Supplemental Resources for Designing E-Learning: Developing Your Own Style Guide

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Developing Your Own Style Guide to Handle Issues Not Covered in Dictionaries and Style Guides

Despite their comprehensiveness, most dictionaries and style guides cannot address all of the issues that might arise as you design an online learning program. Sometimes, the exceptions apply to all products produced by a particular organization and sometimes the exceptions apply to a specific project.

In these instances, you need to document the exceptions. At the least, you have some written reference when questions arise in the future. At the most, your editor can use this information to make sure you consistently followed the exceptions in your information product.

These are common situations in which you can expect exceptions to the dictionary and style guide:

Terminology for the specific project that you are working on, that might not be covered by the dictionary or that might require more specific uses of terms than covered by the dictionary
Standard wording for instructions and explanations
Specialized uses of punctuation
Specialized notations for scientific and technical formulas

In her book on copyediting, Ann Judd suggests a simple means of recording changes to the style. She suggests taking a sheet of paper and dividing it into a grid, then marking the changes to the style in the appropriate block. Figure 8W-1 shows an example of such a grid that was developed for this book.

a, b, c

d, e, f

g, h, i

j, k, l

m, n, o

p, q, r
readers, use the term users instead

s, t, u
users, preferred term for readers

v, w, x

y, z

Headings
Chapter titles use named style
Heading 1 uses named style heading1
Heading 2 uses named style heading2
Heading 3 uses named style heading3
Note that named styles are preformatted

Capitalization

Punctuation

References
Using APA 4 style

Tables
Use MS Word Table Autoformat “Simple 1” design
Add inside border
Column heads in bold, upstyle capitalization (initial cap first major words)

Captions
Centered
Upstyle
Bold
Indicate the figure number (consecutive from beginning of the book)

Figure 8W-1: Example of a Style Sheet That Documents Exceptions to the Style

a, b, c	d, e, f	g, h, i
j, k, l	m, n, o	p, q, r readers, use the term users instead
s, t, u users, preferred term for readers	v, w, x	y, z
Headings Chapter titles use named style Heading 1 uses named style heading1 Heading 2 uses named style heading2 Heading 3 uses named style heading3 Note that named styles are preformatted	Capitalization	Punctuation
References Using APA 4 style	Tables Use MS Word Table Autoformat “Simple 1” design Add inside border Column heads in bold, upstyle capitalization (initial cap first major words)	Captions Centered Upstyle Bold Indicate the figure number (consecutive from beginning of the book)