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Books by
Gerry McGovern
Content Critical
Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content
The Web
Content
Style Guide
The essential guide
for online writers, editors and managers
May 17, 2004
Learn how to implement an effective web style guide
By Gerry McGovern
A style guide helps you quickly and cost-effectively publish content that is of a consistent quality. It is particularly important when there are lots of editors and authors involved in the publishing process. A good style guide takes a lot of time and effort to create. Unless its implementation is policed, it will not achieve its objectives.
"As before, this guide is to help Microsoft writers and editors maintain consistency within and across products. It is not a set of rules."
This is part of an introduction to a Microsoft style guide. Imagine for a moment this was a guide for how Microsoft writes software. Let’s paraphrase it: “This guide is to help Microsoft programmers maintain consistency in how code is written. It is not a set of rules.”
Most organizations are accidental publishers. Managers look around one day and find their public websites and intranets full of content. How are they to manage all this content, they wonder?
Encouraging people to do the right thing is one approach. It doesn’t always work. It is also very time consuming. Most traditional publications I have worked for were run in a dictatorial manner. The editor ruled.
Editors need to make decisions quickly because it is very hard to make publishing pay. It is also the case that writers have huge egos. If you pander to them too much, you will never get the product out the door. Or, you will end up with content that is all compromise and no style.
A style guide is a ‘rules of the road’ for a particular publication. It covers:
- Definition of target reader
- Description of style and tone
- Description of key web writing conventions
- A-Z of usage
- References
A style guide should begin with a definition of the top 3-5 audiences the
website is trying to reach. This is crucial in establishing alignment within
the organization on what the core purpose of the website is.
A clear description of the style and tone should follow. The Web tends to be
well suited to a second person, active style. Samples should be given of the
correct style. A decision needs to be made with regard to using American or
global English.
Key web writing conventions need to cover such things as:
- Length of content
- Writing headings and summaries
- Writing effective links
The A-Z of usage will cover issues such as:
How to date documents
Key spelling conventions: Is it e-mail or email?
Common grammatical issues, such as: abbreviations, quotations, collective
nouns.
The final section of your style guide should approve a standard dictionary
and grammar guide. It might also link to useful websites.
Putting a quality style guide together is a time-consuming and difficult
process. You need to get buy-in throughout the organization. Various parties
should have the opportunity to make suggestions and review drafts.
When your style guide is launched it needs to be well promoted. Training
sessions need to be organized. Editors need to ensure that writers are
adhering to the agreed style and tone. Content that does not meet the style
and tone must be edited or rejected.
Content is an asset. A style guide is a tool to help you get the best out of
that asset.
Gerry McGovern
You are welcome to republish this article once you place the following text
and link at the end of the article:
Gerry McGovern is a web content
management author and consultant
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