Guardian Style Guide UK

librarian — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:57:29 +0000

Blogs have an informal style and often use slang, don’t always spell correctly and sometimes offend the rules of grammar. A blog writer is allowed a little leeway because of this but a freelance writer should at least be aware of the rules before they break them.

The use of a Style Guide is highly recommended. You can purchase one from a bookshop, for your country, and you will find that you will use it often if you need to write for other people.

Style Guides list specific examples of how to use language and when to use words.

An example is when to use ‘an’ and when to use ‘a’ in front of a word that begins with h.

Use ‘an’ only if the h is silent:
an hour, an heir, an honest woman;
but a hero, a hotel, a historian.

This is an on line Style Guide for the UK from The Guardian Newspaper.