Style manuals and disputed usage

This branch covers choosing and applying language authorities, divided by the judgement involved: assessing authority, identifying an edition, selecting the applicable manual, resolving a usage question, distinguishing preferences from rules and deciding when consistency helps the reader. It leaves particular rules of wording, sentence construction, grammar and punctuation, and the wider writer’s reference shelf, to neighbouring branches.

• How far a style manual or style guide is an authority — scope, shared decisions, judgement, disagreement and suitability for a document
• Working with a style manual edition — changes between editions, online updates, finding guidance, printings and annually revised material
• Which style manual applies — journal and recipient requirements, sponsor preferences and specialist manuals across disciplines
• Settling a usage, punctuation or grammar question — dictionaries, evidence of actual usage and references for punctuation questions
• Style preferences, contested rules and house decisions — descriptive and prescriptive rules, house conventions, meaning, audience and the cost of changes
• When consistency stops helping the reader — consistency, editorial judgement, flexibility and the cost of perfection