PPG Canadian Editorial Style Guide

The PPG Canadian Editorial Style Guide was created as a starting point for our editors. It is used for all PPG authors who haven’t requested another specific editorial style guide for their books.

PPG Canadian Editorial Style Guide

Obviously, English is far from being a simple, straightforward language. There are many different editorial style guides associated with the English language, depending on which country an editor is representing: United Kingdom, Canada, the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. We all have different ways of spelling and punctuating the English language, so we each use different editorial style guides when editing books.

This is why PPG creates a customized editorial style sheet for all our authors—to ensure consistency in editing for each and every one of their books. The styles are driven, first and foremost, by the author’s preference (if any) as to which primary guide he or she wishes to use (e.g., The Oxford Style Manual for British authors, The Chicago Manual of Style for American authors, a special blend of the two for Canadian authors as shown below). From there, the customized editorial style sheet is created by a book project’s primary editor, and everyone else follows that editor’s lead for every single book published by that author going forward.

PPG Canadian Editorial Style Guide

Spelling and Spelling References

A-B-C-D-E

Use behaviour and behavioural, not behavior and behavioral

Use clamour, not clamor; but write clamorous, not clamourous

Use colour (and colourful); not color or colorful

 

Er and ‘er: Use the word “er” to denote a speech filler, but use ‘er to denote an informal contraction of “her”: e.g., Oh, er, bring the truck ‘round to the gas pump and fill ‘er up.

 

 

 F-G-H-I-J

Use favour (and favourite), not favor or favorite

Use flavour (and flavouring) not flavor or flavoring

Use humour, not humor; but  write humorous, not humourous
K-L-M-N-O

Use labour, not labor; but write laborious, not labourious

Use metre, not meter

 

 

 

 P-Q-R-S-T

Use savour, not savor

Use TV, not T.V. (plural is TVs)

 
U-V-W-X-Y-Z

 

 English Spelling/Translations

Generally, Canadian spelling uses “our” for words such as labour, humour, etc, but there are a few exceptions: sailor, tailor. Also, some “our” words drop the “u” when a suffix such as “ious” is added: e.g., laborious, not labourious

 

Words such as “center” and “meter” use “re” in Canadian spelling: e.g., centre, metre

Grammar and Punctuation

Style Guide(s) Used

Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) 16th Edition

 

Oxford Guide to Writing English: The Canadian Handbook

 

“Numbers in Fiction” The Editor’s Blog (Beth Hill, January 25, 2013)

http://theeditorsblog.net/2013/01/13/numbers-in-fiction/

 

 Abbreviations and Acronyms

As per The Editor’s Blog, avoid using abbreviations for units of measure and rates of speed (especially for dialogue within the story), if possible. See blog post for examples.

 

For acronyms, spell out the words (or meaning of the acronym) in full the first time an acronym is used.

 Capitalization

Capitalize names and do not place quotation marks around the names of other animals: e.g., write Lucky, not “Lucky”.

 

Capitalize brand names and manufacturers.

 Dates and Time

As per The Editor’s Blog, avoid using ordinal numbers (e.g., 1st, 30th) for dates that include the month or month and year.

 

Ex. Write first of June, not June 1st or 1st of June. (Also avoid using superscripts with ordinal numbers in dates; e.g., write 25th, not 25th.)
Dictionary Used

Oxford Canadian Dictionary of Current English

 

 Design (Info re layout, font, margins, trim size, etc.) Italics (as per CMOS)

Use italics to denote unfamiliar foreign words or phrases (or foreign sounding words and phrases; e.g., Genus Humanitas or Genius Humanitas); rather than italics and quotation marks.

 

Italics (or boldface type) can also be used (sparingly) to show emphasis.

 Numbers

As per the PPG Style Guide, spell out numbers from zero to nine, and write the numerals for anything greater than nine (e.g., 10 not ten).

 

Exceptions:  Write the numbers as words when writing dialogue. (Source: “Numbers in Fiction”, The Editor’s Blog)
Punctuation

 

 Quotation Marks

Quotation marks may be used to signal that a word is being used in an unusual way or to denote sarcasm or irony. (Note: The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) discourages frequent use of quotation marks for this purpose. Where quotations are used to introduce an unusual phrase or jargon, CMOS recommends dropping the quotation marks for subsequent uses of the same word or phrase.)

 

Use quotation marks around a word or term when you are referring to it as a word.

 Symbols

As per The Editor’s Blog, write out the words for symbols: e.g., use dollar, not $, percent, not %; degrees not °, etc., especially for dialogue.

 URLs (as per PPG Style Guide)

Write urls in lowercase letters

Related reading: PPG Work-Made-for-Hire Vendor Agreement

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