Choosing a style guide
15 for blogs and news websites
Ready to choose a style guide for your news website or blog? Here’s a rundown of the best and most popular style guides, several of which are freely available online.
For the sake of tidiness, the style guides are arranged according by country, but there’s no law against choosing one from a country other than your own.
Browse through two or three that look promising, and choose the one that best fits your authors and audience. If you stick with it, your readers will appreciate the coherence and consistency it brings to your posts.
Jump to: US | UK | Canada | the Web
The US
Reuters Handbook of Journalism
Reuters has been steadily establishing its online credibility by creating openly accessible news-oriented web applications. And in July 2009, it it decided to make its style guide freely available. The guide is arranged alphabetically and part of a large Handbook of Journalism that includes an excellent section on “Standards and Values” and “Reporting and Writing Basics.” Hard to beat.
Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law
The AP Stylebook is another good choice for news outlets targeting an American audience. The online version costs $25 for an annual subscription and is continually updated (the print version is updated annually). Arranged alphabetically, except for brief sections on sports style, business style, and punctuation, the guide has a handy summary of libel law (specific to the US, of course) and a slim nine-page section on Internet-specific terms (e-mail, FAQ, plug-in).
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage
Arranged alphabetically like the AP Stylebook, though not updated as frequently, the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage is another great choice for blogs and news publishers. Maybe not quite as witty as the jacket blurb claims, it is fairly thorough.
The Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style is the 600-pound gorilla in the editing industry. It’s not actually a gorilla, of course, but 600 pounds is not much of an exaggeration. The thing is big. Comprehensive, too. But unless you need its thoroughness, it’s probably overkill for a blog. If you’re curious, you could give it a test run with the free one-month trial.
The UK
BBC News Styleguide
This is the style guide from the organization that does online news better than any other agency. The BBC understands best how to present content to an online audience, and its style guide benefits from this insight. It may not be as comprehensive as some of the other guides on this list, and HTML would be a more convenient format than PDF, but its editorial advice is invaluable. The style guide is offered for free online as part of a much larger—and fascinating—collection of resources on broadcasting in all kinds of media, including the Internet.
The Economist Style Guide
Renowned for its unadorned, no-nonsense style, the Economist maintains a style guide that favors advice on precise usage and avoiding clichés. Alphabetically arranged, the guide also contains a large section on differences between American and British English. The free online edition does not contain everything in the printed version, but is still a highly useful resource.
The Times Style and Usage Guide
The Times makes its entire style guide available online for free. Arranged alphabetically, with a few special sections on the arts, politics, and other areas, the guide is another good choice for organizations on a tight budget.
Guardian Style
Like the Times’, The Guardian’s online style guide is alphabetically arranged, fairly thorough, and freely accessible.
Oxford Style Manual
This manual actually combines two books: the Oxford Guide to Style and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. Even longer than the Chicago guide, the Oxford Style Manual is a logical choice for publishers who need the comprehensiveness of Chicago but geared to a British audience.
Canada
The Canadian Press Stylebook
This is the only printed Canadian style guide that is frequently updated (about every two years), and now the CP Stylebook is online ($48.95 for an annual subscription). Arranged by category, with sections on various areas of interest (business, crime, government, sports, breaking news, etc.), the guide goes beyond style and devotes considerable space to recommending how to write engaging and responsible news.
The Globe and Mail Style Book
Another solid choice for Canadian blogs and news publishers. Arranged alphabetically but not updated as frequently as the CP Stylebook, this guide is comparable to the New York Times’ in its comprehensiveness and occasional attempts at humor.
The web
If you’re looking for a style guide tailored specifically to web content, the pickings are slim. The Internet is still the Wild West: its “grammar” is still being formulated, and the combination of media (text, images, video, slideshows, etc.) is still being experimented with. So, an authoritative style may be too much to ask at this stage. Some intriguing options, though, and only a matter of time before we see more ambitious attempts.
Wikipedia Manual of Style
This guide hasn’t gotten much attention as being adaptable to anything other than Wikipedia content, but it has the potential to be an excellent guide for other online publishers. Easily searchable, easy to read in most parts, and heedful of how style affects HTML coding, it could become an authoritative guide for web content with further development.
Web Style Guide
This guide does have the appeal of being focused squarely on web content. But it was last updated in 2002. And though called a “style guide,” it shies away from prescribing a definitive style, and in parts it reads more like a guide for website design and standards compliance. If you prefer the organization and focus of most of the other guides on this list, then you may not find this one as useful.
Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age
A bit snooty in tone, nevertheless, this guide had a chance to claim the authority of Chicago for web content. The problem is that it was last updated in 1999, which is long enough for a traditional style guide and obscenely long for one designed for the web.
The Columbia Guide to Online Style
Concerned as much with how to cite other web content as with how to write web content, the Columbia guide is intended for academic publishing. But it is thorough in that area.