What Is ‘House Style’?

One of our listeners wrote in recently to ask whether you capitalize the prefix “non” in the phrase “non-federal sponsors.” We replied that it depended on what her house style was for “federal.” If her company capitalized the word “federal,” then “non” would be capitalized too.

Her reply was “Thanks, but what do you mean by ‘house style’?” 

Here’s an explanation. 

What Is a Style Guide?

As you might know, most of the so-called “rules” we follow when we’re writing and editing aren’t rules at all. They’re actually a collection of choices related to grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting. These choices, which can vary by industry and country, are collected in major style guides like the Chicago Manual of Style, the AP Stylebook, and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). And as we said a couple of weeks ago in the segment on the plural of “quid pro quo,” the online Buzzfeed style guide often has good advice for internet and pop culture terms that other style guides don’t have. 

These guides address a vast range of questions that come up when you’re writing or editing. For example: 

• Whether you capitalize or lowercase certain words
• Whether you hyphenate compound words, close them up, or set them as two separate words 
• When you spell out numbers, and when you use numerals 
• When you abbreviate certain terms, and when you spell them out
• What punctuation you use in bulleted and numbered lists
• How you format indexes, reference lists, and text citations
• How you format the names of books, magazines, websites, TV shows, and the like.

Despite how comprehensive the major style guides are — the print version of Chicago runs 1,144 pages — they still can’t answer every “how should I do X” question that comes up when you’re writing. That’s particularly true when you’re writing about a specialized area — whether it’s gardening, ceramics, or snake handling. 

No one style guide — nor dictionary — can capture the all of the rich terminology we use when we talk about our favorite topics.  

A ‘House Style Guide’ Is a Supplement to a Major Style Guide

That’s where house style guides come in. These are supplemental guides that document all the additional style decisions you need to make when you’re writing about a very specific topic. 

Why...

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