Writers write words to express, entertain, inspire, escape, empathize, honor, inform, persuade, profit, debate, overcome trauma, and more. But when we write words for readers, whatever our purposes or intentions, the effect is influence. We have the power to influence those who read our words, and with great power comes you know what. You get to decide what you do with that power, if anything; I’m just providing some style resources in case you choose to wield that power responsibly.
The resources below are great but imperfect, because language evolves and can be less or more harmful given different context, geography, or other factors. Additional research might be necessary. To keep these resources handy, either bookmark this page or create a “Responsible Style Guides” browser folder where you can drop these and any other resources you come across.
A Progressive’s Style Guide This 2016 guide was written by Hanna Thomas of SumOfUs.org and Anna Hirsch of ActivistEditor.com and touches on categories that the other more comprehensive style guides listed here don’t, including housing and incarceration.
ConsciousStyleGuide.com This website curates relevant resources for a variety of categories.
GLAAD Media Reference Guide 10th Edition “GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide is intended to be used by journalists reporting for mainstream media outlets and by creators in entertainment media who want to tell LGBTQ people’s stories fairly and accurately. It is not intended to be an all-inclusive glossary of language used within the LGBTQ community, nor is it a prescriptive guide for LGBTQ people.”
Autistic Hoya’s glossary of ableist phrases last updated in 2021. Context is provided, and alternatives are offered.
Disability Language Style Guide last revised in 2018 by the National Center on Disability and Journalism, is also available in Spanish and Romanian.) Also see Terms to Avoid When Writing About Disability
The Diversity Style Guide “The Diversity Style Guide is a resource to help journalists and other media professionals cover a complex, multicultural world with accuracy, authority and sensitivity. This guide, a project of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University, brings together definitions and information from more than two dozen style guides, journalism organizations and other resources.”
Use the Right Words: Media Reporting on Sexual Violence in Canada, published in 2015 by feminesto.ca, team members being Sasha Elford, Shannon Giannitsopoulou, Farrah Khan, and Faria Abbas. This is an excellent resource for those writing about sexual violence outside of Canada as well.
A Guide to Non-binary Pronouns and Why They Matter, by Sassafras Lowrey, published 2017 by HuffPost.
Trans Journalists Association Style Guide is a collaborative living document.
Author L.A. Lanquist’s glossary of trans terminology is a living document that he is still adding to. I also recommend his series of blog posts Trans-Writing.)
Acephobia, Allosexuality, and What it Means to be Queer, published in 2017 by Ren Drincic on Medium.
A Copy Editor’s Education in Indigenous Style, by Tara Campbell, published in 2019 by The Tyee. This article contains links to free and paid resources for writing about Indigenous peoples in the land stolen from them referred to as Canada, and you can find similar guide resources relating to writing about the first peoples in other countries by Googling accordingly. With respect to Canada, I’ve heard several writers recommended Elements of Indigenous Style by Gregory Younging, may he have kiyâmêwisiwin, of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation.
Sex Work Style Guide, by Mistress Matisse, published in 2017 by WhoresOfYore.com. “Whores of Yore is a sex-positive, inter-disciplinary, research project and archive, dedicated to exploring the history of human sexuality and challenging shame and stigma.”
Big thank you to author and editor Andrea Bennett, whose workshop on anti-oppressive copyediting I highly recommend. They gave me permission to add from their list of resources to mine.
This post is part of the #AuthorToolboxBlogHop. So many great blogs to keep hopping through. Click here to join the hop and to see what other writing tips you can glean from this month’s edition.
Can you recommend any additional resources? Are there any word choices you’ve had to research in the past or ones you’re struggling with right now? Share in the comments!
What a list! Many of them, I had no idea about. Very interesting, Raimey.
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I’ve been collecting them for a couple of years now. 🙂
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Times are changing, and a responsible writer has to be on top of the latest trends and realities. Thanks for the resources!
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Anything for you. 🙂
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Some of those were very specialized.
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Astute observation, Alex. In particular because I write crime fiction, I think, some of the language areas I had questions about weren’t addressed in the more general style guides on this list, and so I had to go searching for specialized sources. It’s an ongoing project. 🙂
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As always, you’re thoughtful and amazing. Thank you for an amazing list!
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You’re welcome! I’m just so thankful that people took the time to prepare these resources.
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Thanks for sharing these, Raimey. I hadn’t come across these before, but they really look like good resources. Thank you!
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I’ve used several of them so far. 🙂
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As always Raimey, you are most helpful and provide lots of resources to inspire us. Thank you 🙂
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*blushes* I’m so happy the resources were out there in the first place. 🙂
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Super list thanks, I will be tagging it.
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It is one of my better lists. 🙂
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These are really handy. Thanks so much for providing them!
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I’m so happy more writers will use these resources.
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That’s quite the list. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
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It’s my pleasure. Thanks for stopping by and reading!
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I just bookmarked this! GRACIAS. Wow. You’re always such a GREAT wealth of information on things I never dare to consider (not sure what that says about ME – yikes!). I learn so much. Thank you!
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De nada. You probably already know a good deal of what’s in these style guides already, but now you have resources to double-check if you need to. 🙂
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Thanks for the lists. Will have to bookmark so I can go back and check them out in more depth.
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Get a bottle of wine. 🙂
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Such an informative post. Got to be up with the times as a responsible writer.
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It’s my ongoing project, for sure. 🙂
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Thanks for this list. I had no idea these guides existed. Definitely bookmarking this one for further study.
JQ Rose
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Thank you for being so open to thinking about them. That’s awesome. 🙂
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One word: Useful!
Thank you for putting this together.
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I hope I can pay all this thanks forward to those who did the heavy lifting. 🙂
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Great resources – thanks.
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So happy you think so. 🙂
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Wow, this is so helpful! I had no idea some of these lists even existed. Will definitely bookmark these. Thank you, Raimey!
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Thank you for being interested! 🙂
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A lot of great resources. Thanks for the list
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My pleasure!
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😳 Oh wow I’m on this list! I popped open the first few and thought “Yep! I’m definitely bookmarking this!” and then I saw myself! I’m proud it made the list 😊
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You’re famous in the circles I run in, though I mostly run around by my social-isolating self. 😉
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That’s definitely a mood right now, but still, I’m touched that my blog was included, so thanks!
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I LOVE this resource – thanks so much for posting this!
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My pleasure!
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Bookmarked! Thanks Raimey, this is a great list!
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I’m happy you like it!
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Thanks for this fantastic resource! 🙂
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So happy you like it!
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This is awesome, Raimey! Bookmarked for future use 🙂
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I wonder if our respective bookmarks are 50% identical. 😉
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Everyone is correct, Raimey. This is a useful list. I will bookmark this post. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you for reading!
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Bookmarked the list. Thanks, Raimey.
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This might be my most bookmarked post ever. 🙂
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Thanks for the list! I really could use this kind of reference point considering a principal character for one of my WIPs.
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Oh good. It’s so much easier writing when I know there are resources I can turn to.
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