Back in Style

December 2005 sees the return of a famous name, when New Hart's Rules, the indispensable style guide for writers and editors, is published.

The name Hart's Rules disappeared in 2002 when the title was replaced by the much larger Oxford Guide to Style. New Hart's Rules marks a return of the name and small 'handbook' format that have been renowned for more than a hundred years.

Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford was first printed in 1893. Horace Henry Hart (1840-1916) was Printer to the University of Oxford and Controller of the University Press between 1883 and 1915. He successfully modernized the expanding business of the Press, and stayed in his post until the age of 75. The esteem in which he was held may be seen by the fact that colleagues managed to pass round his leaving card to all OUP staff, past and present, including those on active service on the Western Front! Yet for all the accolades Hart was a depressive, and suffered from insomnia; a year after his retirement he drowned himself in a pool near his home.

As part of his modernization plans Hart had drawn up guidelines for the Press's compositors and readers, at first simply on a single broadsheet page and then as a slim twenty-four-page booklet containing 'Rules for Compositors and Readers, which are to be observed in all cases where no special instructions are given'. He decided to publish it after finding copies of it for sale on a bookstall in London. In all, Hart's Rules was published in thirty-nine editions. Over time its size and influence grew, and it came to be regarded as the essential handbook for editors and typesetters.

The twenty chapters of New Hart's Rules give a full account of such matters as capitalization, hyphenation, abbreviation, italicization, notes and references, work titles, quotations, bibliography, and publishing terms. The book has been written for contemporary writers and editors of all kinds: whereas the original Hart's concentrated on style appropriate to academic publications, New Hart's Rules seeks to encompass a wider constituency, and to advise authors, copy-editors, proofreaders, designers, typesetters, and anyone working on newspapers, magazines, reports, theses, or web content. It continues to explain the house style traditionally used at Oxford, but it also gives a full account of contemporary practices in all areas of writing and publishing.

Printer friendly version