Business Writing Style Guide
When discussing new writing projects with potential clients, I’m sometimes asked which business writing style guide I follow. While I’ve read several publishers’ style guides, I don’t follow any one; style guides tend to be too long, and rules too obscure for me to consistently remember.
I’ve developed an amalgam of common-sense, high-level American and British writing conventions and consolidated them in this informal, concise guide that I share with clients and coworkers.
This document also serves as a reference to some of the key differences between American and British conventions.
Acronyms
Historically, American English used periods in initialisms like “F.B.I.”, “N.S.A.”, and “C.I.A.” However, modern American style guides have largely abandoned this practice for initialisms of three or more letters. Today, both American and British English typically write FBI, NSA, CIA, NATO, and similar initialisms without periods. The main remaining difference is that American English retains periods for some two-letter abbreviations (U.S., U.N.), while British English generally omits them (US, UN). I omit periods in all cases.
Both styles generally require periods for Latin abbreviations, including e.g. and i.e.
In American English, versus is generally abbreviated as “vs.” with a period. U.S. legal writing makes an exception, shortening it to “v.”, as in Brown v. Board of Education. In British English, the standard abbreviation is “vs” without a period, while British legal usage also shortens it to “v”. I prefer the British approach and use “vs”.
Commas
Comma rules are easy enough, except when it comes to separating a list of three or more terms, when deciding whether to place a comma before the conjunction (typically “or” or “and”). The issues are consistency and, arguably, clarity.
American English usage usually requires a comma after “e.g.”; British English does not. I follow the economy of British English and do not follow “e.g.” with a comma.
For consistency, I always place an Oxford comma, also referred to as a serial comma or series comma, prior to the conjunction. If the comma preceding the conjunction doesn’t make sense, I rewrite the sentence.
Everyone’s read funny examples demonstrating why Oxford commas are important. With the Oxford comma, there are clearly at least four people on the invitation list: We invited the baristas, JFK, and Stalin. However without the Oxford comma, arguably only two people are expected: We invited the baristas, JFK and Stalin. When Oxford commas are used consistently, there is no question about intent.
Dates
British English specifies that dates should be written in order from most specific to most general, Day/Month/Year format. American English most commonly requires dates in Month/Day/Year format. While the British style is more logical, I typically follow the American format for US readers.
In email, I abbreviate month names (e.g. Sep for September) because it’s less to type.
I never use British expressions such as “half five” or, for Pete’s sake, “fortnight”, preferring instead to use “5:30” or “two weeks”.
Hyphen vs Em Dash vs En Dash
A reader accurately pointed out that I inconsistently use hyphens and dashes. These are the rules by which I do my best:
- The hyphen is the shortest of the three horizontal marks, and is used primarily to create compound words, e.g. “single-quoted”, “double-quoted”. I don’t use spaces around a hyphen unless it’s hanging as part of a list, e.g. “single- and double-quoted”. On the American English keyboard, the hyphen key is just above the letter “p” and unshifted.
- En dash is the middle child—longer than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash, and frequently overlooked. The en dash indicates “through”, and is most commonly used to indicate inclusive time, date, and page ranges (e.g. “Jan–Dec”, “9–5”).
- The em dash is the longest of these marks. I used to use it to break the end of a sentence out from the main clause, or to enclose a word or phrase for emphasis; however AI content generation has ruined the mark due to overuse. Until AI-generated content is improved, I do not use em dashes.
- Fun fact: the en dash is the width of the letter N and the em dash is the width of the letter M.
Hyphenated Words
The English language’s constant evolution makes it difficult for writers to determine when words should be hyphenated. Just as compound words are formed all the time, many originally-compounded words drop the hyphen and become closed as they become more familiar. For example, “to-day”, “week-end”, or “good-bye” were all originally compounded words.
These words were once hyphenated but should no longer be:
- coworker
- ebook
- login, logon, logout(as nouns; log in and log out are verbs)
- online
- startup
- videogame
- website
Most “co-” and “pre-” compounds no longer take a hyphen unless needed for clarity:
- cooperate (not co-operate)
- coordinate (not co-ordinate)
- preexisting (not pre-existing)
Use hyphens to avoid ambiguity (for example, re-sign vs resign).
Numbers
When counting up to nine things, I spell the words representing the numbers. For 10 things or more, I use the numbers. The Chicago Manual of Style prescribes spelling out numbers up to 100, as well as large round numbers, but that feels old-fashioned: for example, 52 versus fifty-two.
Quotations
American English requires that commas and periods go inside the quotation marks regardless of whether they’re part of the quotation, making the following correct: “Describe the risk management strategy used by the vendor,” he said. British English keeps this punctuation outside the quotation marks when they’re not part of the quotation, making the following correct: “Describe the risk management strategy used by the vendor”, he said. I follow the British style.
British English uses single quotes for main quotations and double quotes for quotations within quotations. American English specifies the opposite: initial quotations are double-quoted, with inner quotations single-quoted. I follow the American style.
Semicolons and Colons
I use semicolons to separate lists where items themselves include commas; this is pretty normal. I also use colons frequently, probably more than necessary. I like to use colons where whatever is described in the second phrase is clearly a result of the first.
Spaces After Periods
Modern punctuation rules dictate that there should be one space following a period or full stop; however, I frequently add two spaces due to muscle memory and because my various writing devices automatically add a period to the previous sentence. I write with two spaces but consolidate to one when proofreading.
Time
British English rules require that time be shown in a 24-hour format (e.g. 16.15 or 16:15), instead of the American-style 12-hour clock with AM/PM (e.g. 4:15 PM). While my computer, phone, watch, and alarm clock are all set up to use the 24-hour, military-style time display, for business writing, I follow the American rule.
Titles
American English specifies that titles, such as Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr., etc., require periods, while British English does not, making Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr, etc. all correct. I follow the British convention, which looks cleaner.
Spelling
While there are spelling differences between British and American English, I follow the American dictionary, favoring “center” vs “centre”, “honor” vs “honour”, “while” vs “whilst”, “legalize” vs “legalise”. That said, if my client is in a region where British English is standard, I follow those conventions.
Vocabulary
Differences between British and American vocabulary are too numerous to mention, but unless I know that the local word can be construed as offensive by a non-American reader, I stick to American vocabulary. So “trainers”, “jumper”, and “boot” each get the boot in favor of “sneakers”, “sweater”, and “trunk”. That said, I will use “trousers” and “underwear” to avoid the ambiguity of “pants”, which means different things in American and British English.
I avoid empty modifiers, such as “really”, “very”, “virtually”, etc., and obvious phrases, like “honestly”, “in my opinion”, etc.
Years
Historically, some American writers used an apostrophe in plural decades (1960’s), but modern American and British English both omit it: 1960s. Both styles use an apostrophe only when the century is omitted (’30s), indicating the missing digits.
Style Guide References
Here is a list of online and hard-copy style guides worth reviewing.