[manual-of-style] Manual of style for the manual of style

[koalie]

Section 11.3 Punctuation says:

Use correct punctuation. A hard copy of The Chicago Manual of Style or The Gregg Reference Manual may be of some help.

The Reference section includes a 404 (twice):

[GRM]
Frequently Asked Questions, The Gregg Reference Manual Instructor Site, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2000. This FAQ is online at http://www.glencoe.com/ps/grm/faqs.

So I don't know exactly what was shown at "The Gregg Reference Manual Instructor Site".

In any case, my question is: are these two recommendations still good ones? (I do not have any copy of such books myself)

[tamsinewing555]

@koalie Regarding whether the style guides you referred to are still good, I don't have access to either of these, apart from the free online version of the Chicago Manual of Style, which only gives me a limited view. So, it's best that @shawna-slh answers that question.

If we're going to reference a style guide, I think it would be good to compare a couple of style guides against some issues we commonly come up against and find the one that best meets W3C needs.

For W3C, I think it should be one that, if possible:

• includes considerations for writing for the web vs writing for print (e.g., syntax and punctuation, and formatting/styles that impact readability)
• is updated regularly to reflect modern spelling/terminology and capitalization (e.g., email, internet)
• captures advancing technology (e.g., assistive technologies) and social change (e.g., how we refer to gender).

[TallTed]

The sites for the Gregg Manual have changed many times. McGraw-Hill would benefit from more attentive webmasters. The links in the Style Guide could be changed to ones that reflect the current McGraw-Hill (or Gregg) website, or someone could explore the Internet Archive and provide current links that reach the archived page that was once shown when surfing to the old links (or at least, nearby).

[chrisn]

Here's the Gregg FAQ, from the internet archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20030226022529/http://www.glencoe.com/ps/grm/faqs/ - this talks about how to write "e-mail" and "Web" so could probably be dropped as a reference from the Guide.

[shawna-slh]

Unfortunately, there are no comprehensive, authoritative, up-to-date, relevant for W3C web writing, free online style guides, afaik.

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style might come close. I haven't reviewed it to see how it differs and lines up with those listed below.

When I was writing and editing, I used:

• MLA (Modern Language Association) Handbook
• Chicago Manual of Style
• AP (Associated Press) Stylebook
• APA (American Psychological Association) Style

It would be good to pick a style guide(s) to be our first reference in deciding on W3C style. And, there may be situations where we decide to do something differently.