Introduction

1. Multiple Authors and an Organization's Documents

In an organizational setting, the purpose of a writer's style guide is to provide quality control for the entire collection of an organization's printed and electronic documents.  A main goal of document quality control is to ensure that published content is consistent and clear. For-profit corporations are accountable to their shareholders and nonprofit organizations are accountable to their members.  Modern corporations have an obligation to keep their shareholders or members well-informed with a variety of well-written printed and electronic documents. A corporation's image is formed in large part by the credibility, commitment and overall image that a corporation portrays in its publications.  A style guide helps document creators to consistently present the corporation in the best possible light.

A corporation's documents must address the needs of its target audience. In particular, when published content grows to hundreds or thousands of documents, the corporation's image or message may become inconsistent and therefore ineffective. A style guide helps document creators write with a single voice that delivers the message using a clear, consistent and contemporary writing style based on standard published guidelines. The Associated Press Stylebook, Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style” and The University of Texas at Austin “Writer’s Style Guide” were used as resource material to develop this guide.

The power of positive, persuasive writing can be genuinely phenomenal. A corporation's reputation depends greatly on the positive and persuasive images it presents in its printed and electronic documents. A style guide can help writers at all skill levels to minimize mistakes or miscommunications and to maximize reader comprehension and satisfaction!

For example, standards in this Guide advocate the use of active tense, a "can do" attitude, and content which finds the ideal trade-off between precision and brevity.  This kind of writing captures the attention, curiosity, and commitment of the reader — vital goals for organizations which seek prosperity and influence!

2. Guidelines = Credibility

Whatever style you adopt, remember that consistency and clarity are the keys to effective communication. Make sure your preferred standards are consistent and fall within the accepted grammar and punctuation rules established by the academic and professional sources that this guide references. For example, if a writer decides to follow the traditional convention of placing a comma before the "and" in a compound sentence, quality control requires the consistent use of that style throughout the publication. It's grammatically correct to use the older method, but the preferred modern method of omitting such commas reduces the length of both printed and electronic documents. Switching back and forth between old and new methods could confuse or irritate some readers.

3. How to Reference Parts of This Guide

This Guide numbers chapters and sections to make it easy for proofreaders and editors to cite specific sections which support editorial recommendations and revisions. When such references are necessary, write the reference according to the following convention:

WSG-<version number of the Style Guide>/<chapter number>.<section number>

For example, in the reference

WSG-1.0/5.3

"WSG" stands for "Webgalactic Style Guide" and "1.0/5.3" refers to version 1.0 of the Guide, Chapter 5, Section 3.

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4. Contributors and Version Information

Editor:  Dean Whatley of Web Galactic Designs in Austin Texas. 

Webpage Design:  David Millican