Want to know a simple trick for taking your writing to the next level?
Get your hands on a style guide.
A style guide is a handy reference tool to help you solve problems or answer questions that arise while writing.
It offers advice about spelling, grammar and punctuation for anyone who writes reports, business documents or content for newsletters and websites.
This differs from brand voice guidelines that delve into a businesses’ unique selling proposition, values and brand personality.
Using a style guide teaches you how to write better through appropriate sentence structure and offers examples of correct punctuation.
You’ll find answers to the following questions:
How do we use quote marks?
Do I need to use double quote marks or single quote marks?
And what is the difference?
Most of the big companies that I’ve worked for created their own or prepared a style guide based on one of the popular Australian printed manuals.
This ensures that the content they publish online and in print publications is consistent and meets high standards.
You might find it on your company intranet, and depending on the type of business or industry.
It could be called a style manual, writing guide or editorial style guide.
For companies with tens, hundreds or thousands of employees, it is an incredibly useful tool to ensure everyone writes in a consistent way.
Big businesses may even separate the wealth of information into multiple guides.
You may be lucky enough to have access to several guides:
- Design guide with instructions regarding the presentation of text and the use of brand colours
- Writing guide with advice about the writing style (e.g. a preference for short, active sentences)
- Editing guide that addresses punctuation and grammar.
Some style guides can be quite long.
Others have so many pages and sections that the gems of wisdom get buried under writing conventions and good intentions.
The point is to write in the best possible way to capture your reader’s interest and encourage them to read to the end.
Why bother?
Using a style guide improves your writing and makes your copy easier to read, in the following ways:
1. Consistency
If you work in a team, you want your client to receive communications that sound like you all work for the same company. And your readers will want the same thing.
A consistent approach means the copy is written using the same type of words and language, in a predictable way.
It ensures your writing sounds more professional and your messages more credible.
For example, which word does your company use:
Footballers or players?
Teachers or educators?
Programs or seminars?
Business days or working days?
Whatever you choose, stick with it.
Don’t confuse your readers.
Think about them when you write your copy.
2. Accuracy
Accuracy is about being precise and careful with your writing.
A style guide will offer advice on things you might not be sure about, such as:
Can I start a sentence with a number?
Should numbers be spelt out or written as digits?
What about percentages? Currencies? And really, really big numbers?
Improve the accuracy of your writing by checking those points and, when done carefully, your writing will be easier to follow.
3. Create better content
And finally, a style guide can answer questions about style or grammar that pop up as you write.
This one is about getting your ideas down first, highlighting anything you are not sure of and editing your work at the end by checking things in the style guide.
The temptation is to edit as you go, but this can affect your creativity.
At this stage of the writing process, it is important to free up your brain to ‘just write’.
That way you will create more interesting content.
So, remember that writing to a high standard is about more than careful planning and creative ideas.
There are many great tools and resources that can help you write more accurately and consistently – and your readers will appreciate it.
If you want to see writing tips from other well-known guides, check out the list below:
- Style Manual is a detailed Australian reference guide used in the public and private sectors.
- The Australian Business Style Guide is published by the Australian Writers’ Centre. It’s a quick reference manual that is available in a handy A5 printed size or via an online version.
- The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and E.B. White is a classic reference guide. It is a small book that is written succinctly and worth keeping on your desk, and searchable online.
- A dictionary offers information about words and phrases plus usage notes.
- A thesaurus provides writers with lists of synonyms to extend your vocabulary. These lists feature different word options to avoid word repetition for the readers’ benefit.
- Check out the Macquarie Dictionary, which is regarded as the standard reference on Australian English, and is available online and in hard copies.