House Style

Definition: No, it's not about the style of your residence. House style is a set of guidelines used in schools, in the publishing industry, and elsewhere that sets out things such as punctuation (quotation marks inside or outside a period), grammar, preferred spelling and capitalization (gray / grey or Web site / website), formatting of citations and other references, abbreviations (TX / Tex. or US / U.S.), and other matters related to both the readability and visual appearance of printed documents and Web sites.

House style may follow a standard style guide such as The Chicago Manual of Style (US), the Associated Press Stylebook (US), The Oxford Style Manual (UK), CP Stylebook (Canada), or one of many other published style guidebooks. However, an organization may have an internal house style that includes issues not covered in that style guide or that vary from these manuals.

House style may include matters such as the preferred fonts, colors, margins, and acceptable formats for electronic submission of materials. It may also dictate the way in which a company logo can be used and what standard style guidelines to use for matters not specifically addressed in the organization's internal house style guide.

Buy a Style Guide

The Elements of Style (general public classic)
The Chicago Manual of Style
Pocket Guide to the Chicago Manual of Style
MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian)
New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage
The Business Style Handbook
Business Grammar, Style & Usage
The ACS Style Guide (scientific)
The Redbook (legal)
The Bluebook of Grammar and Punctuation
AMA Manual of Style (medical)
Writing the Research Paper (MLA & APA Styles)

Also Known As: style guide | style manual | style book