Many people seem to misunderstand, or underestimate, what an editor does to polish up a manuscript or article for publication. Yes, we do proof for typos, but typos are the bare bones of copyediting. An editor missing a typo in your copy is like your mechanic not noticing that a wheel is missing from your car: you should expect a lot more! Just as your mechanic should check your vehicle for fluids, worn brakes, engine problems, rust, a leaking clutch cylinder, an editor should check your words for not only typos but also consistent and practical style usage, proper formatting, and a logical organization of thoughts and words.

So what are style rules?

Some grammar and punctuation rules are flexible, meaning you can choose which version of the rule to use to fit a certain type of writing. Style rules are choices between these versions of grammar rules that help determine how formal or informal your writing appears. Ideally, your style rule choices are logical so they help your writing become even clearer to a reader.

Common style rule choices are:

• Series comma or no series comma? In a book, which often has a more conservative style (which means slower-reading and more spelled-out style), you will often find a series comma, a comma before the last item in a list–”Tom, Dick, and Harry.” In a blog post or a magazine article, which are shorter and more informal kinds of writing (which means the reader wants a quick read), you often will not find a series comma–”Tom, Dick and Harry.” Once an editor chooses which version of the series comma rule to follow, it must be consistent throughout the book.
• Number formatting: spell out numbers up to 10? Up to 100? In a book, you will often see numbers spelled out up to 100 (ten, twenty-one, nintey-nine, 100, 101… ), which is a standard rule governed by the book editor’s Bible, the Chicago Manual of Style. Magazines often follow the AP Style Guide format, which dictates that numbers should only be spelled out up to 10, which saves precious space on the page (one, eight, nine, 10, 11…). Blogs hopefully choose a simple style and stick to it, but often blogs are run by people who write but don’t edit, so you will see no rules followed. That’s what makes blog writing look so informal: if the writer follows consistent rules about how to present their writing, suddenly it looks polished and professional–and that’s why these rules exist: to make your writing clean and easy to read.
• The most common spelling of a word is used for its main dictionary entry, but variations on that spelling are often listed underneath. When there is a choice to how you spell a word (gray or grey? V12 or V-12 engine?), an editor chooses which way the word will be spelled throughout their entire lineup of books (an in-house style guide), or in a particular book, hopefully following an author’s lead.
• Time formatting is important because using inconsistent formatting of times in a book or article can look really messy and make it difficult to read. An editor may follow the author’s lead on which format to use, based on which format the author uses most often in his work, or may have a reason to make everything follow a particular rule. The options include “3 p.m.” “3 o’clock” “three in the afternoon” “3:00″ “3:00 pm” “15:00″ an so on. You might choose “15:00,” military time, for a book about the military or to give the effect of a military environment. “3 o’clock” would be a good choice for a story where specific times are not used, because it is a rounded number. And “3:00 pm” is a good choice when you want to be specific about times, as in “3:12 pm.”
• Number formatting is a similar issue to time formatting: an editor chooses whether “three million” will become “3 million” or whether percentages are spelled out (“ninety percent” vs. “90 percent”) and if four-digit numbers include commas (“3000″ vs. “3,000″). These rules may or may not clarify your writing in particular, but they become very important in an article about a car’s engine specs. If the publication has rules for how to format numbers, it is easy for the reader to compare one torque figure to the other, because the similar formatting helps the numbers jump off the page. No number formatting rules = number soup.
• Ellipsis spacing is a minor issue, but you want to look polished, right? Ellipses are the “…” symbols at the end of sentences that imply that the sentence continues or trails off. You should always use three dots for an “internal ellipsis,” or an ellipsis that leaves out words within one sentence, and four dots for an ellipsis at the end of a sentence, because that fourth dot is really a period. BUT, there are several ways to format those three- and four-dot ellipses, with a space between each dot (. . .), without any spaces (…), and with a space after the final dot (… ).
• Uppercase deity pronouns are the province of Christian book publishing for the most part, but they’re important. Deity pronouns refer to pronouns used to describe God, or gods, and you need to decide if you’re going to capitalize them. So, should “he,” “him,” “his,” and so on become “He,” Him,” and “His” when referring to God? Publishing houses often have style guide rules to cover this across the board, but if you have a choice, think about whether capitalizing these pronouns appears to give the deity more authority and whether or not that is the effect you want to achieve (i.e. Does Satan get his pronouns uppercase as well?).

There, see? Your editor is paid to do more than intimidate you. These are just a few rules out of many, otherwise the Chicago Manual of Style wouldn’t be heavier than my front door. Style rules are important, but if you can master just a few of them, your writing will shine and you will be way ahead of the pack getting published and making nicey nicey with your editor, who will love you for valuing what she does.

Do you have any style rule questions? Beefs? Important additions to this list? I’d love to hear them in comments.