Customizable Local Stylebook

The Department of Defense has adopted the Associated Press Stylebook as its official style guide. When used in conjunction with Webster's New World College Dictionary and the DoD Visual Information Style Guide, it puts the answers to many writing questions at your fingertips.

However, none of these resources is likely to contain entries for specific local organizations, places, pieces of equipment, etc. For these, a local stylebook is needed to ensure consistent usage throughout an organization or location. If you don't have one, consider drafting one.

This template includes sample entries from an Army unit's local stylebook. Use this template to write a local stylebook for your unit that includes exceptions to those rules. When making it your own, consider including:

• official names of buildings, units and equipment at your installation.
• nicknames of buildings, units and equipment.
• common acronyms and abbreviations at your command installation, with your rules for first reference and second references.
• definitions and details on when/how to use the terms.
• guidance on formatting products for submission (e.g., headlines, bylines, use of hyphens, dates, etc.).
• commons writing, spelling, or usage mistakes.

Review, update or delete the entries as needed. When you finish adding your own names, locations, terms, etc., export it as a PDF and share it with content creators, including your stringers, at your higher headquarters and subordinate units. Be sure to keep your local stylebook up to date and check periodically against common errors, such as when to capitalize military and civilian titles, what to hyphenate and when you should and should not abbreviate.