NGM Blog Central - National Geographic Style Manual - National Geographic Magazine

Like most publications, large and small, National Geographic follows an in-house guide for style and word usage. Unlike most publications, however, National Geographic’s guide is free, online, and available to the public. It’s a great resource for writers, editors, and anyone else looking for guidance on matters of language style.

So what’s in the National Geographic Style Manual? For starters, nearly half a century of editorial expertise and guidance. The first version was created in 1962 on a typewriter—with carbon copies. Throughout the years we’ve expanded the manual, which includes word usage, preferred spellings, guides to punctuation and some grammar, and—since we’re a geographic institution—lots of information relating to geography.

We reduced the manual’s carbon footprint in 1995 by moving it online. You can get to it by typing “stylemanual.ngs.org” into your Web browser or by simply clicking on the following link: stylemanual.ngs.org.

From the home page you can easily search for items by clicking on the yellow “Search” button at the top right corner. If you need help navigating the site, click on the “Using This Manual” link on the bottom right.

Give it a test drive and let us know what you think!

—David Brindley

Posted by David Brindley | Comments (0)
Filed Under: Rogers' Rules of Order

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