In the academic world, students are required to respect style, citation, and formatting conventions for their papers. MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association) styles dictate, among other elements, exactly what academic papers should look like.

In the professional world, field-specific or company-specific style and citation conventions apply. Various professional fields each have a field-specific style guide that specifies the conventions of publishing in that field: the appearance of the text, the way language is used, the preferred terminology and vocabulary, and the way sources are cited. AP (Associated Press) style shapes the look of newspaper text, and IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers) style governs engineering articles and documents. If you publish online, consult style and formatting guides recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Individual firms have styles, too. To preserve their brand identity, companies create memorable logos and make sure all company documents (letters, business plans, reports, emails, and so on) follow the company style guide. Government organizations, civic organizations, and the military each have their own logos, letterheads, and mandatory style conventions as well.

Format conventions, too, are an important part of the writing process. When you are designing a document, you need to know if a particular format applies to it; for example, a cover letter should generally follow traditional business letter format, while a report adheres to different layout and design conventions.

Many bemoan the lack of a consistent style on web pages; sometimes the way a page looks detracts not only from its readability, but its credibility as well. Often we don’t know who wrote the text, where it came from, or when it was produced. Critical readers hesitate to assign real credibility to an undated, unsourced blog written by a stranger—and rightly so. This is why sites like Wikipedia demand sources and format all entries exactly the same. The “look and feel” of Wikipedia is now familiar to people around the world, and it is used as a source in certain writing contexts, for good or for ill, precisely because there is some predictable, reliable regularity to its content, and its easy-to-navigate entries are popular with readers.

Figure 2. The Wikipedia site uses consistent page layout and documentation requirements so readers know what to expect. “Marie Curie” by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

However, producing quality documents and publications goes beyond just observing style conventions; there are a number of different concepts to consider and many design choices to make as you plan how best to communicate your message, whether on paper or onscreen.