Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC
November/December 2003

Ask Elaine: A Matter of Style

by Elaine Parrish
DMV Copyeditor

If you have an editing question you’d like to see addressed in a future column, please submit it to Ask Elaine.

I’m constantly being asked questions like the following:

Which is correct: Web site, web site, or website?

In a phrase like, “A, B, C and D” should there be a comma after C?

Isn’t it wrong to write “Everybody has their pencil”?

The answer to all these questions is a definite “It depends.”

Writers are often dismayed or even suspicious when they hear this answer. Editors are supposed to store the answers to questions like these in our heads. If we don’t know the answer to a question, we are expected to look it up in one of the many reference books that clutter our desks and bookshelves. And every editing question is supposed to have an answer—ONE answer: yes or no; right or wrong; comma or no comma.

Well, it may come as a surprise, but editing is far from the exact science many writers believe it to be. Yes, many editing questions do have specific answers. There’s just no way, for example, that you can write a sentence containing a subject–verb disagreement or a blatant misspelling without incurring the wrath of the editorial red pen. However, there’s an entire class of editing issues for which there are no cut-and-dried, right-or-wrong answers. These are matters of style, and their answers depend on which particular style guide you’re using.

The Right Style Guide

It’s been observed that if you ask five different editors the same editing question, you’ll get six different answers—not only because editors are an opinionated bunch, but also because they’re probably all using different style guides. There are dozens of style guides to choose from. Your selection will depend on discipline, media, target audience, availability, number of writers involved, personal preference, and many other factors related to your specific project.

Take, for example, the third phrase posed at the beginning of this column. Depending on your age and where you went to school, you were probably taught to write either Everybody has his pencil or Everybody has his or her pencil. But believe it or not, no less an esteemed authority than the Chicago Manual of Style gave its blessing to the everybody/their construction, recommending in the 14th edition that the singular use of they and their be revived, and pointing to its use by a long list of respected writers. (For the record, they have reversed this opinion in the newly published Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition.)

“Pick and Stick”

Assuredly, some style guides are better than others, and it’s always safer to stay with one that’s respected in the industry. I’d tend to value the style judgments in Strunk and White more highly than those in, say, Larry, Moe, and Curly’s Guide to Talking Better English. But the most important thing to keep in mind is that, in matters of style, consistency reigns. Your readers probably won’t care whether you write Web site, web site, or website, but they could become annoyed or even confused if you fail to use the same styling throughout the project. In other words, pick one style and stick to it. Your readers—and your editor—will thank you for it.

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