A Matter of Style
By Kristen M. Clark and Nicole Wayland
A best practice of having an in-house style guide is maintaining it: making sure every so often that the style standards in the guide are still current and meaningful to the organization, its intended audience, and its publications.
ACES Communications and Publications Committee went through that very process this summer, updating ACES’ own style guide to ensure it continues serving the needs of the organization while reflecting evolving language usage and recent updates in professional style standards.
The ACES Style Guide is for presenters too
ACES’ style guide enables consistency in ACES’ publications — but it’s also meant as a resource for those who support ACES conferences and webcasts as presenters. The style guide gives us all a consistent point of reference from which we can align our content, supporting that professional quality we all value as editors.
In embarking on this update to the ACES Style Guide, our committee formed a small task force and set about dividing up the work. We reviewed the existing style guide and recommended initial updates based on our knowledge of conscious language and evolving word usage.
Then we reviewed each entry against the 2024 version of the AP Stylebook, which is the predominant style ACES follows. For instance, as AP updated its style this year on punctuating bulleted lists, we updated that entry in the ACES Style Guide as well.
What if I mostly use Chicago?
We recognize many editors follow the Chicago Manual of Style in their day-to-day work, so here are six key differences — plus a bonus question — between AP and Chicago style to keep in mind when you’re using the ACES Style Guide:
After spelling out the term on first reference:
AP: Either enclose the abbreviation in commas or use the abbreviation shortly thereafter on secondary references.
ex: ACES: The Society for Editing hosts a conference each spring. I love ACES.
Chicago: Enclose the abbreviation immediately thereafter in parentheses (although it can be introduced in other ways, too).
ex: ACES: The Society for Editing (ACES) hosts a conference each spring. I love ACES.
For headlines or headings:
AP: Use sentence case, where the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.
ex: A matter of style: Updating ACES’ style guide to serve our members
Chicago: Use title case — where the first and last words are capitalized, as are all other major words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, some conjunctions, and prepositions of five or more letters). The articles a, an, and the and the infinitive to are lowercase, as are shorter prepositions and common coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, or, and nor).
ex: A Matter of Style: Updating ACES’ Style Guide to Serve Our Members
AP: Most titles are in quotation marks because AP does not use italics.
ex: I loved the musical “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.”
Chicago: Most titles are in italics.
ex: I loved the musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.
When listing a month with a date:
AP: Abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec. (March, April, May, June, and July are never abbreviated.)
ex: Veterans Day is every year on Nov. 11.
Chicago: Spell out all months.
ex: Veterans Day is every year on November 11.
AP: Generally spell out numbers under 10; use numerals for 10 and above.
ex: I want two dogs and 10 cats.
Chicago: Generally spell out numbers zero through 100 and certain round multiples of those numbers. (Chicago’s alternate rule for numbers aligns with AP style.)
ex: I want two dogs and ten cats.
AP and Chicago have several different preferences here; we’ll highlight a couple of notable ones.
AP: Use spaces around em dashes and with ellipses. But don’t include spaces between the periods in an ellipsis.
ex: I do love a good em dash — for emphasis.
ex: They paused … took a deep breath … and continued their speech.
Chicago: Don’t use spaces around em dashes. Use spaces around ellipses and include a space between each period in an ellipsis.
ex: I do love a good em dash—for emphasis.
ex: They paused . . . took a deep breath . . . and continued their speech.
Note: Use a hyphen for date and time ranges because AP does not use en dashes.
Ah, yes — the great debate! Chicago strongly endorses using the serial comma to prevent ambiguity, while AP takes a more nuanced view.
AP style calls for using the serial comma when necessary for clarity and otherwise leaving out that extra comma when it’s not needed. AP also encourages rewriting a sentence to avoid instances of ambiguity.
Worry not, lovers of the Oxford comma: ACES deviates from AP style on this one. ACES uses the serial comma in its style.
Kristen Clark and Nicole Wayland are both members of ACES’ Communications and Publications Committee.
Kristen Clark has been an ACES member since 2022. She has over 15 years’ experience as a government editor, plain language writing coach, and journalist. In 2023, she founded Pristine Clarity as a side gig to support and empower more organizations in using plain language for effective communication. Learn more about Kristen on her website or on LinkedIn.
Nicole Wayland started her publishing career at an academic press, where she managed more than 200 titles in the arts and humanities. In 2012, she started her own business to offer copyediting and proofreading services. She currently focuses on children’s and young adult fiction, as well as fiction and nonfiction titles for adults. You can find out more about Nicole at her website or on LinkedIn!
