Style manual preferences?

NexusSix

One of my current job duties is trying to get a consistent look and feel for my nonprofit agency's litereature, documents, biz cards, etc. I'm currently looking into purchasing (or getting an online subscription for) a style manual that would be a good fit for my organization and, of course, the two biggies 'round these parts are the Associated Press Stylebook and the Chicago Manual. Right now, it's looking like the choice between them is six and half a dozen. I've seen a few others like The Classis of Style, Bryson's and The Elements of Style.

Does anyone have a preference on any of the above manuals?

The style guide we pick will help us conform our agency literature and branding. We're a 501(c)(3) and focus on the following:

* Mental health and mental retardation services, including inpatient programs, deaf programs, assisted living programs, job placement assistance, substance abuse and counseling services.

* Intensive case management.

* Attempting to launch sulf-sustaining business ventures for our clients/consumers; ventures that, hopefully, will be self-sustaining and won't have to rely on any government funding after initial start-up.

If anyone knows a style manual that would be more suited to this type of nonprofit health services organization, I'd love some feedback. Also, would anyone recommend getting a one-year online subscription versus buying the latest hard copy edition?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Szechuanosaurus

All of the style guides you listed seem to be specifically for styling type - newspapers, scientific journals, general written English - rather than corporate design.

If you're publishing a newsletter or scientific journals, then one of them might be suitable, but if it's for generating a overall corporate identity I'm not sure if any of them are going to be totally useful. I don't really know about any of them, so I may be way off base, but I don't get the impression that any of them contain information applicable to, say, a layout for a business card.

The Elements of Typographic Style (not the same as The Elements of Style) is an excellent in-depth primer and reference for from-scratch typographic design although even that has a bias towards traditional publishing. It will at least teach you critical points on composition and typographic conventions that can be applied to any project.

AFAIK, there's no general style guides for corporate design except those designed with a particular company in mind to support the proper application of that particular companies identity across all media, but they wouldn't be much use to you except as an example of how to create your own style guide once you've settled on an overall design.


So, I'm not sure. Is this style guide specifically for publishing journals and/or newsletters or are you hoping for something that will allow you to rapidly develop an overall identity for the organisation?

satansfingers

the proper style guide to use is up to the publication. i like the economist's style guide, AP is probably the most common, but really you can use any.

elements of style is different from something like the AP style guide in that it is more of a guide to better writing than a reference manual.

i think you'll find that a hard copy is more useful than an online one, but it's personal preference really.

NexusSix

Thanks for the feedback!

Szechuanosaurus wrote: »

AFAIK, there's no general style guides for corporate design except those designed with a particular company in mind to support the proper application of that particular companies identity across all media, but they wouldn't be much use to you except as an example of how to create your own style guide once you've settled on an overall design.

Bold in quote: that's the ultimate goal of what I'm trying to put together with all of this--our own agency style manual. To get started, I'm looking for a good, general guide to use as a reference source/foundation and figured either AP or Chicago would be a good. I already have a short style guide put together with rules on placement of our logo, font that should be used in letters/documents/brochures, things like that. Now I'm looking to move on to things like consistent use of words (exs: nonprofit vs. non-profit, how credentials should appear for our board of directors, etc.), italics versus parens, just general things to make sure we're consistent across the board and everything is based on a single, unified style source.

My agency got started in 1969 and has never really put together a style guide for consistent agency branding/identity. Outside of our logo and letterhead, we've pretty much been willy nilly with all of our media and literature up to this point, and we've discovered that we're missing opportunities and potential funding because some folks just don't know who we are or what we do.

I was looking for any input or suggestions on the guides mentioned in the O.P. to see if anybody had strong feelings on any of the ones I listed--maybe a person who has worked with multiple style guides and feels one is the best--or if I'm really just choosing between six and half a dozen and it probably doesn't matter which one I go with? My research thus far hasn't shown a preference for a specific style guide by nonprofit health agencies and my development and marketing department is barely two years old, so this is all new territory for myself and my agency.

Edit:

satansfingers wrote: »

i think you'll find that a hard copy is more useful than an online one, but it's personal preference really.

That's what I was thinking, but I didn't want to miss out on any montly updates that might come with an online subscription. Personally, I'd rather have a bound book in my hands.

Thanks for the feedback, all.

Pants Man

turabian's chicago manual of style. i love it; i'm a senior history major, and i've used MLA, AP, and other types of parenthetical citations, and none of them hold a candle to turabian. it seems like you'd have a lot of documantation, and the chicago manual of style allows for a clear and concise way to present that without cluttering your text. i really like the way that it's organized, and i also think that it's by far the most "professional" style that i've seen.