In the first and second posts in this series, I talked about style guides. Today we’ll discuss style sheets. A comment from author Dawn Colclasure gave me the idea for the post.
You might call style sheets mini style guides that you prepare yourself, often as supplement to a style guide. There are always things, such as industry jargon and names, that apply to a specific manuscript that aren’t covered in the style guide you’re using. In some cases, there may be a reason for deviating from the style guide, such as using a spelling that is common in the industry even though it’s different from your selected style guide.
The book I’m currently editing is a resource for veterans and soldiers with PTSD. In different sources, the full name of the disease is spelled Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder–and about a dozen more variations. I told the authors they had to decide which one they preferred, and I would ensure it was spelled that way throughout the book. They chose the spelling used in the American Psychiatric Association’s manual of psychiatric disorders. That spelling was one of many items included in the style sheet–for my use during editing and for the use of the proofreader I had to review the manuscript.
A style sheet can be as simple or as complex as needed. In its most basic form, it should include the preferred style guide and dictionary, then list additions and deviations, such as the example excerpted below.
Style Guide: Chicago Manual of Style
Dictionary: Merriam-Webster Online
Treatment of specific words and phrases:
amygdalae
flight-or-fight response and flight-fight-freeze (hyphenated)
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (per DSM-IV)
You can include formatting instructions in the style sheet. For example, in the PTSD book, the co-authors wanted their words set apart in different fonts so it would be easy for readers to recognize whether the psychotherapist or the chaplain/psychotherapist was talking. Of course, we identified the author at the beginning of the section, but since some sections extended over several pages, the different fonts provide a visual cue.
In What are style guides and why do I need them?, I talked about more extensive information guides. An information guide for a novel might include details about characters and setting as well as the spelling of names and hyphenation of words. When you write a book over months or even years, it’s easy to forget what you wrote 200 pages ago.
An information guide is helpful to you as the writer, and it’s also important for your editor to ensure consistency throughout the manuscript. Without a style sheet, the editor won’t know if your character’s name is Susanne or Suzanne or if she lives in Harveytown or Harvey Town.
Style sheets make it easier for everyone involved in producing a book, article, or other document, and the resulting consistency makes it easier for your reader to get your message without getting confused or bogged down in discrepancies.
Do you use style sheets? What advice would you give about using style sheets effectively?
That’s interesting and very practical. Do style sheets apply to every type of writing or only books? As I see it large pieces of writing need indeed a style sheet, but also specialized papers. Is this correct?
Mia,
I think any piece of writing long enough that inconsistencies start to creep in would benefit from a style sheet.
“Do you use style sheets? What advice would you give about using style sheets effectively?
Minimise the code to speed up page load time, as removing unnecessary gaps can speed up the page load time.
Don’t have lengthy names for styles, short and too the point, again, speeds up load time and helps search engines understand your site/blog better when they are crawling it.
Don’t add styles that you ‘might need later’ it will slow your page load speed down and it highers the risk of human error.
If stuck consult my websites the basics to stylesheets guide
I think that’s about it Lillie
Whoops! Sort of got ahead of myself there Lillie, forgot about the article and just focused on the last question…
I think style sheets are important as they help to give uniformity to your work, and can make it easier to follow
OK–I responded to the first comment before I read the second one. Glad you figured out what I was talking about–I was beginning to wonder if the article was so poorly written it wasn’t clear.
Sorry Lillie, I read the article and went to comment, but as you said, for some reason the words ‘Style Sheets’ were in my head and zap, I forgot the article and wrote about stylesheets
Christopher,
At least it’s not as bad as the people who read the title of my post “What I Learned from Animals” and leave a comment about how much they love cuddly little dogs. The post is about my being attacked and badly injured by a Doberman–nothing about cute little cuddly animals.
Christopher,
I had to chuckle because when I first read your comment it made absolutely no sense to me. Load time–what in the heck is he talking about? Then I realized you’re talking about a completely different kind of style sheet than I am. I guess not completely different in that they both lay out specifications to maintain consistency. However, I’m talking about consistency in a book and you’re talking about a website. Maybe you just had that in your mind when I heard style sheet. I hope my article is not so poorly written that it’s not clear I’m talking about books and other written material!
Great ideas, Lillie! I’m accumulating a list of important things to know whenever I build the confidence to start writing a longer piece. =)
Stylesheets sound like “cheat-sheets” that I used to use in University. If it’s a complex stylesheet, it might be worthwhile color-coding sections and distinct formatting as you did above (e.g., bolded section headers), so it’s easy to refer to!
Samantha,
Excellent analogy. “Cheat sheet” is a good name for a style sheet, and color coding might be very helpful.
Interesting article. I’ve not really used style sheets before and am wondering where they would best be implemented. I suppose they are good to use for long pieces when trying to keep track of the same information. This is good to know. Thank you!
Sarah,
I primarily use style sheets for books, but they can be helpful in any long piece of writing, or even a shorter piece if there are a number of specialized terms or particular usages that the writer or company wants to use consistently.
Yes, I did. I didn’t know what it was called, but I did that for my book, BREAKING THE CODE – A DAUGHTER’S JOURNEY INTO HER FATHER’S SECRET WAR. As you said, there are many things that just aren’t in the books. I kept track of them during previous edits and then for my last edit I made sure I’d addressed them all. And as you said, the key is to be consistent. Great post!
Karen,
That’s quite a testament to the value of style sheets since you have found a publisher for your book. Congratulations. I look forward to its release.
Thank you for mentioning me, Lillie. I’m delighted that my comment sparked this conversation, because it is very helpful. For a series I am writing, I use information sheets: Names of characters and their description, as well as names of places (like schools) and streets which characters live on. This is enormously helpful in keeping track of everything as I write the books. As to a style sheet, yes, I definitely use them for my books and articles. For those who tell me to defer to a certain style (such as AP), I will do so, but for the most part, I stick to my style of choice. I wrote about style sheets in one of the Revisions books. I’d be most grateful if you could take the time to look it over.
Dawn,
I’d be delighted to look over the section of the Revisions book on style sheets.
I always use CSS for my websites. I really think this helps me in my seo efforts
Mihaela,
The style sheets I’m talking about don’t have anything to do with SEO. There’s no such thing for books.
However, the concept of style sheets to customize the document (whether it be a book or a web site) is the same.