Writing in Style

You're a writer, right? Why should you have to concern yourself with style? And why does your editor insist on those blasted serial commas? Does he ever need a life ...

"A foolish consistency" may be "the hobgoblin of little minds," but there is nothing foolish about saving the writer or the company time, money, and face. A good editor will follow the house style of the publishing house or follow one particular style guide, because it provides clear standards for producing documents. No time is wasted in settling arguments or checking to see how something was treated ten pages ago. (Was it "Solicitor General" or "solicitor-general?" And, damn it, shouldn't that question mark come after the quotation mark?) If every editor on the project (from the substantive editor to the proofreader) knows which style guide to follow, the result is a consistent and professional manuscript. If you insist on exceptions, do not be surprised to see errors in the final product.

Contrary to what your grade five teacher may have told you, there are no editorial absolutes. One style guide will differ from another. Your editor is not insisting on being "right" all the time, but on being consistent. She does not want to reinvent the wheel.

The first publishing house I worked for followed The Chicago Manual of Style (now available on-line for a subscription). I bit the bullet and shelled out $75 some twenty-five-odd years ago, and practically memorized its eight hundred pages. Mind you, The Canadian Press Style Guide may tell you that should be "800 pages," but the point is that if I say "eight hundred" on page 40, I want to stick with "eight hundred" on page 275. Get the idea?

I recall my Roman history prof telling the class that he had already "forgotten more about the Gauls" than the class would learn about those feisty ancients that semester. And the same goes for your editor. That stylish devil using Word's tracked changes has crammed into her brain the fifty ways to use your capital letters, and forgotten more about full caps vs small caps than you will ever need to know. And more than that, she has done this so that you can concentrate on what you do best: write. So give it a rest.

Fashions change, but good writing has a style of its own.