I often work with SMEs, ranging from one-woman-bands to firms with a couple of dozen employees. While the businesses vary in size and scope, there’s one thing almost all of them have in common: they don’t have an internal style guide.
By the time I come to the party, they usually have their document in reasonable shape. I very rarely spend time correcting spelling as spelling mistakes tend to get picked up during the review process, even in the cases of solopreneurs. Grammar, of course, is often an issue, as is syntax and a plethora of other things, but there’s one thing I often spend a lot of time going back and forth with clients on: choice.
English is a wonderful, infuriating language with plenty of grey areas. Rules change, conventions change, even the meanings of some words change. Some people hold tight to what their high school English teacher taught them, others pick up habits throughout their working life, or from reading. When people collaborate on a document, such as a proposal, competition bid or annual report, they apply all these tiny differences.
Some issues that are perennially popular in my world are how to formal lists, use of the Oxford comma and -ise vs -ize endings.
Let’s look at that last one first. If you’re British, you might be surprised to learn that often both endings are acceptable. Oxford University Press, for example, uses -ize for words such as realize, finalize and organize. Other UK publishers take the -ise ending.
What’s right? Or right-er? you may ask. Easy. Both and neither. So if you send me a white paper to proofread that has been written by a number of people and the word organisation/organization is inconsistently used, I have to query it, it needs to be discussed, a decision needs to be made and I have to set it aside until someone gets back to me.
A style guide prevents this. I know from the start which ending you want and can run a simple search and replace to ensure consistency.
My job is to make sure that your final document is clear and consistent. It goes a lot faster when the writers have had a set of guidelines to refer to when they write. It also prevents time being wasted on debating formatting preferences.
How do you do this? Well, the simplest thing to do is find a style guide template online and fill it out. You could also buy an online subscription to one of the various style guides—Chicago Manual of Style for those of you in the US, or New Hart’s Rules for the UK are just two examples.
Alternatively, you could hire me! I’ll happily take a look through some of your documents and come up with a style guide based on your preferences that reflects your brand.