Comments on: Why Can’t Style Manuals Just Agree?

By: Brad K.

Brad K. — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:38:31 +0000

I enjoyed the book “Web Style Guide”. Various projects I have worked on have had coding or documentation style guides. I guess I just always assumed that different groups and settings use different style guides – and the onus was on me to ferret out what style guide(s) applied to my work. I couldn’t always rely on my manager or company to spell out what standards or guides they intended to apply.

Organizations don’t always agree. I would never presume that because there is a recognized or well known style guide, that it would over-rule the one my boss uses.

By: Cassie Tuttle

Cassie Tuttle — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:57:15 +0000

I certainly understand the frustration over the variances in style guides.

In fact, my significant other and I recently had a “debate” over the serial comma. He was adamant about NOT using the serial (or Oxford) comma. I tried to explain style manuals to him and some of the reasons it makes sense to consistently use the serial comma.

Nope – not for him. He’s sticking to his own personal style guide!

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:05:28 +0000

The reason that style manuals don’t all agree on every single point is because they were not all written in the same year. In fact, it takes several years sometimes to write just one book, then it takes another year or so to get the book into print, then it has to be distributed, bought, and used by students and professors. By the time most manuals are utilized for an English course, they are several years out of date.

The reason why MLA is frequently revised is to make it clearer and simpler. It may not seem that way on the surface or at first glance, but I have been studying, tutoring and teaching English since 1991, and I have seen MLA evolve during those years. I can assure you that in 1991, MLA format was somewhat more complicated than it is today. The latest revisions in the Works Cited page were made to significantly simplify that page. No longer are the urls required for each source that is taken from the internet. This saves a great deal of time and energy for the student or other researcher, since no one in his/her right mind reads urls character by character anyway. Why spend the time and effort on something that is unnecessary as long as there is something as powerful as Google?

So I really wish people would stop complaining about style/format. If English were a dead language like Latin, there would be no need for revisions in style and format, but our language is happily alive and growing, and thus deserves a certain amount of gardening.

Prof. Sylvia
Miami, FL
USA

By: sally

sally — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:43:33 +0000

Can you make an bookmark link for Facebook?? Many of my writer friends are there, and it would be so nice to share via FB.

Thanks!~

By: nutmeag

nutmeag — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:51:56 +0000

I wish I had a style guide to settle on. At my place of work, I am currently setting one up, because we’ve not had one before . . . and I work for a government contracting company. Some days tech writing is tough work.