New Edition!  From Amazon.com: "The 10th edition has expanded its electronic guidelines, with the understanding that authors now routinely submit articles through online systems and often cite Web-only content. Ethical and legal issues receive increased attention, with detailed guidelines. . . . More than a style manual, this 10th edition offers invaluable guidance on how to navigate the dilemmas that authors and researchers and their institutions, medical editors and publishers, and members of the news media who cover scientific research confront in a society that has thrust these issues center stage."

Reorganized and expanded, the third edition of the ASA Style Guide is the first update since 1997. It has expanded guidelines to bring greater clarity and emphasis to issues from previous editions, including new sections on guidelines for preparing manuscripts, guidelines for electronic sources, foreign language and legal usages, conventions internal to the ASA, and a checklist for submission of manuscripts to ASA journals. The ASA Style Guide aims to establish uniformity and consistency in style among ASA publications, to provide an authoritative reference source on style issues for authors who are writing for ASA journals, and to summarize basic issues on effective writing for authors in general.

Refreshingly revised, in active voice. The new edition surpasses the last in clarity and organization, so much so that you will gratefully relegate the old edition to its now proper role as a door stop. Chicago as solved the problem of citing electronic sources by adding a URL to the format of an equivalent print document. You may even dispense with an access date. CMS no longer reads like instructions for programming a VCR, or like a book cobbled together by a committee. The style is clear, concise, and direct throughout.

Compact CMS?  The Chicago Manual of Style website advises the "CMS is primarily a reference for manuscripts that will be published as books. For a master's thesis [and similar papers], you would find Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers . . . much more useful." At the heart of a research style is documentation—how to format notes and references. Most of the essential features of Chicago style are covered in this manual, though page formatting for class projects is missing. New with this edition is a guide to writing research papers, as well as the guide to documentation and style.

How useful?  Though the new edition appears to be selling well, it is not clear who is using it. Most journals in the biosciences follow their own proprietary style. Some give lip service to the CSE manual, then send you to older editions to use as a reference! If you really need it, you already know it. If in doubt, check a library copy to determine if this book will meet your needs. It works best as a special reference for nuances in nomenclature, and for the details of various forms of measurement. Several major fields in the sciences have their own style (physics, chemistry, electrical engineering) and publish their own style guide. Where this fits is a bit of a mystery.

Classic! This compact classic touches on the high points of good writing. It is well worth reading before taking on a major writing challenge, a good way to refresh your skills. The latest, fourth, edition has been seriously updated and is a great bargain.

This book has become a standard reference, as well as a point of reference for writers and teachers. Written in the early part of the 20th century, knowledge of the Elements of Style is an accepted part of the cultural literacy of the 21st.

Top Tech Guide!  You'll find expertly articulated and organized information about general usage, grammar, punctuation, formatting and layout, front matter, and indexing and attributing, as well as focused guidelines for topics such as creating specific document types, including Readme files and case studies; writing for software developers; documenting the user interface; and developing bias-free communications. Many topnotch technical companies, writers, and editors consider the Microsoft Manual to be a standard in the industry, and a reference to complement the The Chicago Manual of Style.