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RE: Style Guide standards: APA or the Chicago Manual of Style?
Subject:RE: Style Guide standards: APA or the Chicago Manual of Style? From:"Gilger.John" <JGilger -at- acresgaming -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 30 Jan 2003 09:49:32 -0800
IIRC, the APA manual is one of the "bibles" of academic writing (the other is the MLA). It advocates the stereotypical dry academic approach with a passive voice.
The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for publishing books, mostly. IMHO, it encourages a more readable style of writing.
I guess your style depends on what audience you are writing for -- the denizens of the ivory tower, or "normal" readers.
You could always be pragmatic and go with the time-tested Strunk & White ;)
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Swisher [mailto:PeteS -at- bmgi -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 09:35 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Style Guide standards: APA or the Chicago Manual of Style?
Your help is needed!
The company I am contracting at has not yet defined their writing style.
Think it a simple task, I was in the process of writing a style guide
for them. They asked me to hold off. Apparently, there is a big
political hoo ha about the undefined style guide around here. There are
two factions:
One side, including the president who has a doctorate in Physics and a
junior salesperson whose girlfriend is a "writer", believe in the APA.
The other side, including me and the HR manager whose friend is a
"writer", believe in the Chicago Manual of Style.
>From the archives, I've found the Chicago Manual of Style to be
preferred by this group. However, I couldn't find any other facts to
back it up. Could anyone help?
I didn't realize this would be such a big deal!
Thanks,
Pete
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