1 Developing a Departmental Style Guide by Jean Hollis Weber Presented by Elliot Jones

2 Introduction The purpose of this article is to provide information that will help people in planning and developing a style guide

3 Main Points What is a Style Guide? Why Use One? What Topics Should Not Be in a Style Guide? What Topics Should Be in a Style Guide? How Many Style Guides Do You Need? How Detailed Should a Style Guide Be?

4 What is a Style Guide? A reference document that includes rules and suggestions for writing style and document presentation Specifies which option to use when several exist Includes items that are specific to the company or industry and items for which a standard or example does not exist through commercial style guides The content is usually based on the decisions that you, your employer, and/or client have made

5 Why Use One? Style guides serve several purposes:  To ensure that documents conform to corporate image and policy, including legal requirements  To inform new writers and editors of existing style and presentation decisions and solutions  To define which style issues are negotiable and which are not  To improve consistency within and among documents, especially when more than one writer is involved or when a document will be translated

6 Why Use One?  To remove the necessity to reinvent the wheel for every new project  To remind the writer of style decisions for each project, when one writer works on several projects that have different style requirements  To serve as part of the specifications for the deliverables, when writing for clients outside your company or when outsourcing writing projects  Keep in mind that developing and planning a style guide should be an evolving process  You can add items or change items as you go along  Also, it should be a cooperative effort with benefits made clear to everyone in order to minimize power struggles

7 What Topics Should Not Be in a Style Guide? It is best for some topics to be covered in separate documents  Process information (how we do things in this company or department)  Style guides are to serve as a guide to help writers and editors do their jobs  Design information (what our documents should look like)  Information content is often reused, both online and hardcopy. The presentation of information is becoming separated from the creation and maintenance of the content  Design decisions are often made at the corporate level, so there is no need to for a particular department to put them in writing

8 What Topics Should Not Be in a Style Guide? Grammar and writing tutorials  Style guides are not meant to teach people how to write or edit, but are references  If you feel the need to teach people about correct punctuation, etc then create a writing tutorial Rationale for decisions  Include only information that is required  Rationale should be included in a separate document or should be separate from the style guide points  Writers and editors are more likely to read a guide if it only includes the necessary information

9 What Topics Should Be in a Style Guide? The version of the language used (many languages vary from region to region.) Specify any variations. If your client/employer has a list of nonstandard words, include them in the guide. The system of measurement to use (American?, Metric? Etc.) Specify any variations and whether conversions should be included in parentheses Any reference materials (such as an industry style guide, a particular dictionary, the company's design and process guides) to use, specifying any variations

10 What Topics Should Be in a Style Guide? Any reference materials (such as an industry style guide, a particular dictionary, the company's design and process guides) to use, specifying any variations Which template to use for each type of document  What document elements (e.g., title page, preface, table of contents, glossary, index, summary of changes, copyright information) are required, and what to include in them.  Content of headers and footers, and what pages they appear on.

11 What Topics Should Be in a Style Guide?  Chapter and section numbering conventions to use, if any.  What legal elements are required (copyright, trademark information), and what goes in them.  Index style: How many levels? Page numbers (for books) on main entries if they have sub-entries, or not? Page ranges: When to use. General guidelines on deciding what goes into an index.  Glossaries, bibliographies, footnotes, and references: What style, and when to use.  Caution, danger, and warning notices: Wording and usage.  The style of capitalization to use for headings, vertical lists, figure and table captions, and other situations.  The style of punctuation to use for running lists and vertical lists. The minimum level of information to include in a particular type of document (e.g., conceptual information or procedural information).

12 What Topics Should Be in a Style Guide?  Content templates or outlines, where appropriate (e.g., corporate policy and procedures or online help topics).  What information to include in specific topic types in online help, perhaps with examples.  The style to use for cross-references or clickable links, both when cross- referencing (or linking) within a document and to other documents.  Whether to use within-document navigational features such as a clickable contents lists at the beginning of a chapter or long Web page.  Whether illustrations and tables always need captions, or under what circumstances captions are required. Whether captions should always be referenced in the text; if not, under what circumstances references are required.  When to use various types of highlighting (e.g., bold or italics type). Etc.

13 How Many Style Guides Do You Need? Most decisions about writing style will probably be the same for all the work done by a publications department, but some details may vary. Most differences will probably be design issues. Product-, publication-, or client-specific style guides can supplement the main company style guide by recording any decisions made for a specific situation

14 How Detailed Should a Style Guide Be? It can be one page or several pages long depending on the information that is required  Some companies use commercially available guides and add any preferences for their company, other companies summarizes the main points using a company guide since it is shorter, and hence more likely to be read

15 Questions?