• What’s a Style Guide and Which One Should I Use?

    What are Style Guides? It can get downright confusing to remember all the writing rules set in place centuries ago. That’s where style guides come in handy; a style guide is a manual that details the standards for writing, designing, and publishing various publications. There are many types of industries publishing materials within their area of expertise. Style guides are specifically created to keep writers, editors, and designers on the same page when working on a project. In your high school and college English classes, you most likely used a style called MLA, or The Modern Language Association Handbook. If you’ve done…

  • How to Show Emphasis Without Typing in All-Capitals

    As an editor here at Xulon Press, I have read hundreds of manuscripts. Maybe even thousands. However, the top three things that I’ve seen on a consistent basis is: overuse of the exclamation point, misuse of the semicolon, and capitalizing words and phrases in order to convey emphasis to the reader. While we’ve covered the first two, we haven’t covered what it means to capitalize entire words and phrases, so allow me to explain. It’s pretty well-known that if someone says something to you through text, email, instant message, or any other written/typed communication in all capitals, it means they’re…