A style guide or style manual is a set of standards for design and writing of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication or organization. Style guides are commonly used by technical communicators in large organizations.
Misplaced modifiers are usually obvious and easily fixed.
NASA Guide to Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization: A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors 
This publication is directed toward professional writers, editors, and proofreaders. Those whose profession lies in other areas (for example, research or management), but who have occasion to write or review others' writing will also find this information useful. By carefully studying the examples and revisions to these examples, you can discern most of the techniques in my editing 'bag of tricks'; I hope that you editors will find these of particular interest.
McCaskill, Mary K. NASA (1990). Reference>Style Guides>Writing
As writers and editors, we understand instinctively that readers need transitions, but we also work at getting rid of unnecessary words.
Dahl, Elisabeth. Editorial Eye, The (1996). Articles>Writing>Style Guides
Nonstandard Quotes: Superimpositions and Cultural Maps

We regularly chastise students for placing quotation marks around words that are not direct quotations. Yet, as this research shows, professionals use nonstandard quotations routinely and to rhetorical advantage. After analyzing the various purposes nonstandard quotations serve, I argue student use of the marks jars us not because it departs from good practice but because, through them, students invoke voices we do not want to recognize.
Schneider, Barbara. CCC (2002). Articles>Style Guides>Standards>Rhetoric
Not a Style Guide: Creating a Quick Reference Grammar Guide for Writers 
When approached by a group of curriculum design specialists to develop a job aid that would help analysts and trainers solve some of their most common writing problems, the Multinational Customer and Service Education (MC&SE) editing group from Xerox Corporation went to work to produce The Write Stuff: When to Use a Comma and Other Writing Rules. This paper focuses on the Leadership Through Quality process the editors used to develop this reference tool. It also describes how The Write Stuff addresses some of the most common writing problems editors encounter in the course of a working day.
Cowan, Elisabeth J.S., Raymond J. Doughty Paul F. Ferguson, Ted Moss, and Karen Sliva. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Editing>Style Guides
Explains English parts of speech and gives several usage examples.
Online Style Guides: Getting Past Caps and Commas
Style, and style guides, are perennial hot topic in the online content business. Many content professionals seem preoccupied with finding the ultimate, authoritative source with the final word on whether 'Internet' should be capitalized, or whether 'Web site' is one word or two. But in reality, such questions are among the least important concerns of online style. Where you put the punctuation doesn't matter nearly as much as how you shape and deliver your messages.
Gahran, Amy. Contentious (2001). Articles>Style Guides>Online
This section was part of a chapter made up of the following: Content—provides strategies for thinking of useful content for writing projects, in other words, developing the content of a project. Organization—provides strategies for reviewing the sequence and arrangement of the contents of a writing project. Transitions—provides review strategies for checking the coherence of a writing project, in other words, the 'flow' of the project as created by the transitions.
McMurrey, David A. Illuminati Online (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Style Guides
Painless Ways to Improve Colleagues' Grammar
Instead of confronting individuals, raise all staff members' awareness. Use humor to help people recognize errors and remember correct usage.
The Passive In Technical and Scientific Writing 
Almost every discussion of technical or scientific style mentions the passive voice, usually as a stylistic evil to avoid. While I doubt that many of us would endorse such extreme prescriptions as 'Always use the active voice,' or 'A writer will almost automatically improve his style when he shifts from passive to active constructions,' we may be more ready to accept Freedman's position in 'The Seven Sins of Technical Writing.' His Sin 6 is 'the Deadly Passive, or, better, deadening passive; it takes the life out of writing, making everything impersonal, eternal, remote and dead,'3 but he adds that 'frequently, of course, the passive is not a sin and not deadly, for there simply is no active agent and the material must be put impersonally.'
Rodman, Lilita. JAC (1981). Articles>Writing>Style Guides
Polished Panache: The Empowered Corporate Style Guide 
A customized style guide is a document that defines the specific formatting, mechanical, punctuation, and spelling standards for your department or company. When you decide that you need a customized style guide, many questions arise: Where do you start? How do you get there? Exactly where is it you want to go? Are there more issues you need to define? Deciding that you need a customized style guide is the first hurdle. Persuading upper-level management to fund the guide is the second hurdle. And then it’s off to the races...
Corbett, Lori. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Style Guides
Some people write well but allow themselves to be disabled by a fear of punctuation and grammar. They know how to prewrite, organize, and revise, but proofreading for punctuation and grammar causes them difficulties. There’s no need to fear these conventions of standard written English. In fact, these conventions can help you become a more effective communicator.
Olson, Gary A. Illinois State University (1999). Reference>Style Guides>Editing>Grammar
Reconsidering Some Prescriptive Rules of Grammar and Composition

Technical writers and editors are beset with rules. As authoritative as they are, published style guides such as The Chicago manual of style, MLA, APA, and Gregg do not address reading theory but hang their prescriptions on the flimsy mantle of tradition. This article challenges some putative rules of grammar and mechanics in an effort to improve technical texts for the people who read them.
Connatser, Bradford R. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Style Guides>Grammar
The Reference Book That Editorial Eye Built 
About three years ago we were asked whether we would be interested in writing a new and different kind of style manual: * In addition to covering all the traditional style topics, such as capitalization and punctuation, it would have chapters on grammar, confusable words, usage (including bias-free language), and all aspects of production, from design and typography to desktop publishing and printing. * Its audience would be the vast majority of working writers and editors, not just those who work with scholarly manuscripts. * It would be written and organized in a friendly, easy-to-read style and reflect the impact of the computer on every aspect of the publishing process. Although we were a bit cowed at the thought of tackling such a big project -- it turned out to be 836 pages -- we didn't see how we could turn down the chance to create a guide that was truly useful.
Sutcliffe, Andrea J. Editorial Eye, The (2003). Articles>Style Guides>Writing
La puntuación de los textos escritos, con la que se pretende reproducir la entonación de la lengua oral, constituye un capítulo importante dentro de la ortografía de cualquier idioma. De ella depende en gran parte la correcta expresión y comprensión de los mensajes escritos. La puntuación organiza el discurso y sus diferentes elementos y permite evitar la ambigüedad en textos que, sin su empleo, podrían tener interpretaciones diferentes.
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. (Spanish) Reference>Style Guides>Writing
Reported Speech: a Tense Issue
The tense of the verb in a statement is, as a general rule, shifted back in time in reported speech.
The Rhetoric of the Paragraph: A Reconsideration 
Efforts to define the fundamental structures that enable meaning in discourse have a long history, beginning with ancient speculation. Classical logic, rhetoric, and grammar imposed restrictions on the processes of composing, as well as the shapes of finished texts, in order to safeguard the truth by attending to prerequisites for its effective communication. From earliest times, a concern for vindicating some larger moral order, and for teaching others to appreciate it, has often motivated pronouncements on the nature of verbal form. From Quintilian to the present, for example, teacher-scholars have striven to insure that logical and aesthetic values celebrated in the classical doctrine of decorum are made suitably manifest in student performance, as though to enforce publicly accepted styles of thought and action by reference to acceptable forms of language.
Knoblauch, C.H. JAC (1981). Articles>Writing>Style Guides
Sample IEEE Documentation Style for References
References to sources should be numbered sequentially by order of mention in the text, with the number placed in brackets and printed on line (not as a super- or subscript) like [1].
Sample Paper Formatted Using APA Style Guide
A sample research paper, formatted using the APA style guide.
Sample Paper Formatted Using CBE Style Guide
A sample research paper, formatted using the CBE Style Guide.
Sample Paper Formatted Using Chicago Style 
A sample research paper, formatted using the Chicago Style.
Sample Paper Formatted Using MLA Style Guide
A sample research paper, formatted using the MLA style guide.
Review: Scientific Style Manual Aspires to International Scope
Despite what some U.S. editors may see as flaws or debatable recommendations, sooner or later anyone who edits scientific writing will consult Scientific Style and Format. Some may disagree with its style conventions, but they can be defended as serving the editors' stated goal of achieving a uniform international style for scientific publications.
Ivey, Keith C. Editorial Eye, The (1996). Resources>Reviews>Style Guides>Scientific Communication
The Scientific Style Manual: A Reliable Guide to Practice?

Is the scientific style manual a reliable guide with regard to the organization and content of the typical scientific article? The answer is, yes and no. Style manuals do provide much sound advice based on their authors' personal experience. However, they also pass on some advice at odds with recently published literature regarding how scientists actually conduct research and write up their findings. This article presents a revised model for the scientific article, a model base don information in recently published research on communication in science.
Harmon, Joseph E. and Alan G. Gross. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Style Guides>Scientific Communication
A style guide is essential for a successful project. Many of our clients have their own style guidelines, which we follow to ensure that our work matches what they produce in-house. However, some clients do not have internal style guides. We have developed our own style guide to ensure our work on their projects is consistent. Putting the style guide on the web eliminates distribution problems and ensures that we always use the latest version.
Scriptorium (2001). Reference>Style Guides
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