Style Guides (Part 2)

Every discipline has its own language and style. From expressions or terms, to abbreviations and contractions, to capitalisations. This is not necessarily documented in a journal or organisational Style Guide. However, you can develop your own Style Guide for your discipline to ensure consistency within your own work and across your discipline.

There is nothing worse than reading a sentence, paragraph or publication with inconsistent use or presentation of terms. This is distracting, possibly leading the reader to lose confidence in your writing. Use your own Style Guide to review and edit your work and remove inconsistencies. You can also provide this to anyone reviewing or editing your work. This is particularly useful when technical terms are not grammatically correct.

Finally, make sure your Style Guide also includes any terms or words in their correct form that you know are common errors in your work (see Understanding Your Weaknesses).