COURSE STYLE GUIDE
Introduction
Hello! My name is Ida Rodgers, and I created this course style guide help my students. This style guide provides a one-stop resource for my students to answer the question: How does my teacher want me to do [fill in your query here]? This style guide also provides students with practice reading specific and detailed instructions. .
As you might have guessed, I designed this website for viewing on a computer, not a mobile device. If you are reading this on your cell phone or reading tablet and find navigation difficult, switch to a computer.
My students should follow the specifications found in this guide for their assignments unless instructed otherwise. Students should always feel free to check with me if they have a good, audience-based reason to do things differently. Spend a few minutes looking at the drop-down menus to see how much information is available to you here.
ALL ARE WELCOME
Other instructors are welcome to direct their students to this site or to borrow and amend this site for their own use according to my Creative Commons license.
BASED ON APA
Please note that this guide is based on - but does not exactly follow - the American Psychological Association (APA, 5th ed.) style except where 6th edition style is noted.
THINKING ABOUT STYLE GUIDES
One way to think about style guides (and becoming more comfortable with making the effort to use one) is to compare it with learning a foreign language. Languages have structure and vocabulary. Style guides have structure and details. A guide's structure is to the guide as grammar is to language. The guide's details are as critical to communicating as vocabulary is to those who use language. Thus, when we are learning to use a new guide, we must observe the guide's structure and learn some of its details. However, just as we can use dictionaries and phrase books when we are speaking a new language, we can use the guides to look up its details only when we have a need to know something specific. No one expects anyone to memorize entire guide books. When we encounter a a new style guide, the best way to approach it is to notice what structure and content it has in common with other guides. That information will help you more easily learn the rules in a new guide.
REFERENCE PUBLICATIONS
American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington DC: Author.
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington DC: Author.
Dobrin, S.I., Keller, C. J. & Weisser, C.R. (2008). Technical communication in the twenty-first century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Locker, K. O. (2006) Business and administrative communication (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Markel, M. (2007). Technical communication (8th ed.) Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.
As you might have guessed, I designed this website for viewing on a computer, not a mobile device. If you are reading this on your cell phone or reading tablet and find navigation difficult, switch to a computer.
My students should follow the specifications found in this guide for their assignments unless instructed otherwise. Students should always feel free to check with me if they have a good, audience-based reason to do things differently. Spend a few minutes looking at the drop-down menus to see how much information is available to you here.
ALL ARE WELCOME
Other instructors are welcome to direct their students to this site or to borrow and amend this site for their own use according to my Creative Commons license.
BASED ON APA
Please note that this guide is based on - but does not exactly follow - the American Psychological Association (APA, 5th ed.) style except where 6th edition style is noted.
THINKING ABOUT STYLE GUIDES
One way to think about style guides (and becoming more comfortable with making the effort to use one) is to compare it with learning a foreign language. Languages have structure and vocabulary. Style guides have structure and details. A guide's structure is to the guide as grammar is to language. The guide's details are as critical to communicating as vocabulary is to those who use language. Thus, when we are learning to use a new guide, we must observe the guide's structure and learn some of its details. However, just as we can use dictionaries and phrase books when we are speaking a new language, we can use the guides to look up its details only when we have a need to know something specific. No one expects anyone to memorize entire guide books. When we encounter a a new style guide, the best way to approach it is to notice what structure and content it has in common with other guides. That information will help you more easily learn the rules in a new guide.
REFERENCE PUBLICATIONS
American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington DC: Author.
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington DC: Author.
Dobrin, S.I., Keller, C. J. & Weisser, C.R. (2008). Technical communication in the twenty-first century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Locker, K. O. (2006) Business and administrative communication (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Markel, M. (2007). Technical communication (8th ed.) Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.
For Discussion
How does a style guide assist readers with navigating and accessing the specific information it documents?
Copyright
Course Style Guide by http://csg.rhettime.net/ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
Copyright Ida L. Rodgers, Ph.D., 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Edits and Revisions by James Piatt, 2008
Update: March 15, 2015
Link to personal site: http://rhettime.net
Edits and Revisions by James Piatt, 2008
Update: March 15, 2015
Link to personal site: http://rhettime.net