Consistency is King, Style Guides the Kingsguard [Writing]

I pretty much Gregor Clegane the editorial department at work. Hard. One of my responsibilities is making sure that copy is clean, which is not easy to do when I have tons of other non-editing-related tasks throughout the day. Style guides are the obvious answer to 99 of my work problems as they do the explaining for me, and they settle editorial arguments on our floor.

A production meeting at work. Not in picture: Gregor Clegane.

If you’re looking to invest in creating your own style guide, be it for your work (I work in publishing, but many non-publishing companies have style guides, too), or your blog, or just for fun if you’re a massive productivity nerd, here are some tips that might help you out.

What is a style guide?

A guide to your brand and all its parts. The style guide can work as a good base, to understand why you do what you do, and to remind you of your core values when you try something new and get confused about whether or not you’re doing the right thing. As long as you’ve committed your values to that style guide paper, you can comfortably wander far and wide and still find your way home.

Begin your style guide with a description of your product (a magazine, a blog, a publication, a service), and list down all its parts or sections and their respective functions.

A resource and reference. A good style guide lists down rules – concisely, clearly and without ambiguity – that everyone follows. Mostly focusing on grammar, structure and spelling rules that have many possibilities, the style guide settles all debates that could arise between co-workers on which version to go for. Its main role is to establish consistency, so that the reader isn’t distracted by the lack of uniformity in formatting and language.

What it isn’t

It’s less about what’s correct and what’s wrong, and more about standardizing your content. For example, some interesting standards that I learned about working in the Malaysian publishing industry:

• ·         ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Nations) is so commonly used, both as a noun referring to the countries (e.g. It is a breakthrough for Asean.) and as an adjective (e.g. In the Asean business landscape.) In our House, we use Asean instead of ASEAN because it just looks better on print when used so often.
• ·         Titles are big here, so the first mention of a person in an article will be their title + first name + last name, and subsequent mentions will be their title + first name (instead of the conventional use of last names in subsequent mentions). There’s more chance that someone would get offended when they are referred to by their last name, than for someone to be offended with a writer assuming some form of intimacy by referring to them by their (title and) first name.
• ·         The Malays speak Bahasa Melayu, which is also referred to as Bahasa Malaysia (distinct from Bahasa Indonesia) and Malay, but the latter two are typically used by non-locals or in international publications or settings. Our House uses “Malay.”

Often, these guidelines affect other processes, such as printing, cost, space and online publishing. If it helps (or applies), state the reason for the guideline so that the readers have a deeper understanding of it – and they will more likely remember it.

It’s not a language course. We might get carried away (and in some cases, we have), especially in English style guides, and start teaching the readers some basic English grammar and structure rules. I normally assume that I’m talking to writers who at least have a strong working knowledge of the basics and can write clean copy. If not, just link/refer them to actual courses or teaching guides.

It’s not a replacement for actual training. The style guide isn’t supposed to teach employees things that they should already know (just as previously mentioned). Assume that your audience is already trained and just needs some reminders.

It’s not for non-writers (or the disinterested). Because both those groups of people won’t even spend time reading the style guide, understanding it, implementing it, or using it as a reference point (especially when needed). What I’m saying is, don’t try to please everyone, or try to dumb down the style guide, or simplify it (at the expense of quality) because you want to “keep someone’s attention.” Just do the necessary.

BROTIPS

Share a soft-copy with selected colleagues who update it as you come across new points of debate.

Keep it brief – around 10 to 15 pages should be enough, but if it needs to be longer (some style guides can go up to a hundred pages and more), a table of contents is helpful for the readers to get to the section they need. Efficiency plus points!

Hyperlink. For even easier referencing.

Schedule updates. Read through the style guide once every few months or years and do a thorough update. Sometimes, a standard or format could change because of reasons, and some links can die over time.

Get inspired. If you’re looking for ideas for your editorial calendar, just going through the style guide’s section about your publication’s sections could lend inspiration.

Read other style guides. I get such a kick out of reading the style guides of established Houses. But that could just be me. A recent favorite is VICE’s manual, which I loved for its snark.

Do know that it is an investment – you will spend time and effort creating it, and you will likely have to update it regularly. But the end result is structure, time saved and efficiency, which is well worth the investment.