Hello Dear Readers,
How can we learn to write right?
It’s a question most writers confront at one time or another. Should I hyphenate a word? Should this be capitalized? Should this title be in quotation marks or italicized?
Unfortunately, we use a living language, and that means that both the meanings of words and they ways we write them are subject to change through common and repeated usage. So how do we know what rules to follow?
The Chicago Manual of Style just came out with a new edition, and it has decreed that several of the rules we all learned in school are no longer etched in stone. It now says that we do not need to capitalize the word “internet.” (We had to capitalize internet?) It removed the hyphen in e-mail, and said that we shouldn’t use “ibid.” in bibliographies anymore. But the big one is that we may now use“they” or “them” for a singular person when we don’t know whether it’s a he or she (or a him or a her)! We have all used it in spoken language, but It’s enough to make your head spin.
But who makes these rules anyway?
Well, for the Chicago Manual of Style, it’s their editors. But they are not the only ones who set rules for the English language. Many others think they know best. For instance:
There’s the Associated Press Stylebook, which is a favorite of journalists. Since journalism attempts to impart a lot of information in a confined space, it seems that the AP Stylebook is more likely to permit omissions (such as not using the Oxford, or serial, comma) or condensing words (such as allowing pushing the two words “all right” into one word: “alright,” even though most authorities consider that non-standard for formal writing.
For academics, a popular source of guidance is the MLA Style Manual. The full name is actually the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. As the name suggests, this is what they assign in colleges, and adhere to in scholarly writing. As a result, the rules that they feature are those for citations. They bring order to the confusion about when to indent, abbreviate, and italicize.
Another option for scholarly publications is the Turabian Manual for Writers, named for Kate Turabian, a dissertation secretary and editor at the University of Chicago in the early 1900s. Or, for those in the social sciences, it might be best to use the American Psychological Association (APA) guide.
William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White created perhaps the best-known book on rules of writing: Elements of Style for the rest of us. (Yes, you know E. B. White as the author of the children’s books Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, and The Trumpet of the Swan.) This small book is much less intimidating than the Chicago Manual of Style, and preferred for those of us who write fiction.
Which one should you use? Whichever one meets your needs. They are very helpful, but once we are lucky enough to find a publisher, we’re apt to discover that they each have their own style rules, known to their copy editors. (Note I used “they” in the traditional plural). We authors are often encouraged to smile and comply.
But remember, not all writing is formal. Just ask anyone with a smartphone. Teens who text use what appears to be nearly a different language. Fortunately for those of us not plugged into that culture, we can find help on the internet.
All the style guides in the world, however, won’t give you the one thing that makes your prose special: your own, distinctive voice. And that, you won’t find in any book.
Happy writing, everyone!
Betty Wryte-Goode
Betty Wryte-Goode is a writer, mother, and wife who lives in the Lehigh Valley. Her passions include writing, reading, shopping, gardening, and exploring the internet. Betty is always looking for writing tips, so if you have any you would like to share, please send them to her through our Submissions/Contacts page.