We’re impressed with the breadth of the site—there’s everything from tips on headline writing to ways to improve the SEO for your site. Editors will enjoy the Editing 101 section of the site, which seems to be a useful tool for quick answers on editing.

It remains to be seen whether people, organizations, and companies will adopt Yahoo’s style suggestions—especially since many of these groups have their own style standards or follow more traditional style guides. For the time being, however, the site serves as another good resource for both web writers and editors.

In particular, two changes will impact every document you write:

Heading levels.

APA’s sixth edition standardized heading levels, which was a relief to writers and editors alike. Rather than using different heading styles depending on the number of headings in a paper, APA now calls for writers to use standard heading levels whether they have two or five levels in their document. The APA Style Blog does a good job of explaining these new heading standards here.

Spaces between sentences.

APA has returned to two spaces between sentences in its sixth edition. APA explained that this change eases reader comprehension, making text easier to follow.

So, if you’re starting a new document using APA Style, keep these updates in mind. As always, we can help you with any style questions, so don’t hesitate to contact us!

Here are some formatting/style issues that editors can help with:

Table of Contents.

In Microsoft Word, students should assign formatting styles to their headings so that they can automatically generate a Table of Contents. For those unfamiliar with Word’s Styles and Formatting tools, this can be confusing. We can help develop the Table of Contents in any document.

Works Cited.

When you’re finished writing, the last thing you want to deal with is your works cited page. We can check your references to ensure they comply with your style guide.

Parenthetical citations.

Do you include the author’s last name in the parenthetical citation? Is there a comma between the last name and year of publication? How do you deal with an article by multiple authors? We check your parenthetical references against your style guide—and your Works Cited page to verify accuracy.

Check out the limited information on the guide here.

AP Style offers some guidelines for online publication, and news websites almost exclusively follow AP standards whether they’re publishing in print or online. It will be interesting to see if AP expands its online guidelines now that Yahoo! is releasing its style guide.

Even though news organizations might not adopt Yahoo’s guide, plenty of websites could use some writing guidance. Web writing can be a tricky subject, and there certainly aren’t universal standards for the web. After all, we can’t even agree whether it’s “website,” “Web site,” or “web site.” So, there is certainly a market—and a large one, at that—that needs a set of web writing standards.

We’re excited to check out the book in July. Will you be getting a copy?

While we’re on the subject, be sure to check out our tips for web writing.

Word counts are a great way to focus your article. A 2,000-word article will be much more detailed and have many more references than a 400-word overview. While word counts can guide your research and outlining, they can also leave writers counting words rather than focusing on the quality of their content.

As an editor, it’s easy to spot when writers are trying to meet a word count. Excessive use of vague, fluffy words like “very” or “really” and too many passive sentences are my first clues. I also look for repetition or sentences that state the same thing in a different way.

It’s important to follow your document’s style guidelines and meet the word count. However, quality always takes precedence over quality. If a writer is 50 words under the suggested word count, but her content is strong, I always let it slide. If you find yourself well under your word count, then go back to the drawing board, and identify any gaps in your research.

However, students and professionals also have to adapt to changing style. Your professor may require you to follow MLA, while your friend who is majoring in Psychology follows APA. If you switch majors, you may also switch style guides. A career shift brings countless changes, one of which may be embracing new style guidelines. For example, a journalist entering corporate America suddenly might be using that dreaded serial comma, which is frowned upon by AP style but required in most other style guides.

Here, we’ll highlight a few common style guides and what industries and disciplines use them.

American Psychological Association (APA) Style

The social sciences use APA style. The dissertations we edit, in disciplines ranging from nursing to engineering, almost always follow APA style, but these standards are often dictated by the university.

Associated Press (AP) Style

AP style is the book of choice for communications professionals. Journalists and PR pros exclusively follow AP style.

Chicago Manual of Style

Many publishers expect manuscripts to follow Chicago style. Publishers often have their own style standards as well but refer writers to Chicago for general style issues.

Modern Language Association (MLA) Style

If you’re a student that is not following APA, chances are you’re using MLA. MLA is another style guide used frequently in academia.

Microsoft Manual of Style

Technical communicators often refer to Microsoft’s relatively new style guide. Although technical writers and editors often work with project-level standards, Microsoft’s manual is another resource for technical documentation.

So, embrace change because you’ll probably use more than one style guide in your academic and professional career, just like we do!

Despite these limitations, Word’s Grammar tool offers some unique features that can be customized based on your style guidelines. Here are some quick tips for taking advantage of these features:

• On the toolbar, select Tools > Options.
• Select the Spelling & Grammar tab.
• Under Grammar, select Grammar & Style as the writing style, and select Settings.

Here, you can adjust the settings based on your needs. You can ask Word to check for the serial comma, you can choose whether you want punctuation inside or outside quotation marks, and you can indicate how many spaces there should be between sentences. Plus, you can select specific grammar rules that you want Word to check. Once you’ve identified your standards, Word’s Grammar tool with indicate deviations from these standards with that all-too-familiar green underline.

Use Word’s features to your advantage, and you can produce a cleaner copy of your document. Even though you can’t rely on Word as your only resource, you can maximize its capabilities with these tips.

Learn more about these new guidelines: Five Essential Tips for APA Style Headings.

In today’s digital age, access to a wealth of style information is just a click away. Rather than flipping through cumbersome style guides, you can now type in a query and find an answer in seconds. Check out these websites to save time and improve your style:

Learning APA Style gives you access to tutorials on a variety of topics, ranging from the basics of APA style to the latest edition’s updates. Don’t forget to check out the APA Style Blog, which offers excellent input from APA experts.

If you are in the journalism/communications field, stop by the AP Style Book site. An annual subscription provides you with online access to all things AP style, complete with a helpful search tool.

As we mentioned in an earlier blog post, the Chicago Manual of Style includes a thorough Q&A section that is searchable. Best of all, it’s free! With an annual subscription, you can search the full manual online.

With all of these tools just a click away, you can polish your paper with proper style in no time.