The Economist Style Guide

"It’s something close, a work of the imagination, so it squeaks through. The job of a style guide is to set down an idealised version of the world as an editor would like it to be. One in which the written word is governed to the last degree by rules, but rules which are too complicated and idiosyncratic for any writer to learn and follow perfectly, thereby preserving a role for editors to find fault and correct. For example, The Economist Style Guide ’s entry on hyphens includes this instruction: ‘Use hyphens for…most words that begin with “anti”, “non” and “neo”. Thus: anti-aircraft, anti-fascist, anti-submarine (but antibiotic, anticlimax, antidote, antiseptic, antitrust); non-combatant, non-existent, non-payment, non-violent (but nonaligned, nonconformist, nonplussed, nonstop); neo-conservative, neo-liberal (but neoclassicism, neolithic, neologism).’ Go figure."