#StetChat is an organised hour-long chat session for editors on Bluesky. This week’s conversation was about using style sheets when editing. Using a style sheet helps the editor check consistency when working on longer texts. It’s a record of preferred spellings, punctuation choices, the use of capital letters, heading styles, aspects of the content, and more.

All kinds of things can go on a style sheet. For example, if you were editing a romance novel, you would write down the couple’s hair and eye colours, their ages, how long it takes to travel between their homes, their favourite foods, and so on. And you’d put their names on the style sheet too. This stops Allison and Charley morphing into Alison and Charlie part way through the book.

Many fiction editors share their style sheet with the author after the edit. It can then be used by anyone else checking the book. It also helps the author maintain consistency if they write a sequel or series.

I’m not a book editor, so I never have to produce anything as detailed as the fiction style sheets discussed in this week’s #StetChat. However, like fiction editors, I do check for consistency in the documents that I proofread or edit.

I often work for clients who produce a lot of documents and already have guidelines to support consistency.

They supply me with a document called a house style guide. Looking at this usually tells me whether the client wants British or American spellings, which dictionary they want me to use, what punctuation system they prefer, their policy on inclusive language, whether any words are forbidden, and much more. In some organisations the house style guide is combined with the brand guidelines.

The beauty of a house style guide is that everyone in an organisation can refer to it and follow its rules when creating or checking written material. The resulting consistency gives the impression that everyone is working together in a coordinated way. It helps to communicate to all stakeholders that the organisation is well managed and in tune with itself.

Of course, stakeholders may not be consciously aware of that consistency. I suspect it’s something that only becomes strikingly obvious when it’s not there. For example, imagine receiving a company report that mixes British and American vocabulary on the same page.

On social occasions, when people ask me about my work, they never mention consistency. Although it’s central to proofreading and editing, there seems to be little public awareness of it. I’m sure most jobs are only partially understood by the general public.

Social media events like #StetChat are really useful because they give professional editors and proofreaders a chance to talk about their work out in the open. This raises awareness of the details of what we do. I don’t know if other trades and professions have equivalents to #StetChat elsewhere on social media. It might be a good idea if they did.

Questions people often ask me about proofreading

• Do you read novels all day? Some proofreaders specialise in fiction, but proofreaders work in a lot of other areas too. I’ve proofread many different things, including company reports, internal paperwork, educational materials, marketing content, and a magazine.
• Is it your job to check spelling and grammar? We do check spelling and grammar, but we also look at consistency, clarity, and presentation. For example, a proofreader who specialises in board games will point out if the instructions are unclear or contain contradictions. I’ve had many jobs where I’ve looked at both content and language.
• Are you here to judge the quality of my writing? When I first began proofreading and editing, I used to notice who wrote especially well and who didn’t. With experience, I saw so much writing that I stopped thinking about it in that way. To draw an analogy, we may worry about showing body parts to doctors and nurses. For them, our bodies are just an everyday part of their work.