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All About Style Guides

Which is the closest to HubPages'?

Style is one of the most important parts of publishing one's work. Consistency in your formatting, spelling, punctuation, and abbreviations, among other things, is incredibly important in boosting the quality of your writing. Following a style guide shows that you have taken the time to make sure your information is being presented in the same way as others and thus boosts your own credibility.

In the United States alone, there are many different style guides. Two examples are The Associated Press (AP) Stylebook, one commonly used by journalists working for or connected with the Associated Press news agency, and The Chicago Manual of Style, developed by the University of Chicago, which is commonly used for citing history, humanities, and other social sciences. A third, APA (American Psychological Association) style, is what we primarily abide by at HubPages. 

Due to the fact that anyone in the world can publish on HubPages, all of the conventions of APA style cannot be followed exactly as they are outlined. Still, the style guide is preferred as it elevates "concise, powerful, and persuasive scholarly communication," as per their official site. 

Checking their website will help you keep up with stylistic changes as well as learn more about the complexity of the English language! You can also use the search bar on the website to look up things like "serial comma" or use the Mechanics of Style tab to look closely at conventions for things like hyphens and spelling, numbers, and lists, among many other things. 

Capitalization for headers is an important part of APA style. You can use capitalizemytitle.com to double-check your work.

With that said, there are some things HubPages does differently in order to better accommodate the diversity of our writer's voices. You can check the HubPages Writing Style Guide, which the editing team updates as changes are implemented. 

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Effectively Using Subheaders

Headers are an incredibly important aspect in making sure your writing is organized and that your readers can make their way through your piece easily. When creating an article, you will see that all capsules have space for a header, and in the text portion, there are options for Heading 2 and Heading 3. 

It's important to know that Heading 2 and the capsule headers appear the same size while Heading 3 is smaller. The latter is where we'll focus this week. Heading 3s help create a hierarchy within an article. If you have a topic within the article that is really long, try inserting a Heading 3 (or two or three) to break up the text. 

Heading 3s should still be capitalized using APA style, though the rules are less strict at this level. If you are writing out questions, it might look better to use sentence case. 

Another important note is that stacking Heading 2s and Heading 3s on top of one another somewhat undoes the point of having two different-sized headers. Instead of highlighting a specific new sub-topic, it makes everything look overemphasized. Therefore, it is suggested that even just one short sentence of text be inserted between any two headers.

When you are writing Heading 3s, you do not need to worry as much about using keywords as you do in the title and Heading 2s. They hold less SEO weight, so your specific wording is less important. Still, it is vital that everything is spelled correctly and that they are consistent with the rest of the piece. Inconsistency, no matter where it is, does not boost the authority of the article.

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Featured Articles of the Week

From the Benedictine monk who may have invented one of the most renowned sparkling beverages to a story that feels like a real-life horror film, these are our featured articles of the week. Give them a read!

• Soapboxie: Beggars: Homeless and Destitute or Cunning Con Artists? by  Susan
• The CrimeWire: Rhonda Knutson: 1992 Iowa Cold Case by  Kym L. Pasqualini
• Owlcation: Did Dom Perignon Invent Champagne? by  Joanne Hayle
• Exemplore: The Legend of the 1962 Halloween Party Massacre by  Mike Grindle