STYLE SHEET (SAMPLE ONLY) - Proofreader

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STYLE SHEET (SAMPLE ONLY)

Title: Fabulous Suspense Novel
Author: J. Wordsmith

Go to: Language preferences
Go to: Notes on formatting and layout
Go to: Main character names and key features
Go to: Reference sources
Go to: Spelling preferences
Go to: Viewing amendments (MS Word’s Track Changes function)

Language preferences

Regional  UK English
spelling choice
iz/is suffixes  iz (e.g. organization)
 Some American slang
Slang/jargon/  Some Irish and American idiomatic phrasing
idiom  Some Irish words (set in roman as per your preference)

Other languages

Notes on formatting and layout

Abbreviations/  No full points: e.g. Dr, Mr, NATO, US, UK, AFO, DIY, EKG, ENT,
contractions ICU, PC

Chapters  Both styles (with full points and without) are used in professional
publishing but it’s much easier on the fiction reader’s eye if one
Comma splices omits the full points
(treatment)
Dialogue  Start chapters on new page
 Checked to ensure the style (including font, position on page, and

the space between these and the chapter text) was consistent
throughout

 Amended to avoid where readability impeded

 Ordered the punctuation so that it conforms with standard UK-
publishing style, i.e. closing punctuation falls within closing
quotation mark

Displayed Displayed matter doesn’t need quotation marks (see New Hart’s
matter Rules, section 4.14)
Ellipsis spacing
 Added space before ellipsis according to guidance from New Hart’s
Italic/roman Rules (Section 4.7), which says: ‘A normal word space is set either
words side in running text […] There is, however, no space after an
Layout ellipsis coming before closing punctuation.’
improvements
Numbers  Newspapers, boat names, music albums and book titles take italic;
articles and individual song titles are roman with quotation marks
Page numbering (New Hart’s Rules, section 7.2)

Paragraph  Indicated where layout might be improved on PDF version for
indentation hardcopy printing, especially in relation to short lines appearing at
Public buildings the top of a new page (otherwise known as widows)

Punctuation  Spell out all (except trade names, time, years and house numbers).
e.g. one, ten, twenty-one, ten thousand, 1967, 23 Penny Street, 7-
Quotation Eleven
marks
 It is standard practice in UK publishing to start Chapter 1 with a
Running heads page numbered 1, and this should be a right-hand (or recto) page.
Section breaks From then on, all odd-numbered pages sit on the right, and all
even-numbered pages sit on the left. The page numbers before the
Spaces main text (often called the prelims) take roman numerals, if they’re
Special text included
features
 First paragraph in chapter or new section is not indented (this is
standard in professional publishing)

 Shops, house names, etc., don’t need quotation marks around the
names (see New Hart’s Rules, section 4.14)

 e.g. The Old Vicarage (not ‘The Old Vicarage’)

 Parenthetical hyphens changed to spaced en rules: e.g. –
 Closed-up em rules for interruptions: e.g. ‘But—’
 Spaced ellipses for trailing sentences: …

(See New Hart’s Rules, section 4.11.2.)

 All quotation marks single, in accordance with usual UK publishing
convention, unless they are nested, i.e. quotation marks within
quotation marks. In this case the nested marks are doubles. See,
again, New Hart’s Rules (4.14)

 No space before closing punctuation

 Straight quotation marks changed to curly

 Checked the consistency of the running heads on both the right
and left-hand pages

 Introduced some section breaks for clarity, particularly when
there’s a sudden change of scene or point of view

 Used three asterisks and included line space above and below

 Double spaces changed to single

 Rogue spaces at end and beginning of paragraph removed

 Dream sequences in italic (your choice)
 Used italic for emphasis: e.g. ‘No!’

 Emails set as separate paragraphs; bold with line space above and
below

Styles palette  Set up styles in Word to ensure consistency and compatibility with
Time styles Kindle Direct Publishing
Titles and ranks
 Changed the line spacing as per advice in the KDP style guide

 11.45 pm (New Hart’s Rules recommends a space after the
number. Thus, 10 am or 9 pm, not 10am or 9pm)

 3 o’clock

 four thirty

 These take lower case when used generally, but initial capital letter
when used in a named person (e.g. President Obama, but the
president; Queen Elizabeth, but the queen)

 Titles of people: Mrs, Mr, Dr etc. (followed New Hart’s Rules,
section 10.2.6, Upper- and lower-case abbreviations, which says:
‘Contracted titles and components of names do not require a full
point.’)

Main character names and key features (back to top)

Johnny O’Leary  Groundsman at The Old Vicarage, 25 years old, dark-brown hair,
blue eyes, scar on left temple, son of Mal O’Leary and brother of

Katie Fraser (nee O’Leary), dating Mel

Katharine  Owner of The Old Vicarage, widowed, 55 years old, strawberry-
Marchment blonde hair, green eyes, late husband Richard Marchment (who
died in suspicious circumstances)
Mal O’Leary
 Two children (Johnny and Katie), 52 years old, shaved head,
grey/black beard, blue eyes, teetotal now (had drink problem in
past), runs plumbing business

Katie Fraser  Married to Mikey, 27 years old, dyed-blonde hair (dark-brown
(nee O’Leary) roots), blue eyes, social worker, owns dog called Spike, no children
but trying

Reference sources and resources (back to top)
 MediLexicon (powered by Stedman’s Medical Dictionary: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins)
 New Hart’s Rules
 New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors
 New Oxford Spelling Dictionary
 Oxford English Dictionary (online)
 Wiley Online Library
 www.urbandictionary.com
 www.wordnik.com

Spelling preferences (back to top)

AB CD EF
 adrenalin (no final e)  Ebola (initial cap)
 alright  centre (not center)  eclair (no accent needed)
 Atlantic (initial cap)  en route (no hyphen)
 bifocals (one word)  centuries: twentieth  focused/focuses
 BlackBerry (caps on both century (not 20th
century) LM
Bs)  licence (noun) / license
 break-in (noun)  chips (when said by Irish
 bye (short for goodbye – character means crisps) (verb)
 lie-in (noun)
apostrophe not needed)  close-up (noun)  machine gun (2 words)
 makeup (noun)
GHI  cooperate (no hyphen)  Marchment (not
 Glock  coordinate (no hyphen)
 goings-on  craic (retain Irish Marchmant)
 Goth (architecture); goth  matter-of-fact (attributive)
spelling)  mid (no hyphen)
(music/subculture)  middle-aged (attributive)
 grandad (not granddad)  Dáil, the (initial cap, RS
 Herculean (initial cap) accent)  SEAL (navy)
 I-95
 decision-making XYZ
(hyphen)  X-ray

 dive-bombed (hyphen)

JK

 Jack Russell (initial
caps)

 Jonathon

 jumpsuit (1 word)
 Katharine (not

Katherine)

NO PQ
 O’Leary (not O Leary or  per cent (not percent)
 police station (lower
O’Learey)
 Oireachtas case)
 ongoing  police station (lower

TU case)
 Taoiseach (singular, Irish
VW
PM)  V-shaped
 tiepin (1 word)  whisky (not whiskey)
 T-shirt  would-be (adjective)
 Tyndall effect (initial

capital as named after
John Tyndall)
 U-bend

Viewing amendments (MS Word’s Track Changes function)
The proofread was carried out in Word 2016. I’ve provided you with two files:

 A ‘clean’ file (with all the changes I’ve made embedded into the file, and only the
comments showing. This provides you with the ability to review the text as it currently
reads, but without the clutter of all the markup.

 A file with Track Changes switched on so that you can see, and accept or reject, the
amendments I’ve made to your work. If, when you open this file, you can’t see all of the
changes I’ve made, click on the Review tab in the Word ribbon at the top of your screen.
Then look for the Tracking section (circled in red).

In Word 2016 and 2013, the options you can choose from are:
 Simple Markup
 All Markup
 No Markup
 Original

Make sure that you select All Markup.

If you have an earlier version of Word, the markup menu may look different, for example:
 Final: Show Markup
 Final
 Original Showing Markup
 Original

In this case, select Final: Show Markup.

More detailed information about working with Track Changes in various versions of Word can
be found on the MS Office support site. Scroll down the entries, looking for the version that
applies to you (highlighted below):