SOMETIMES, WE ALL NEED STYLE HELP. Fortunately, there are many online resources that help writers (and editors) write right. (Sorry.) Here are a couple to get you started.
The staff of the (daunting) CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE knows how much their style guide weighs (oof!)
—and how time-consuming it can be to search its seemingly endless pages for a simple guideline. Taking pity on those of us who’ve yet to bite the bullet and subscribe to CMOS online, Carol Fisher Saller (aka, The Subversive Copy Editor) wrote a CMOS Shop Talk article about using “the online edition to find things in the print edition even if you don’t subscribe online.” Save your back. Check it out.
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University also provides free writing resources—including both Modern Language Association (MLA) and American Psychological Association (APA) style guides—to users worldwide.
Got a different fave? Drop me a (not necessarily correct) line with the 411.