Developing a Style Sheet

Membership of GSQs Writing Group has changed over the years, so for the benefit of new members, we have started to revisit some basics, which we originally covered in early meetings. One basic is the creation of a style sheet, which is extremely useful in ensuring your finished work is consistent in terms of spelling, style and many other issues. This is particularly the case if material is incorporated from various sources, especially the internet. Current word processing packages, such as Microsoft Word, apply automatic styles to written work and these may not be how you would prefer your material to be presented*. If your material has been written over a period of time, and you are now compiling several documents into one longer work, it’s quite likely that inconsistencies in style will emerge.

A style sheet can specify matters such as the font to be used and the size; format of paragraphs; headings and sub-headings; whether to capitalise or not, etc. It’s helpful to have a basic style for short pieces, and adjust this as necessary for longer works. Some elements may change, others may remain the same.

It is preferable to develop a system that works for you and the material you are working with – and be consistent throughout your document. When we read a professionally produced book we don’t really notice stylistic issues, unless something is suddenly different. Before choosing a style look through a wide range of books and see which you prefer and/or which is easiest to read. Here are some of my suggestions to help you, the writer, to implement a consistent type and style:

Style element	What to consider	Suggestions
Font – text and headings	Choose a font that is clear and easy to read; preferably the same for text and headings; main heading can be larger font size and bold	Arial or Times New Roman
Paragraph style	Various options are available, ranging from full block justified, to indented first line	Full block with ragged right margin
Capitalisation	Current trend is to limit capitalisation to names or proper nouns	Minimal capitalisation
Language	Determine which language is to be used, which is likely to be mainly English, and the standard for spelling	English, Macquarie dictionary
Languages other than English	Decide whether text in languages other than English should be typed as is, or italics, or bold, or in quotes or some other style. Extensive use of quotes, italics, etc. can be distracting and interrupt the flow of the text	Words and phrases in languages other than English are best accompanied by a translation unless the word or phrase is well-known within genealogy or family history
Tense	Which tense to use – past, present – it is easy to jump from one to the other without realising; this can interrupt the flow of the text and cause confusion in the mind of the reader	Choose a tense and be consistent in its use throughout the document
Surnames	Decide how to write surnames – full capitals, bold, italics, sentence case	Sentence case without emphasis
Years of birth and death	Many families use the same first names many times over the generations. It is therefore useful to include dates of birth and death after an individual’s name for clarification and readability or use a coding system	John Smith (1822-65) John Smith V
Names of ships, newspapers, hotels, etc	Decide on a style for names, bold, italics, underlined, ensuring that each can be distinguished from the other. Underlined is most difficult to read.	Italics or bold italics
Contractions or abbreviations	Excessive use of contractions or abbreviations can interrupt the flow of the text, unless these are well known in genealogy/family history, e.g. GRO for General Register Office; BDM/BMD for births marriages deaths	It is preferable to minimise the use of contractions or abbreviations unless well known
Dates and times	Lots of options for dates, e.g. 3 February 1900; 3rd February 1900; February 3rd 1900; February 3, 1900; 3/2/1900; 03/02/1900, etc. Options for times include, 10 a.m., 10pm, 10.00 am; 22.00 hours	Decide on the style you prefer and apply consistently throughout the document. It’s not necessary to change a date which is in a different style if it’s part of a quote. Take care with all numerals since Australian/UK style is day/month/year whereas American style is month/day/year
Numbers	Arabic numerals throughout or numbers under 10 written out and numbers over 10 in numerals	Numbers under 10 written out and over 10 in numerals; many people find Roman numerals difficult to work out
Quotes	Use of single or double quotes around unusual or certain words for emphasis can be distracting and is probably not necessary	It is preferable to minimise the use of single and double quotes unless the text is an actual quote
References	Standards exist for a wide variety of published and unpublished works	Consult relevant reference books

The above is a simple set of style guidelines, which can be adapted to suit your purposes. If you are writing a work which is to be published, then it would be worthwhile to consult the Australian Government Style Guide.

*I mentioned earlier that word processing packages such as Word can apply styles automatically to written work. In my version of Word there is a gallery of styles that can be selected or adapted to suit my preferences. Once I have decided what I want my normal style to be, I can set this as a default, so that all future documents will automatically be in this format. It is worth exploring what your word processing package offers.

Until next time

Pauline

GSQ Blog

Developing a Style Sheet

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