How to Create a Writing Style Guide Built for the Web

19 Oct How to Create a Writing Style Guide Built for the Web

By Corey Wainwright

Businesses pump out content at a staggering rate these days — and as that volume increases, more inconsistencies are bound to creep in. Whether due to lack of clarity about the style in which you’d like to write or disjointed communication across the multitude of content creators in your organization, failure to decide upon and document accepted editorial guidelines is a recipe for inconsistent messaging.

That’s why at some point, most companies accept that they’ll need to develop a writing style guide: a document that indicates the basic rules of writing we’ll all agree to follow (like whether I should’ve capitalized the “a” after the colon in this sentence).

Download our free writing style guide template here to create a custom style guide of your own.

(Answer: If you write content for HubSpot, you should not capitalize the “a.”)

But wait … if that’s the case, why would I capitalize the “If” in that last parenthetical? Because “If you write content for HubSpot, you should … ” is a complete sentence, thus warranting the capital “If.”

If you found that train of thought terribly banal, you might think writing style guides are the most boring things in the world and have a burning desire to click away right about now. Au contraire, mon frère. The existence of a writing style guide is what saves you from finding yourself embroiled in a debate about whether there should be spaces before and after an ellipses, whether you capitalize “for” in a title, or when a number must be written out in full. View Full Article>>