Guidelines

The function of any style guide is to take the “devil” out of the details — to make life easier for the user and promote a professional and consistent style. The details of style may be among the easiest to overlook, but they are also, ironically, the most likely to cause embarrassment or, worse, confusion. This guide can help prevent both.

The following is a compilation of frequently used words and troublesome constructions extracted from several style guides. University of Missouri Department of Publications and Alumni Communication editors, who compiled these guidelines, also have added local usage and dealt with frequently encountered mistakes.

The publications office follows The Associated Press Stylebook as its main guide and uses Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition. Editors have developed local style rules for MIZZOU magazine and Mizzou Weekly. These rules also apply to those working on text for MU publications, Web sites, e-newsletters and other projects. Writers and editors should have at least two stylebooks, one containing widely accepted rules (The Associated Press Stylebook) and one that contains specific rules for their publication, office, school or college. This one is an example of the latter.

Other reference works consulted in creating these guidelines include the Columbia Missourian local stylebook, the University of Missouri System style policies, The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, Working with Words: A Handbook for Media Writers and Editors by Brian Brooks and James Pinson, Plain English Handbook by J. Martyn Walsh, The Word by the Associated Press, and E-What? A Guide to the Quirks of New Media Style and Usage from EEI Press. Technical or scientific writers and editors should use a guide appropriate to their intended audience

This is an evolving document, reviewed periodically to conform to changing usage. For updates, visit publications.missouri.edu.