style matters

We write the year 2020—the very year that marks the 15th anniversary of the text clinic.

For just as long, my intention has been to put brief little summaries of some of the most frequently recurring style questions up on my site. Every time one of these aspects has come up in discussions with colleagues or clients, I thought, “now, wouldn’t it be nice if I could just refer to a short piece on the internet.”

But why does style matter? The answer is simple: Good style makes arguments more persuasive and engaging.

So, here are the first chapters of my personal style guide, with more to follow in due course. While each of the items presented is based on at least one of the major available style guides for American English, I am here summarizing my own preferences in terms of which recommendations to combine.

• Expressing numbers in text
• Punctuation
• Differences in punctuation between English and German
• Use of the trademark symbol