*PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS SECTION IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND NOT YET COMPLETE*

What is a House Style Guide?

A house style guide is like a rulebook for how to revise your writing and present it correctly so you can confidently submit it for publication. It tells you how to write and format your work so that everything is correctly presented, and so that it looks and sounds consistent with all the other writers’ work. At Word Oysters, we ensure that all published material adheres to the correct UK/Australian English conventions of punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Our house style ensures that our publication is coherent, professional, and correct. It makes reading easier, learning smoother, and writing clearer.

Think of it this way: when everyone follows the same style, readers can focus on the ideas instead of being distracted by different fonts, punctuation, or ways of citing sources. It also helps writers present their work professionally, whether it’s a story, poem, report, play, or autobiography.

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What You Can Expect in This House Style Guide

This guide covers everything you need to know to write and present your work clearly for publicaiton in Word Oysters:

1. Grammar and punctuation – Rules for correct sentence structure, commas, quotation marks, dashes, contractions, and other common writing details.
2. Formatting and presentation – Guidance on headings, paragraphs, lists, font, line spacing, and the way to display titles of books, films, and poems.
3. Numbers, dates, and units – How to write numbers, dates, and measurements consistently for clarity and readability.
4. Referencing and citations – How to correctly cite books, articles, websites, poems, and films, using the Harvard style, with examples.

By following this guide, you will know exactly how to present your work in a clear, professional, and engaging way. It will help your writing look polished, your ideas read smoothly, and your audience understand your work easily.

Elements of House Style

1. Tone and Voice: How to Present Your Work

When you contribute to Word Oysters, you are sending your writing with the expectation that it will be part of a magazine for other home educated students. This means that you should do your best to ensure your writing is clear and readable. You should use complete sentences and paragraphs. Your readers should understand your ideas without confusion.

Tips for writing with your readers in mind:

• Write as if explaining something to a friend your age who hasn’t read your work before.
• Keep paragraphs short enough for online reading.
• Use the house style rules for punctuation, grammar, and formatting (see below) to make your work look polished.
• Remember: creativity matters, but clarity comes first.