How do you create a (linguistic) style guide for your company?

If you have already read my previous post (which you can find here), you already know what a style guide is and why every company, no matter its size, should have one. As promised at the end of that post, I have put together a short step-by-step overview on how to create a new style guide from scratch to help you get started.

A short disclaimer: what this post does not cover

I mentioned in my previous post that style guides usually also have a visual dimension. They often combine the use of logos and colours for a brand with its language guidelines. As this is a blog focusing mainly on language-related topics, visual elements are not part of this guide—I will focus solely on language issues. (But a lot of the principles described here can also be applied to visual elements.)

Step 1: gathering data

Before you can start writing any kind of documentation, you first need to gather the necessary data. Start by asking yourself the following questions: when and where does my company interact or engage with customers, investors and others from the “outside”? And how does it do that?

Your first draft should contain all relevant answers to the questions above: which channels the company uses, what its vision and personality are, and how it would like to be perceived by potential customers and investors. Also make sure to have a look at all the channels you have found, from the company website to its social media outlets and print media, and take note of the tone of voice used there. Are you spotting any differences between the different channels? If so, do they still form part of a consistent means of communication and do they contribute to a bigger picture of the company’s persona? (Should the answer to this be no, by the way, your style guide would be a great opportunity to help avoid potential dissonance in the future!)

Here are a few examples for different channels companies use to communicate:

• Print media
• Website
• Blog
• Social media outlets
• Email
• Telephone

We will be taking a closer look at their individual characteristics in part 3 of my style guide series.

Step 2: developing guidelines

Once you feel like you have gathered all the data you need, you can start formulating the language conventions you would like to use, including what has been done well so far and should be continued. While you should also highlight things that must be avoided in company communications, try to focus on making your style guide a good practices document.

Here are a few examples for items to include in your style guide:

• General tone of voice
• Company-specific terminology
• “Forbidden” expressions

This is, again, only a very short list of examples. I will be taking a closer look at these and more in part 3 of the style guide series.

Step 3: structuring

The last step before you can finally dive into actually writing your style guide is giving it a structure that makes sense. Work your way down from top to bottom, starting with a brief overview of the company’s personality, objectives and vision, followed by general language guidelines. From there, you can start drilling down into more specific topics, e.g. rules that apply only to social media or guidelines specifically for language to use during phone calls.

Step 4: writing

This is probably the easiest step—you have already completed all necessary preparations and gathered all the data you need. Now it’s time to enjoy fleshing out your document and transforming it into a formal piece of language advice.

Step 5: review

You are finally holding your finished style guide in your hands (at least metaphorically). Congratulations! But before you start celebrating, give it one last but thorough read-through. Check whether your recommendations make sense and then submit the file to the relevant stakeholders in your company so they can have a look at it too. They might have some additional insights or helpful advice for things to add or leave out. Make sure to incorporate potential changes (if they make sense) and submit the changed document for sign-off, to ensure everyone is happy with this crucial piece of company documentation.

In greater detail

When writing up this post, I quickly noticed that the scope I had originally planned for it would have exceeded a reasonable post length. I was therefore unfortunately only able to cover the rough steps to take when creating a style guide, not the various channels and their characteristics as well as potential language items to include. But don’t worry, I will make sure to include those in my next style guide post, due in November 2022! (Please feel free to come back in October if you’re interested in my experiences attending my first International Astronautical Congress with Cosmic Lingua.)

And, as always: if you have any questions or comments about this blog post, please feel free to contact me!