| Top | Style Guides by Discipline | Notes | List of Illustrations | Resources |
We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants.
A pretty famous quote, that. It suggests that, given all the many generations of our species, each of us, individually, even the most creative and famous of us, is individually just a dwarf when viewed through the long lens of time. (By the way, who first said that about giant’s shoulders? Google? Isaac Newton? John of Salisbury? Nope! Research it for yourself!) Civilization is built one brick at a time, and with each small addition we learn something. Sometimes, that’s achieved in slow, tedious rehearsals, and sometimes it’s a lightning flash of intuition and creativity.
For development to occur, we always need to be able to retrace our steps, recreate a given effect. The primary reason we carefully cite sources of secondary and tertiary research (the work of others) and describe experiments (our own original research) is reproducibility. What does that mean? When someone says they have discovered a new treatment for a disease, for example, others will want to check the facts out for themselves. That’s what scholarship is all about. They’re checking to see whether others, reproducing the author’s methods, come to the same conclusion. That’s the main point of all research, from the most prosaic freshman research paper to the Nobel prize winner in physics.
Dishonesty can be expensive. Corrupt cultures are toxic. The cost of dishonesty varies, is more or less serious depending on the stakes involved. A patient spends time and money on a scam…and dies. An attorney fakes a law school degree and innocent clients go to jail. A contractor lies about the composition of concrete and a building collapses. When cheating and dishonesty become normative parts of a culture, we see disasters like the Brazilian Olympics or Nicaraguan starvation, crumbling societies resultant from a million small dishonesties. No one act caused them. Those cultures got to this point one small dishonesty, one careless act, at a time.
The modern world only really works if the information we process is based on sanity, honesty, and truth. For that to be the case, we all must adhere to the same basic, mutually understood standards. How such reporting works varies slightly from discipline to discipline, and that’s why we have so many different books on this list. What does not vary is our mutual agreement to adhere to this foundation upon which civilization itself is built.
Introduction
There is no one set of rules, no one-size-fits-all group of formats that the various professions and disciplines agree upon. Many of the disciplines are listed under Popular Style Guides below. The list of resources shown below does not pretend to be exhaustive and, of course, will be out of date the moment it goes public. When in doubt, check with your instructor, your area subject librarian, or your discipline’s professional association. If you are working toward publication, check with the individual publisher and your editor. Most publications (e.g., “Submitting Manuscripts to PMLA: Editorial Policy for Essays“) have an online section of instructions for those who are submitting manuscripts for their consideration. As you prepare a paper for any publication, look them up online and follow their instructions very carefully. Each is a little bit different.
Style guides vary by use, purpose, and discipline. Some are published by professional, discipline specific, associations such as the American Psychological Association (APA) or the Modern Language Association (MLA), while others have been developed by publishers such as the Associated Press (AP) and The New York Times.
A list of the primary style guides listed by discipline is provided below. Style guides specialize by purpose and discipline. You may find it worth investing in a copy of the most appropriate manual for your professional library if your discipline is listed, but be aware of the fact that editorial standards and preferences do change, so the manual will (not may) become outdated with time.
This list is not exhaustive. American University’s “Library Subject Guides” has a fuller list. The editions may vary depending on how distant you are from the time this page was put together (July 2014). Check with your bookstore or librarian. In addition, your professors may have stylistic requirements for work you turn in.
When in doubt, ask your professor, adviser, thesis director, or publisher. The Millersville Honors College has a page providing “Senior Thesis Help” with format guidelines.
A note about bibliography generators: While bibliography generators such as EasyBib or Citation Machine are extremely helpful, be careful to proofread the results against the style sheet your professor or publisher has mandated. The bibliography generator may, for example, double space the entries while the style sheet1 mandates single spacing, requiring you to adjust the material you have just pasted into your paper. The generator may also provide an outdated format, as when MLA formated bibliography is produced with web addresses shown according to 2008 rules when a new version came out in 2016.
Avoiding Academic Dishonesty charges: It takes more than the right choice of stylesheet to write both ethically and well. Take a few moments to review the English Department’s page on Academic Integrity at
http://www.millersville.edu/english/for-faculty/academic-integrity/index.php. What you think you understood in high school may be horribly wrong, particularly if it involved a copy/paste followed by changing a few words in the sentence.
Note: Whether directly quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing material, ALWAYS cite your sources. The law on how much material you may directly quote legally varies both with the genre/medium involved and with the use to which it is put. When in doubt, check copyright law. Questions? A good place to start is MLA’s page on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty.
| Top | Style Guides by Discipline | Notes | List of Illustrations | Resources |
Style Guides by Discipline
Book Publishers
The Chicago Manual of Style, a style guide in its 16th edition, is designed for American English and published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. It is most often used by writers working with book publishers and those who have reason to prefer their standards. It is also used by some academic disciplines (e.g., History on the Bedford/St. Martin’s list). [See also: Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide.]
Business
Harvard Citation Guide. (PDF) This is based on The Chicago Manual of Style and is most often used in Business. The resource is provided by the library of the Harvard Business School. September, 2013.
Helen Cunningham and Brenda Greene. The Business Style Handbook, An A-to-Z Guide for Effective Writing on the Job, McGraw-Hill; 2nd. edition. October 23, 2012.
Computing
The Microsoft Manual of Style: Your Everyday Guide to Usage, Terminology, and Style for Professional Technical Communications (MSTP) is a style guide published by Microsoft. The Fourth Edition was published on January 15, 2012. The MSTP establishes standards and serves as a reference for writers at Microsoft, but more generally provides a guide for technical writers, particularly in web and computer fields.
Humanities, Languages and Literatures
Art History, Film Studies, T.V., Classics, and Philosophy
Use either MLA or Chicago. When in doubt, check with your professor, boss, or agency/employer’s style book.
Modern Language Association. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 3rd ed. Modern Language Association, 2008. Print. This is the ‘big kids’ version, and it has been around since 1985. It is designed for graduate students, scholars, and professional writers.
The Chicago Manual of Style. 16th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2010. Web. 28 June 2014. [See also: Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide.]
Religion and Philosophy
Alexander, Patrick H., et al., eds. The SBL Handbook of Style For Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, and Early Christian Studies. Peabody Hendrickson, 1999. Print & Web (Taiwan, PDF). Found 16 August 2014. [SBL stands for the Society of Biblical Literature.]
English and Foreign Languages
Modern Language Association. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 3rd ed. Modern Language Association, 2008. Print. This is the ‘big kids’ version, and it has been around since 1985. It is designed for graduate students, scholars, and professional writers.
NEW! Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook. 8th ed., 2016. Print. Designed primarily for use by undergraduates writing papers and other class projects. See also the MLA Style Center for a discussion of just how to make the new formatting work. Need to manage your Works Cited section (and parenthetical citation within the text)? Go to “Works Cited: A Quick Guide.” For more information, see “Notes” (MLA Works Cited, 2016 Changes.) below.
Journalism, publishing, (see also law)
Print Journalism:
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage: The Official Style Guide Used by the Writers and Editors of the World’s Most Authoritative Newspaper. (Hardly a title created by an organization with an ego deficit.) The ‘Guide’ was originally created in 1950 by editors at the newspaper and revised in 1974, 1999, and 2002 by Allan M. Siegal and William G. Connolly. A revised and expanded paperback edition was published in 2002. It is also referenced by Print Journalism students and others who sometimes have reason to prefer a conservative, somewhat formal style.
Here’s a comparison of some AP Style-book (see below) and Times Manual variants.
Broadcast Journalism:
Associated Press, Darrell Christian, Paula Froke and David Minthorn, eds. The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. 2014. Print. This is also used by those who publish on or deal with media or media law (as apposed to those who publish law journal articles, legal briefs, etc.).
General (Book, etc.) Publishing: See Book Publishers above.
Law
There are several competing resources here. Choice depends upon whether one is writing for law or writing about the law.
The prestige test is probably the The Bluebook, which is a compilation of materials from the Law Reviews at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, and The University of Pennsylvania. It’s in its 19th edition (2010).
The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law is a strong contender. It is updated every year. Note that its specific focus is media law, however.
Legal writers and editors have their own association separate from law schools and bar associations. Colleen Barger produced their most recent offering:
Barger, Colleen. ALWD Guide to Legal Citation. 5th Ed. Wolters Kluwer. Association of Legal Writing Directors. 2014. Or, consult the very brief ALWD Citation Rules cheat sheet from the Legal Writing Institute.
Finally, Peter W. Martin at Cornell has three brief tutorials totaling a little over 35 minutes of instruction at Introduction to Basic Legal Citation (online ed. 2013).
Music
Herbert, Trevor. Music in Words: A Guide to Researching and Writing about Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Holoman, D. Kern. Writing about Music: A Style Sheet from the Editors of 19th-Century Music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
For general advice about doing academic writing (writing assignments) about/in music, a good resource is “Music” from The Writing Center of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Another resource is Richard Wingell’s Writing about Music: An Introductory Guide. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.
The Physical Sciences
Biology
Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 8th Ed. Council of Science Editors. University of Chicago Press, 2014. Web. Found 10 July 2014. Allied to the Chicago Manual of Style, this style format is used by biologists, and the CSE was formerly the CBE (Council of Biology Editors). Online, there is a nice resource is provided by Bedford, St. Martin Press at CSE Style: Biology and Other Sciences.
Chemistry
Coghill, Anne, and Lorrin Garson. The ACS Style Guide: Effective Communication of Scientific Information. American Chemical Society, 2006. Print. There presently is not an online version. A brief style sheet is available at Williams College Libraries.
Geology
United States Geological Survey. Suggestions for Authors of the Reports of the United States Geological Survey. Wallace Hanson edits this 7th edition of the survey, which was published in 1991. This set of ‘Suggestions’ exists in both print and web (PDF) formats. The USGS National Weblands Research Center has the set linked by topic. The full book in either HTML or PDF format is available here. There’s a brief ‘cheat sheet’ here.
Mathematics
AMS Author Handbook (2008, updated 2012) (pdf) American Mathematical Society. Web.
Medicine
JAMA & Archives Journals. AMA manual of style: A guide for authors and editors, 10th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2007. In general, this is the big gun in the profession.
Blum D, Knudson M, Henig RM, eds. A field guide for science writers. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2006.
Taylor RB. The clinician’s guide to medical writing. New York, NY: Springer; 2005.
Physics
American Institute of Physics. AIP Style Manual (PDF). 4th ed. New York: American Institute of Physics, 1990. The site notes: “The … version is posted with the permission of the American Institute of Physics. It may be downloaded for personal use only.”
The Social Sciences
Education
Teachers and other educators have two main choices. Either they use APA style or they use the style for their particular discipline (Chemistry, Math, History, etc.) APA’s manual is American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed., 2nd printing, 2010. When in doubt, check with your instructor or school district/principal.
Linguistics
Linguist List. “Unified Style Sheet.” (PDF) 3 April 2007. In general, linguists tend to use APA style, though a few use MLA and others, depending upon their publisher and the discipline in which they are trained/housed. Here are a few other helpful sites:
- “Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics Style Sheet.”
Last updated: C. Bowern, November 2002. This is an example of the published preferences of a periodical. It has been provided as a guide to authors wishing to submit work for publication with them. Most publications have such style sheets. - “Tips for Writing a Linguistics Paper” (2003), part of the Linguistics TA Handbook provided by the Linguistics Department of Sanford University.
- Jennifer Smith. “Paper writing Tips in Linguistics University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Fall, 2011. (Note that they suggest the use of APA style, which is pretty standard in Linguistics, though hardly absolute.)
Psychology
American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed., 2nd printing, 2010. The editors note that this publication began back in 1929 as “a brief journal article” (APA, xiii). It has become the general standard in the social and behavioral sciences as well as business, criminology, economics, and education. As usual, however, check with your professor before adopting a style. Preferences vary. To date, there seems to be no online version of this text. However, Purdue OWL has an extensive area devoted to APA usage standards. McNairy Library has a copy of the APA Publication Manual if you need one.
Political Science
American Political Science Association, Committee on Publications. Style Manual for Political Science. 2nd rev. ed. American Political Science Assn., 2006. Print. This system is based on the Chicago Manual of Style. and sends authors there for disambiguation and parenthetical citation rules. Trinity College has a set of quicklinks for those in a hurry.
Sociology
American Sociological Association. ASA Style Guide, 3rd ed. Washington: American Sociological Association, 2007. Print. See also “Formatting in Sociology” at Purdue University’s OWL.
Everybody Else
If your discipline is not listed, check with your area specialist librarian, your instructor, or your institution’s style sheet. Here are some of the more popular ‘general’ style manuals:
Turabian, Kate. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students & Researchers, 8th. ed. University of Chicago Press. (Note: this website is advertised as a ‘free sample’ and not the entire text online.) This book is more often a ‘default setting’ for those who are not sure what style manual to use in a particular discipline. It’s fine, but it may be off target when writing for a particular professor or discipline. If you aren’t sure, don’t go with a default. Instead, check the syllabus, ask in class before something is due, or email the professor. Chicago also has a quick style guide available.
Subject Specific Resources. Purdue OWL.
Ah, those Brits! For those of you wanting to check usage preferred by the Brits and some other Commonwealth nations, there are three main sources you need to know about (in addition, of course, to the Oxford English Dictionary).
- New Hart’s Rules: The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors, September 2005.
- There’s also its less weighty sister in “traditional small handbook form,” called The New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. This is intended for “people who work with words—authors, copy-editors, proofreaders, students writing essays and dissertations, journalists, people writing reports or other documents, and website editors.”
- Fowler’s Modern English Usage (2004), also put out by Oxford University Press, provides a guide to British spelling and other rules for those who want a comparison.
| Top | Style Guides by Discipline | Notes | List of Illustrations | Resources |
Notes
MLA Works Cited, 2016 Changes.
Important: There’s an important change in the 2016 style for Works Cited, particularly in terms of citing online sources. Beginning in 2008 APA provided a stable web address in its References list, while MLA did not. Now, MLA rejoins the APA in providing that stable link for its Works Cited. There are also some other changes for citing your resources. As a result, it is highly recommended that you work through the MLa’s “Works Cited: A Quick Guide.” Warning: Because this change is so new, Purdue OWL, McNairy Library’s search engines, and the various citation creators may well not have caught up when you need to write your papers this year (2016). So, work directly with the guide and/or contact your friendly Millersville Librarian.
Some differences: In addition to providing a stable link (web address) to the site, where possible, there are some other notable changes. The new design now provides for a “Title of Container,” which is their name for the search engine you used at McNairy Library or other resource (e.g., Google Scholar). And, it leaves out the format and date found which was previously provided (e.g., Web 21 July 2015). Here’s an example of the new form:
“Between Image and Word, Color, and Time: Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series.” African American Review, vol. 40, no. 3, 2006, pp. 571-86. EBSCOHost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=24093790&site=ehost-live.
Because I work with online forms, I make the links ‘live’ when working with web materials such as Google Scholar or a web publication or resource. Example:
“Curiosity Rover Report (August 2015): Three Years on Mars!” NASA’s Journey to Mars: Videos, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 30 July 2015, www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/videos/index.html.
Stable numbers and addresses: A necessary weakness of the new form. Because the link is live, the reader can easily travel directly to the site to check it. Warning: Dead links can be a problem with volatile websites. Readers need to realize that when librarians discuss ‘stable addresses’ they mean that in a very circumscribed sense. Any citation references the reality at a particular point in time. So, for example, links provided the List of Illustrations and Resources sections below represent the resource addresses as they existed on the day that they were added to those lists. When scholars so research and create annotated bibliographies of, say, ancient manuscript texts, they inform the reader of where those manuscripts exist as of the moment the scholar researched them. A manuscript may be sold or traded to another institution or individual collector, and so…as is true of all research and websites…becomes somewhat dated the moment it is written/published. That’s why we provide dates, but it’s also why a researcher, student or otherwise, needs to be a canny consumer of data.
Formatting: Hanging Indent? Printed web addrersses? Because this is blog is designed as a website, bibliography elements are not given a hanging indent. Creating that in html code is just plain awkward. Similarly, hotlinks are preferenced to actually listing the full web address, which can run on to multiple lines of web text, and provides little actual information. In that respect, I personally find that APA and MLA style represents a step backward. If users wish to read (or copy) a link address, they have only to run the cursor over the link (or use it) and copy/paste.
Stylebook, style-book, stylesheet, style-sheet, or style sheet? There is no one ‘correct’ usage for terms like style sheet and stylebook, not even in dictionaries. Obviously, a style-sheet is briefer than a stylebook. A stylebook, on the other hand, is synonymous to a style guide. I know that’s frustrating. APA, CSS, and Wikipedia all write stylesheet as two words: style sheet. The Assocated Press uses stylebook, one word. Merriam-Webster shows stylebook as one word, style sheet as two. The Oxford English Dictionary shows style-book with a hyphen, style sheet as two words. A number of web resources use one word for stylesheet, perhaps to be consistent with coding. As with all usage, have a reason for your choice and then follow it consistently.
| Top | Style Guides by Discipline | Notes | List of Illustrations | Resources |
List of Illustrations
Note: This list is incomplete. Most of the images are from the publishers or Amazon.com.
“The ACS Style Guide.” Image. ACS Publications. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 16 July 2014.
“Giant.” [Encyclopedic manuscript containing allegorical and medical drawings], “blind giant Orion carried his servant Cedalion on his shoulders to act as the giant’s eyes.” Library of Congress, Rosenwald 4, Bl. 5r. Wikeipedia. https://lccn.loc.gov/50041709,
Jessica (aka Rachel Spavins?). “The Chicago Manual of Style” image. “The Writing Life Too.” Blogspot, 10 September 2010. Web. 16 July 2014.
Hanson, Wallace, ed. Suggestions for Authors of the Reports of the United States Geological Survey. United States Geological Survey. 7th edition, 1991. Print.
Herbert, Trevor. Music in Words: A Guide to Researching and Writing about Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Holoman, D. Kern. Writing about Music: A Style Sheet from the Editors of 19th-Century Music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Microsoft. “Learning.” Microsoft Manual of Style. 2014. Web. 16 July 2014.
Modern Language Association. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing., 2014. Web. 16 July 2014.
Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed., 2010. Web. 16 July 2014.
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, 2012. Google Books. Web. 2014.
Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 8th Ed. 2014. Google Books. Web. 2014.
“Turabian, Kate. 8th ed.” University of Chicago Press, n.d. Web. 16 July 2014.
| Top | Style Guides | List of Illustrations |
Resources
American Institute of Physics. AIP Style Manual (PDF). 4th ed. American Institute of Physics, 1990. Print.
AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors, 10th ed., Oxford University Press, 2007. Print. [See also: AMA Manual of Style. Web. 28 June 2014.]
American Political Science Association, Committee on Publications. Style Manual for Political Science. 2nd rev. ed. American Political Science Assn., 2006. Print.
American Psychological Association. Publication Manual Of The American Psychological Association, 7th ed. Washington, DC, 2013. Print.
American Sociological Association. ASA Style Guide, 3rd ed. American Sociological Association, 2007. Print.
Associated Press. “The Associated Press Stylebook And Briefing On Media Law 2013.“ Basic Books, 2013. [See also: AP Stylebook. Web. 28 June 2014.]
Blum D, Knudson M, Henig RM, eds. A field guide for science writers. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2006. Print.
Brechner, Robert Contemporary Mathematics for Business and Consumers. Thomson South-Western, 2005. Print.
The Chicago Manual of Style. 16th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2010. Print. [See also: Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide. Web. 28 June 2014.]
The Chicago Manual of Style: Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers. 15th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2003. Print.
Fowler’s Modern English Usage. Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.
Garble’s Style Manual. Garble’s Writing Center, 9 January 2007. Web. 27 June 2014.
Handouts. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. 2014. Web. Found 16 August 2014. Web. Found 16 August 2014.
Hazlett, Curt. “Tips to make numbers your best friend.” Web. 28 June 2014.
JAMA & Archives Journals. AMA manual of style: A guide for authors and editors, 10th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2007. Print.
Linguistic Society of America. “Unified Style Sheet for Linguistics.” (PDF) 3 April 2007. Published by Linguist List. Web. Found 15 July 2014. See also
MacGarry, Daniel Doyle, ed. (1955). The Metalogicon of John Salisbury: A Twelfth-century Defense of the Verbal and Logical Arts of the Trivium. Translated by MacGarry, Daniel Doyle. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 167. Retrieved April 29, 2016.
Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook. 8th ed., 2016. Web. 31 July, 2016. https://www.mla.org/Publications/Bookstore/Nonseries/MLA-Handbook-Eighth-Edition.
MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2008. Print.
The New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. Oxford University Press, 2005. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/browse/ox_dict_writers_editors/.
The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, Times Books, 1999. Print.
Norquist, Richard. “Choosing a Style Manual and Style Guide: Popular Style Guides for Students, Researchers, and Professionals.” about education. About.com. (n.d.) Web. 28 June 2014.
The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2006 Web. 28 June 2014.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. (6th ed.) American Psychological Association, 2014. Web. Found 10 July 2014.
Scientific Style and Format: The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 8th Ed. Council of Science Editors. University of Chicago Press, 2014. Web. Found 10 July 2014.
Siegel, Ethan. “Who Discovered the Earth is Round?” ScienceBlogs, 21 September 2011. Web. 11 July 2011.
Smith, Jennifer. “Paper Writing Tips in Linguistics University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Fall, 2011. Web. 15 July 2014.
Stanford University. “Tips for Writing a Linguistics Paper.” Excerpted from Linguistics TA Handbook provided by the Linguistics Department of Sanford University, 2013. Web. 15 July 2014.
“Standing on the shoulders of giants.” Wikipedia. Web. 15 July 2014.
Turabian, Kate. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students & Researchers, 8th. ed. University of Chicago Press. Print.
Wingell, Richard. Writing about Music: An Introductory Guide. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
Harvard Stylesheet. “Working Papers in Linguistics” (PDF), 2002. Harvard University. Web. 16 July 2014.
| Top | Style Guides by Discipline | Notes | List of Illustrations | Resources |