Style Guides

Overview
Style guides are documents set up to provide rules and suggestions for accurate, consistent and acceptable written materials. Companies and organizations rely on style guides to inform and create consistency among the multiple groups and individuals authoring under their name. The content in a style guide can vary widely based on the company or organization it belongs to and the unique writing needs these entities have. Sometimes style guide rules and suggestions follow basic grammar and spelling conventions, sometimes they are choices made for company, or industry specific reasons.

Why are Style Guides Important?
A survey by Paul R. Allen in 1996, sampled 200 technical communicators. These professionals listed eight major reasons to have a style guide :
 * Generate consistency in documents
 * Save time (and money)
 * Create professional-looking documents
 * Improve corporate image
 * Use as a training tool
 * End documentation disputes
 * Improve customer satisfaction
 * Protect trademarks and logos

Types
According to Carolyn Rude’s text, Technical Editing, there are three types of style guides. A company or group might have one, or all three depending on their needs.
 * Comprehensive style guides: encompass common writing standards. The Chicago Manual of Style, and the Associated Press Style Guide are two commonly used examples.
 * Discipline Style Guides: focus on writing within a certain field or industry.
 * House or Corporate Style Guides: created by and for a specific organization or company to address their needs and values.

Uses
Although not a comprehensive list, here are some examples of how groups and companies use style guides.

Word Choice
Style guides list words and phrases that should be used and others that need to be avoided. This can be important for keeping writers on brand or it can be necessary for insuring simplicity and clarity.

Example: Apple Style Guide 2013

Example: ASD Simplified Technical English Jan 2017

Grammar and Spelling
Style guides set standards for situations where particular tenses, word order and voice are important, or when alternate spellings need to be weeded out of use.

Example: Windows Phone UK English 2014

Style
Style guides ensure consistency across branded words, phrases and design details.

Example: Apple Style Guide 2013

Tone
Style guides introduce the emotion, force or how formal the writing should be towards users.

Example: Windows Phone UK English 2014

Design of Documents
Style guides set standards for where text should be on a page, number of lines, the size of text, font choices, the usage of numbers, other markers and symbols, and even the colors and image usage in a document.

Example: Windows Phone UK English 2014

Ability to Update
One of the most important aspects of style guides is the ability to edit content. With new guidelines, terms, technology, and a widening base of users, comes the need to edit, alter and add new content.

Although hard copies of style guides still exist. Many style guides exist as websites, documents on intranets, compiled HTML files, and XML files. The migration of style guides to online spaces has made adding to and replacing versions faster, and allows updates to be made as often as required.

Ease of Use
Effective style guides work to make it easy for their authors to navigate. They are written clearly and concisely, yet are also as comprehensive as possible. Good style guides make scanning sections as easy as possible for users by organizing content consistently and effectively using organizational elements such as headings, sections and bullet points. With the movement of style guides to online formats, ease of use has increased as many of these formats have search functions.