Have a Little Style in Your Writing

Fashion styles have always fascinated me. I am constantly amazed as styles keep changing. I have seen teens wearing: mismatched plaids, circles and colors in their outfits; underwear showing from low-hanging, beltless pants; huge amounts of skin and undergarments showing from skin-tight shirts over definitely less than perfect attributes; unbelievably high stiletto heels where I question the sanity of the wearers; and body piercings in places that hurt me just thinking about them. But all in all, having style amounts to one thing… you must follow the style of the time to be cool, hot or awesome – whatever the right stylish word is today.

Much like fashion style, writers and editors need to follow a writing style so readers think they are awesome. Writing styles help writers maintain consistency so readers are saved from seeing needless errors that could otherwise diminish their opinion of content.

One of the most common stylebooks is The Associated Press Stylebook. Its 2010 edition is now available and is boasting a new Social Media Guidelines section. Notable highlights in the new stylebook include:

1. The word website is now one word (I extend a special thanks for this change).
2. “Web” remains a capitalized shortened form or World Wide Web.
3. The word e-mail remains hyphenated.
4. Many new terms have been added, including:

• apps
• blogs
• Bluetooth
• Blu-ray
• click-throughs
• friend and unfriend
• metadata
• RSS
• search engine optimization
• smart phone
• widget
• wiki

These are just a few of the changes in this popular stylebook. Much like matching today’s fashion styles, when you are fashioning your next article or Web copy, you need to remember to produce your pieces with style… Whether you are following the AP Stylebook, the Chicago Manual of Style or some other guidelines, just do it! Create your written works with a little style!