Early on in my career, I learned a great deal from other technical writers. It generally pays not to pretend to know everything.
The client had a number of technical writers working over the years, sometimes several at a time on a single project.
Each of us was good at our craft, but the client was not satisfied because the documents one of us produced looked and sounded different from the documents that another produced. In the course of a meeting to deal with this, Marty (not his real name) suggested that the client adopt a style guide. At the time, I didn’t really know what a style guide was. And when Marty described it, it sounded like it would do nothing but slow us down. Marty insisted that it would do the opposite. It would give us a simple checklist to make sure everything was as it should be from a style and voice perspective.
The client liked the idea and said, “Let’s do it.”
I don’t recall which style guide was adopted, but it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that all of the writers were now on the same page. Style guides cover things like a document’s look and feel, usage, the format of citations, the placement of graphic elements, etc.
One of the big benefits of the style guide for this client was that there was no longer any need to wonder about the worthiness of any particular writer’s style. As long as the style guide was followed, the look and feel of the client’s documentation was assured.
Sometimes a client doesn’t have a style guide. When this happens we have at least a brief discussion about it, but in the end, it is the client’s decision as to whether to adopt one. There is a learning curve. Not just for the writers, but also for the client. A new review process may be needed. People competent to do the review may be needed if they are not already hired. It is not a “slam dunk” decision for a client to make. But where it can feasibly be done, my advice will always be to implement a style guide.
– Bal Simon
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