Stylebook

A stylebook is a handbook, or manual, used by professionals, academicians, and students, that contains rules/guidelines for how to produce publishable manuscripts. For example, the Associated Press Stylebook provides guidelines on the use of words/phrases, punctuation, copyrighted material, captioning photographs, writing newspaper copy for sports and business, and an assortment of other publishing rules.

Many professions use manuals of style, including the print and broadcast industries, publishing, law, and psychology. Stylebooks provide structure to publications, providing continuity of writing style and consistent usage of words, grammar, and citations. They may even prescribe fonts and other features.

In professional public relations contexts, the Associated Press Stylebook is perhaps the most valuable text for a practitioner interested in correctly applying the conventions of print publishing. The bulk of the stylebook consists of hundreds of definitions of commonly used words/phrases and how the Associated Press uses the words in publications.

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law with Internet Guide and Glossary points out that the Associated Press's text contains instructions for the use of commonly confused words such as because and since, instructing writers to “use because to denote a specific cause-effect relationship:He went because he was told. Since is acceptable in a casual sense.…They went to the game, since they had been given the tickets” (2000, p. 28, italics in original). The stylebook also explains the Associated Press's idiosyncratic use of words such as doctor (a term typically reserved for medical doctors and dentists, and not used to refer to professors), e-mail (lowercase, with a hyphen), and World Wide Web (three words, all capitalized).

For public relations practitioners who produce broadcast copy or prepare messages for radio or television sources, there exists an assortment of broadcast stylebooks, such as Robert A. Papper's Broadcast News Writing Stylebook. As is the case with the Associated Press Stylebook, public relations professionals use broadcast stylebooks to create effective broadcast copy.

Other stylebooks of note to academicians or those interested in publishing in academic journals include the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, The MLA Style Manual, [Page 827]and The Chicago Manual of Style. All of these texts include lengthy sections on spelling and grammar, how to write well, how to organize manuscripts, proper citation of sources, and how to prepare manuscripts for publication in academic journals. Large agencies, corporations, and other organizations often craft their own stylebooks to increase uniformity of presentation, an important aspect of brand equity.