Wikipedia:Identifying and using style guides: Difference between revisions

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Beyond the above, there are few style guides of note, other than for specific fields. Some major examples include the ''[[APA style|Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association]]'' (''APA''), the ''[[Modern Language Association Style Manual]]'' and its ''MLA Handbook'' abridged student edition (collectively called ''MLA'' style), the ''[[AMA Manual of Style|American Medical Association Manual of Style]]'' (''AMA''), the ''[[ACS style|American Chemical Society Style Guide]]'' (''ACS''), and the ''[[ASA style|American Sociological Association Style Guide]]''. Most of these are American, and are primarily used for citation styles and the preparation and publishing of academic papers in journals. Students and other casual users (like Wikipedians) of their styles tend to buy citation style summary guides like ''[[A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations]]'' (often called ''Turabian'', after the original author, and containing also a summary of ''Chicago'' style), rather than the full, expensive manuals.

When they offer general writing advice, aside from citations and field-specific stuff, the topical academic guides are mostly in line with ''Chicago'' and ''Scientific Style and Format'' (which is also a Chicago U. Pr. publication, and mostly normalized to ''Chicago'' orthography). There's also the ''[[Modern Humanities Research Association Style Guide]]'' (''MHRA''), which is British, but tiny, being mostly concerned with citations. Virtually nothing in the Wikipedia Manual of Style on {{em|general}} writing principles comes from these works,{{efn|name=titlepreps}} though they inform several discipline-specific line items in some of MoS's sub-guidelines, and provide supporting authority for some decisions in MoS adopted from ''Chicago'' and ''Hart's'' (which are broad academic-writing guides at their core).

When working on articles, it is important to remember that [[Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not a manual, guidebook, textbook, or scientific journal|Wikipedia is not a journal]] and must not be written like one, but for a general audience. As with ''Chicago'' and ''Hart's'', these style guides vary from primary through tertiary in source type. They are primary sources for their organization-specific citation styles, but often tertiary for general and field-specific writing advice, being based on the norms of journal editors.