Style Guides Rules Make Written Cover Size Follow

A "style guide" is a set of rules about how documents should be written, designed, and produced. They are created and followed to "ensure" (make sure something happens) "consistency" (happening the same way every time) and "uniformity" (with all items being the same, without variation) in an organization's written materials in the belief that this improves communication.

Style guides cover many topics, including whether numbers should be "spelled out" (written with words) or written with "digits" (in numerals), whether "gray" or "grey" is the preferred spelling of the color, and whether commas should be placed before the "and" in a list. They also cover "line spacing" (how much vertical room there should be between lines of text), the font and size of headings and titles, the information placed in "headers" and "footers" (information that appears at the top and bottom of each page), and the size of "margins" (how much white space is at the top, bottom, and sides of pages).

Most publications have their own style guide, which authors are requested to follow and editors are expected to "enforce" (make sure that the rules are followed). Many universities and large corporations have their own styles guides. Smaller businesses generally follow one of the "established" (well known and with a long history) style guides, such as:

• "AP Style" (The Associated Press Stylebook)

• "The MLA Handbook" (Modern Language Association Handbook for Writers of Research Papers)

• "The APA Style Guide" (American Psychological Association)

• "The Chicago Manual of Style"