Seems wherever I go, I end up writing editorial style guides!

At my previous workplace, Young Disciple Ministries, I compiled the original style guidelines — which at first amounted to only one or two pages of very basic rules. Apparently that task defaulted to me because I fussed the most. Although editing was a secondary part of my job, I had always been a stickler for editorial consistency and grammatical correctness. I did not recognize it for many years, but I learned I had a pretty good eye and ear for correct grammar and construction, even when I didn’t know a participle from a misplaced modifier.

Later I went on to teach a college class in copyediting and proofreading. I think I did pretty well at it, despite sometimes learning the material barely in time to teach it! Once an older visitor to my class knew more about the subject than I did — so much more, in fact, that I couldn’t even understand her questions. That kept me humble. Shortcomings aside, I was a quick learner, and was soon up to speed.

When I came to 3ABN, I was surprised to find that there was no editorial style guide — although this became less surprising when I realized just how bad the editorial standards were, and how much inconsistency there was. We had everything from bad grammar to runaway exclamation marks to variations on how to spell “3ABN.” There were precious few procedures in place to prevent or correct these problems, as well. It was truly an embarrassment.

For many years I got by with a copy of my Young Disciple style guidelines, which I gradually added to. Eventually I decided to compile them into a book.

The first edition of the 3ABN Stylebook came out in 2007. I circulated it around, and at least several people used it regularly. A few thanked me for putting it together.

I originally meant to release a new one each year. I had settled on a binder format that made it easy to swap out pages, and it included a handy supplement section for various topics related to writing and editing. However, producing the second edition took longer than expected. But this year it was finally released — the 2010 Edition.

I am quite happy with the overall design and structure of the content. I compared several style books for ideas, and I think the result is quite practical and intuitive.

Here is a sample from one page:

The 3ABN Stylebook is currently 57 pages long, and covers over 100 topics — some of which are quite detailed, and others are simply about how to spell a word. Compared to other style books, it’s quite modest. However, I have no intention of competing with the Chicago Manual of Style.

It still has much room for improvement. There are continually new subjects to add, and old subjects that need more clarification, refinement, or rethinking. Although it has a table of contents and is presented in alphabetical order, it could really use an index. And I continue to look at ways to improve the overall format.

Personally I found this project exciting and rewarding. It was actually fun to put together, even though it was also a lot of work. And I’m already compiling changes for the next edition.