- Many grammar and usage issues you face aren’t governed by hard and fast rules. Style guides exist for this reason; if you commit to using one style guide consistently, your writing will be consistent as well. The AP Stylebook is widely used both in journalism and in business (and it has an entry asserting that the word “stylebook” is one word, not two). The Chicago Manual of Style has been published since 1906, and it is largely responsible for research methodology standardization, notably citation style. To cite just one difference, the AP Stylebook generally dictates that whole numbers below 10 are spelled out, and figures are used for 10 and above. The Chicago Manual of Style generally dictates that “whole numbers from one through one hundred” are spelled out. There are many exceptions, which is one more reason you should have a style guide if you write a lot.
- Place a period outside a closing parenthesis if the material inside is not a sentence (such as this fragment).
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