IBM Style Guide, The: Conventions for Writers and Editors
- By Francis DeRespinis, Peter Hayward, Jana Jenkins, Amy Laird, Leslie McDonald, Eric Radzinski
- Published Jun 20, 2011 by IBM Press. Part of the IBM Press series.
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Description
- Copyright 2011
- Dimensions: 7" x 9-1/8"
- Pages: 416
- Edition: 1st
- Rough Cuts
- ISBN-10: 0-13-211897-1
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-211897-2
This is the Rough Cut version of the printed book.
The IBM Style Guide distills IBM wisdom for developing superior content: information that is consistent, clear, concise, and easy to translate. The IBM Style Guide can help any organization improve and standardize content across authors, delivery mechanisms, and geographic locations.This expert guide contains practical guidance on topic-based writing, writing content for different media types, and writing for global audiences.
Throughout, the authors illustrate the guidance with many examples of correct and incorrect usage.
Writers and editors will find authoritative guidance on issues ranging from structuring information to writing usable procedures to presenting web addresses to handling cultural sensitivities.
The guidelines cover these topics:
- Using language and grammar to write clearly and consistently
- Applying punctuation marks and special characters correctly
- Formatting, organizing, and structuring information so that it is easy to find and use
- Using footnotes, cross-references, and links to point readers to valuable, related information
- Presenting numerical information clearly
- Documenting computer interfaces to make it easy for users to achieve their goals
- Writing for diverse audiences, including guidelines for improving accessibility
- Preparing clear and effective glossaries and indexes
Sample Content
Table of Contents
Foreword xviii
About this publication xxi
Acknowledgments xxii
About the authors xxiv
Chapter 1 Language and grammar 1
Abbreviations 1
General guidelines 1
Spelled-out forms of abbreviations 3
Periods with abbreviations 5
Latin abbreviations 6
Abbreviations in headings and titles 7
Abbreviations in glossaries 7
Abbreviations in indexes 7
Abbreviations for units of time 8
Anthropomorphism 8
Articles 10
Capitalization 11
Capitalization styles 11
Capitalization and abbreviations 13
Capitalization and colons 14
Capitalization and figures 14
Capitalization in general text 14
Capitalization in glossaries 16
Capitalization in headings and titles 16
Capitalization and hyphens 17
Capitalization in indexes 18
Capitalization in interfaces 18
Capitalization of letters as letters 19
Capitalization in lists 20
Capitalization for tables in text 20
Capitalization of computer-related terms 20
Contractions 24
Prepositions 25
Pronouns 27
Ambiguous pronoun references 27
ender-neutral pronouns 27
Personal pronouns 29
Relative pronouns 29
Spelling 30
Verbs 31
General guidelines 31
Mood 32
Person 33
Tense 35
Voice 35
Chapter 2 Punctuation 37
Punctuation marks and special characters 37
Individual punctuation marks or special characters 37
Series of punctuation marks or special characters 39
Common punctuation marks and special characters 39
Apostrophes 41
Apostrophes in plurals 41
Apostrophes in possessives 41
Colons 42
Colons in running text 42
Colons in headings and titles 43
Colons after introductory text 43
Colons and capitalization 44
Colons with numbers 45
Commas 45
Commas between clauses 45
Commas after introductory words and phrases 46
Commas between items in a series 47
Commas with nonrestrictive clauses 47
Commas as separators in numbers 47
Commas with quotation marks 48
Dashes 48
En dashes 48
Em