The Challenges of Enforcing a Style Guide for Technical Writers

Consistency is one of the keys to good content. It’s what helps your audience feel like your company is always speaking to them with one clear voice, even when there’s actually lots of different writers creating your content.

One way of trying to maintain consistency is by following a corporate style guide. And while creating one and encouraging all of your content creators to adhere to it may sound easy, that’s not always the case. That’s because in practice, corporate style guides are notoriously hard to enforce. Let’s look at why that is and what a possible solution to the problem might be.

Why a style guide for technical writers is essential

Style guides are a valuable resource for writers and editors. They establish your company’s brand voice and tone. As such, they help ensure consistency by serving as the definitive word on how things are done. Good style guides dictate an organization’s preferences on everything. From how to spell certain words to the right way to use grammar and punctuation and industry- and company-specific terminology.

Getting all of this stuff right is important because when an organization’s content is inconsistent, it looks unprofessional. Not only that, it can muddy the message the company is trying to get across and can even confuse customers. A comprehensive and accessible style guide helps your organization communicate effectively, avoid errors, and ultimately save time and money. That’s particularly true for organizations with lots of content creators spread across different offices. In the absence of face-to-face discussions on your company’s particular style, having a style guide can be an effective way of keeping everyone on-brand and on-message.

Challenges of enforcing a technical writing style guide

Style guides typically get created and distributed to lots of fanfare — at least among content creators. The problem is that most people quickly lose their enthusiasm and eventually stop consulting them. Why? Because usually they think they either already know the information or just can’t be bothered to look it up. Meanwhile, hard copies get lost and PDFs never get looked at. Plus, if the style guide is too long, it becomes daunting. Conversely, if it’s too short, it won’t contain enough guidance to be of much use to most content creators.

Another challenge that makes enforcement difficult is the fact that a style guide should always be a living document. Terminology evolves; new words come into play; and new products, services, and departments are introduced. Most traditional style guides are static in nature, and if you do edit them, you have to alert your writers to the changes and hope they remember them. In other words, style guides need to be maintained and content creators made aware of any changes. At large organizations, that can be a significant undertaking.

Best practices for implementing a style guide in technical writing teams

Enforcing a style guide within technical writing teams requires a structured approach to make sure that all writers are aligned on brand voice, terminology, and quality standards. Here are some recommended approaches to help technical writing teams successfully implement and follow style guides.

Digitize and distribute style guidelines in an accessible format

Traditional style guides are often large, static documents that are hard to reference quickly. Digitizing your style guide makes it easier for writers to access relevant guidelines directly within their authoring environments. 

Software like Acrolinx allows for the integration of style guide rules, making guidance instantly accessible and actionable for writers across various platforms.

Integrate style guidance into authoring tools

Technical writers work across various content platforms, such as Adobe FrameMaker, Arbortext, or MadCap Flare. Integrating style guidance within these tools via platforms like Acrolinx makes sure that writers receive immediate feedback without needing to switch contexts. This integration helps maintain productivity while ensuring consistency in content.

Promote style guide adherence with automated quality checks

Automation is a strong way to enforce style guide rules consistently. Automated checks through Acrolinx, for example, check content for alignment with quality, tone, terminology, and compliance standards. This automation can catch errors that human reviewers might miss under tight deadlines.

Encourage immediate feedback and iteration

By setting up a system that provides immediate feedback on issues related to style and language use, teams can avoid bottlenecks and reduce the need for extensive post-production editing. Software like Acrolinx allows writers to make instant improvements, often with a single click, making sure that quality assurance is integrated into the content creation process from the start.

Regularly review and update style guidelines

Effective style guides are dynamic, evolving with new terminology, branding updates, and audience needs. Schedule regular reviews and update your guidelines to reflect these changes, making sure they’re always relevant and accurate. Acrolinx supports this process by centralizing guidelines and instantly updating them across teams, so all users are always working with the latest version.

Use analytics to understand compliance and identify training needs

Analytics provide insights into how well writers follow the style guide. They identify frequent issues and areas where additional training may be needed. With Acrolinx’s analytics, managers can track adherence rates, understand common violations, and offer targeted feedback, improving overall content quality over time.

By following these best practices, technical writing teams can make style guide adherence simpler, more consistent, and more effective, ultimately boosting the clarity, professionalism, and impact of technical content across the organization.

The ultimate style guide enforcement tool

While style guides are crucial for creating consistent, high-quality content, for them to be followed, they need to be easy for content creators to access and use. That’s where Acrolinx comes in. Our platform reads your content while you’re writing it and compares it to all of your company’s unique style guidelines. It then guides you to make whatever changes are necessary to bring your content in line with those standards. And it does all of this in whatever content authoring tool you happen to be using.

This kind of interactive technology makes maintaining a consistent style and tone of voice, across all of your company’s content, a lot easier. That’s particularly true for large organizations with lots of people creating content who may not all be professional writers. And since Acrolinx can be programmed with your company’s individual preferences, you can ensure that everyone writes in the exact same way.

Keeping your technical content on track

While traditional style guides may not be the easiest to use and enforce, having a well-written set of guidelines at content creators’ disposal is essential. Interactive style guides aim to make the task a lot easier by offering a more effective way to enforce them. A creator doesn’t have to constantly check if what they’re writing is correct — that’s automatically done for them. Any method that makes sticking to the guidelines less painful and more effective has got to be a boon for creators and the companies that use them.