What began in April of 1995 as a short list of commonly made writing errors turned into a 200-page Iowa State stylebook by August.

David J. Collins, InterFraternity adviser and author of the book, The InterFraternity Council Guide to Style, completed the book, featured in the reference section of the University Book Store, over the summer.

Collins said: “As IFC adviser, I encouraged council members, over the course of the year, to bring in their letters and memos for me to proofread. I soon noticed they were making the same mistakes. And these are the same mistakes which I tend to make also.”

Collins’ original idea was to make a list of 10-12 of the most commonly made mistakes in writing, so the council would have a guide to work with. According to Collins, “it just got bigger and bigger.”

The finished product, originally intended for the greek system only, became a comprehensive style guide written for ISU students. It contains information essential to student life.

The 25-chapter guide features topics including the documentation style for MLA, English usage, proofreading marks and formats for writing letters and memos. The book also features other topics helpful to college students including dining etiquette, greek organizations and nomenclature, foreign words and phrases, beer, measurement conversion and police nomenclature.

Collins admitted he had some assistance writing the IFC Guide.

“Over the course of the summer, I realized I was out of my league, so I talked to some professors who specialized in certain areas,” he said.

Some professors, he said, gave him information to use as a resource in writing the book, while some wrote whole chapters. He also used other published style guides as references.

Collins said the information in the IFC Guide is “truly inclusive to Iowa State,” so it is not being sold outside of the ISU campus.

Collins said he’s gotten positive feedback so far.

“The students are impressed with the diversity of topics included in the book,” he said.

At this point, the guide, which was introduced on Sept. 30, is being sold only at the University Bookstore for $12.95 per copy.

“It is a nonprofit book,” Collins said. “I wasn’t paid for it, and no one else who oversaw it is getting royalties for it. The bookstore isn’t even making a profit on it.”