No, not the Coco Chanel kind of style; the other kind: the writing and editing style that newspapers and websites follow to maintain accuracy, clarity and consistency. At the Guardian, we've had one since 1928 (you can download the first here); BuzzFeed published its style guide this week. And excellent it is too.  If you're not familiar with BuzzFeed – and therefore, unlike me, don't spend half the day clicking your way through the various feeds (LOL, OMG, cute, trashy, fail … you get the idea) – it's the website you visit to see pictures of the world's most fashionable hamster or take part in improving quizzes such as "Which Circle Of Hell Will You Go To?".  It's an American site, but it opened a London office last year and there's lots to interest British readers, from the hilarious –"This Is What Every Single Episode Of The One Show Is Like" – to the insightful: "The 21 Most Delightful Moments In The Life Of A British Person" (No 1: Waking up after a big night feeling horrendous only to realise that you bought bacon yesterday in preparation for the hangover).  BuzzFeed has news and serious stuff too, and its liberal heart is in just the right place to please Guardian readers. I love the site, and I love its style guide, and here are 15 reasons why.  "Fangirl", "batshit", "bitchface" – one word or two? You aren't going to find the answers in the Telegraph Style Book.  BuzzFeed contrasts "hippie as in Woodstock, peace and love, and all that" with "hippy as in big-hipped", and differentiates between "fuckup (n.)", "fuck up (v.)", and "fucked-up" (adj.) On Planet Style Guide, we love this kind of subtlety – see, for example, how the Guardian distinguishes between "goth" and "Goth".  With an actual recipe. For "sweet potato bourbon noodle kugel". Although, as it serves 10-12, style pedants may not have quite enough friends.  JK Rowling but H.P. Lovecraft? Why? Because all style guides like to do quirky, inconsistent things to annoy their readers.  Harder than it sounds. You need to update your guide nearly every day. Why, for example, are Guardian writers offered no guidance over whether to call them e-cigarettes, ecigarettes, E cigarettes or E-cigarettes? Because I forgot. Until I read the BuzzFeed guide.  Much the best I've read.  A company name is singular. Band names are plural. This kind of common sense is rare, in my experience, in an American writing guide.  Two signs of a good style guide are that they include relatively new phenomena such as "crowdsourcing" and that, just as importantly, they don't stick a hyphen in the middle. BuzzFeed's section on "combining forms" is terrific, if you are into that kind of thing. Which I, obviously, am.  I know BuzzFeed Headlines All Have Initial Capitals For Every Word which, to British eyes, looks strange and perhaps even ugly. But that's how the Americans (with a few honourable exceptions, such as USA Today) do it. Elsewhere, however, the alphabetti spaghetti is kept well under control: "the administration", or "the royal family", for instance. BuzzFeed also advises against "vanity capitalisation", though it does not go so far as to spell itself "Buzzfeed".  I had never heard of "mansplaining" or "Juggalo" until I read this guide. Now I use them all the time.  As in: "I was like, I could never do that. And then I did."  And, while we might not agree on every little comma – or em dash – it's sound advice. But a bit dull, when you could be watching Gladys the gorilla celebrating her first birthday.  You didn't know how to spell "chocolaty"? You do now.  "Avoid the word 'problematic' at all costs."  Style guide editors are insecure people who show their need to be loved by wanting everyone to speak, spell and write just like them. Or so I read somewhere. This means plagiarism is rarely an issue, as I hope to demonstrate by purloining some of BuzzFeed's best bits. Though not HP Lovecraft's full stops.  David Marsh edits the Guardian style guide. Twitter: @guardianstyle
David Marsh: From explaining what 'juggalo' means to recipes for sweet potato bourbon noodle kugel, the website's guide is well worth a visit