Dispatch or despatch? Organise or organize? Is there one or two Ls in skulduggery?
Are you working at 9pm, 9:00pm or 21:00? Were you paid 20 dollars, $20 or USD20? Should you use metric or imperial measurements?
How should you spell the names of foreign places or people when writing them in English? Is it Macao or Macau? Prayuth Chan-o-cha or Prayut Chan-ocha?
Do you italicise book titles? Is a ship “she” or “it”? When should you use honorifics?
There are innumerable such considerations when determining what is known as “house style” in publishing. They can be an endless source of debate or even disagreement, but ultimately the point is not whether one or the other is right or wrong, but that a publication should always maintain consistency. You don’t want to have Kim Jong-un in body text and Kim Jong Un in the caption, or FIFA in the news pages but Fifa in the sports section.
A style guide can also help writers and editors to avoid mistakes by providing grammar guidance, guides to spelling difficult words, and reminders about troublesome words and phrases (what is the difference between compliment and complement, or affect and effect?).
Rivers Editorial wrote the 2013 and 2018 style guides for the Bangkok Post newspaper and currently maintains the style guides for JJ Media, which publishes business magazines and websites in the UAE, and Boxing News, a major newsstand magazine. We would be glad to put together a guide for your publication, or send you a copy of those we have already written. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.
If you do not need a full style guide but would perhaps appreciate some advice or consultation on editorial matters, we’d be glad to help.
For other editing services, click here, and for writing services, click here.
If you are a freelance editor and would like to be considered for assignments that come our way, please join us.
