition is out-of-date.

The 15th edition contains the following chapters:

1. The Parts of a Published Work
2. Manuscript Preparation and Manuscript Editing
3. Proofs
4. Rights and Permissions by William S. Strong
5. Grammar and Usage by Bryan A. Garner
6. Punctuation
7. Spelling, Distinctive Treatment of Words, and Compounds
8. Names and Terms
9. Numbers
10. Foreign Languages
11. Quotations and Dialogue
12. Illustrations and Captions
13. Tables
14. Mathematics in Type
15. Abbreviations
16. Documentation I: Basic Patterns
17. Documentation II: Specific Content
18. Indexes

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law is also known as the Associated Press stylebook, or just the AP stylebook. This book is the quintessential guide for writers who are writing for newspapers, periodicals, journals, and other news media. When I was in college at the University of Denver, the nursing school students as well as the journalism majors were using the Associated Press (AP) styles exclusively. The AP updates this guide annually.

When researching this topic, I came across an on-line subscription service to which you can subscribe (individually or corporately). Using the on-line version, you can make notes to yourself as you use the guide, and add specific style examples from your organization. This information is then stored on the Web. See http://www.apstylebook.com/ for more information about this subscription service.

The 2004 version of The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law contains the following chapters:

1. Foreword
2. What's New
3. Bibliography
4. Stylebook
5. Sports Guidelines and Style
6. Business Guidelines and Style
7. A Guide to Punctuation
8. Briefing on Media Law
9. Proofreader's Marks
10. About the AP

In the Final Analysis:

There are substantive differences between these two style guides, but the difference that is most often noted is the serial comma. The crux of this issue is that the AP stylebook doesn't recommend a serial comma, but The Chicago Manual of Style does. In other words, you would not include a comma before the last item in a list. For example, the phrase "low, medium, and high" would appear as "low, medium and high" in the AP stylebook.

I will admit that I am biased and lean toward following the styles in the Chicago Press version, and the primary reason is that I am - by repetition of use - comfortable with the content and the rules. If you lean in a similar direction, I would strongly recommend that you pick up a copy of the AP stylebook if for nothing else than to read the media law briefing information. This section of the guide contains a critical reminder telling you how to guard against libel and copyright infringement.