Style Guide
Style guides
Submitted by https://github.com/barriebyron for the September 2022 mentoring program hosted by Wisdom.
I’m a word nerd and I love style guides. Learn more about me https://linktr.ee/barriebyron.
In my daily work as a technical communicator, I don’t have to remember everything. Instead, I just remember where to look for the answers to my many questions. I rely on trusted style guides.
I bookmark frequently visited pages in style guides on my web browser at work. I compiled this easy-to-share list of style guides so that we can all benefit. Feel free to share. Style matters.
What is a style guide?
A style guide contains a set of standards for writing and designing content. It helps maintain a consistent style, voice, and tone across your technical content. Style guides contain usage rules, best practices, punctuation guidelines, text formatting guidance, and more.
Why use a style guide?
A canonical set of guidelines to create clear, concise, and consistent technical content for the intended audience.
More resources
For more style guide resources, see the Write the Docs Learning Resources Documentation Guide Style Guides.
Tip: Write the Docs is a global community of people who care about documentation. We consider everyone who cares about communication, documentation, and their users to be a member of our community, join us to learn more.
Technical content style guides
I collect style guides for reference, inspiration, and models of how organizations share decisions about style. I maintain this working collection of links to online style guides.
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Google developer documentation style guide my daily go-to reference
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Apple Style Guide DigitalOcean Product Documentation Style Guide
Bonus resources
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Style Guides: What Goes In Them and What Can They Cover? from my friend Liz Fraley at Single Sourcing Solutions
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The Diversity Style Guide helps media professionals write with accuracy and authority
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Sum of Us A Progressive’s Style Guide Theory of language for change
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Alex a tool to catch insensitive, inconsiderate writing
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Guide: Inclusive Language and Vocabulary for Startups and Tech from Buffer social media tool for authentic engagement
Other handy style guides
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Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University writing resources, instructional material OWL parademic method clean up wordiness in writing
Learning technical writing resources
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The Good Docs Project templates to make good docs
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Write the Docs Learning Resources extensive collection, multiple formats
Do you have other style guides and awesome resources to share? Let me know. Reach out on LinkedIn or email barriebyron@gmail.com.
Helpful grammar resources
I use Grammarly premium. I find it especially helpful with complex sentences written for complicated subjects.