RE: Style Guide standards: APA or the Chicago Manual of Style?

Subject: RE: Style Guide standards: APA or the Chicago Manual of Style?
From: "Gilger.John" <JGilger -at- acresgaming -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 09:49:32 -0800


IIRC, the APA manual is one of the "bibles" of academic writing (the other is the MLA). It advocates the stereotypical dry academic approach with a passive voice.

The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for publishing books, mostly. IMHO, it encourages a more readable style of writing.

I guess your style depends on what audience you are writing for -- the denizens of the ivory tower, or "normal" readers.

You could always be pragmatic and go with the time-tested Strunk & White ;)

John

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Swisher [mailto:PeteS -at- bmgi -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 09:35 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Style Guide standards: APA or the Chicago Manual of Style?



Your help is needed!

The company I am contracting at has not yet defined their writing style.
Think it a simple task, I was in the process of writing a style guide
for them. They asked me to hold off. Apparently, there is a big
political hoo ha about the undefined style guide around here. There are
two factions:

One side, including the president who has a doctorate in Physics and a
junior salesperson whose girlfriend is a "writer", believe in the APA.

The other side, including me and the HR manager whose friend is a
"writer", believe in the Chicago Manual of Style.

>From the archives, I've found the Chicago Manual of Style to be
preferred by this group. However, I couldn't find any other facts to
back it up. Could anyone help?

I didn't realize this would be such a big deal!

Thanks,
Pete

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A new book on Single Sourcing has been released by William Andrew
Publishing: _Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation_
is now available at: http://www.williamandrew.com/titles/1491.html.

Help Authoring Seminar 2003, coming soon to a city near you! Attend this
educational and affordable one-day seminar covering existing and emerging
trends in Help authoring technology. See http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



Previous by Author: RE: Cheap SQL application
Next by Author: Certifications Applicable to IT Tech Writers in DoD?
Previous by Thread: Re: Style Guide standards: APA or the Chicago Manual of Style?
Next by Thread: Re: Style Guide standards: APA or the Chicago Manual of Style?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads