Writing Style Guides 201: Best Practices

I’ve been writing and editing since 2010, and I’ve read dozens of style guides. Some are good and some are not so good. What sets good style guides apart?

The difference lies in following best practices. There are several best practices for style guides, which fall into these buckets:

·         Accessibility

·         Usefulness

·         Comprehensiveness

Accessibility

Smart brands understand that every employee, even if their job title isn’t “writer,” creates written content for the organization. That’s why they share their style guides with everyone in the organization. By sharing the style guide, it’s easier for everyone to know how to communicate about the brand.

However, sharing the style guide is only the first step. Training everyone on how to use it and why it matters is the second step. If you want everyone in your organization to use your style guide, they have to understand why it’s important.

Your style guide ensures consistent content. That’s crucial because you don’t want to confuse or alienate your audience. Your audience expects certain your content to sound a certain way. Inconsistent content creates a poor user experience, which can drive people away from your organization.

Usefulness

To me, a style guide is useful when it’s well-organized and it’s easy to find information (which is also an accessibility consideration).

If you have a style guide longer than three to five pages, a table of contents makes it much easier to navigate. Hyperlinking to each section is even better, because then I can just click on the section and go straight there without having to scroll.

Do you want your style guide to be even more useful? Creating a summary of essential things to remember goes a long way. I know you don’t want to admit it, but not everything in your style guide is essential. A summary at the top should tell readers about the organization’s values, audience, and tone. This is where you’d also want to include relevant information about spelling (for example, it’s helpful for the writer or editor to know if your organization uses British English) or other points. Remember that it’s a summary and shouldn’t be more than half a page.

Comprehensiveness

When I open a style guide, there are certain questions I have. I want to read those answers in the style guide.

There are a few categories of information I’m looking for. There’s brand-specific information:

·         What are the brand’s values?

·         Who is the brand’s audience? What are they looking for in the product or service?

·         How does the brand talk about itself?

·         What language does the brand use to describe its products or services?

·         Are there examples of how the brand talks about itself?

·         Is there any language the brand doesn’t want to use?

·         Who are the brand’s competitors? (Yes, every brand has a competitor. Please don’t tell me you don’t have them. You do.).

·         Are there any sites I shouldn’t be linking to (such as those belonging to competitors)?

There’s grammar and formatting:

·         What spelling do they use—British or American?

·         Are they on Team Oxford Comma?

·         Are there formatting guidelines I should keep in mind that would affect the layout? 

 Here’s what else I’m looking for: relevancy.

·         When was the last time the style guide was updated?

·         Does it reflect any changes the company has made in its positioning, its audience, or its product line?

·         If the company has rebranded, does the style guide reflect the new brand?

When a style guide doesn’t answer these questions, I wind up having to find the right person to ask. Not having the answers at my fingertips wastes my time and that of the organization.

What Did I Miss?

I’m aware this probably isn’t a complete list, although I tried my best to address as many best practices as possible. What best practices did I miss? Let me know in the comments.