How to Build a Corporate Style Guide

January 13, 2015

Laurie Buckeye, Senior Technical Writer, Neuromodulation

Lisa Stammer, Senior Technical Editor, Cardiovascular

Agenda

• Who needs a style guide?

• Phase I (Commonalities)

• Phase II (Differences)

• Phase III (Release)

• Maintenance

• Challenges

• Lessons learned

• How to build a corporate style guide

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Why do companies need a

style guide?

• Reduce ambiguity and improve clarity to optimize

English content for a global audience and for

translations

• Enable automation of content quality checks (in

English and for translations)

• Improve consistency across the company

• Create a common roadmap for customers

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Who is the audience?

Anyone who writes technical content that will be

translated or read by a non-native English speaker:

– Technical Communications

– Regulatory Affairs

– Training/Education

– Marketing

– Clinical

– Research & Development

– Others!

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Phase I – Find commonalities

• Team leader sent a short survey to the

representatives from the different divisions,

asking for copies of their style guides, and for

answers to a few questions about how the guides

are used and maintained.

• The existing style guides were posted to a

shared site so all team members had access.

• The team began meeting monthly to analyze the

style guides.

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Phase I –

34 topics found across all style guides

• Abbreviations/acronyms• Capitalization• Cautions/warnings• Content management• Copyright/trademarks• Cross-references• Font conventions• Formatting• Glossary• Grammar• Graphics• IFU• Intro• Layout• Legal/regulatory • Lists• Measurements/units of measure

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• Mechanics• Notes• Numbers• Package inserts• Procedures• Punctuation • Resources• Reuse• Software conventions• Symbols• Tables• Template• Terminology/usage• Tips• Warnings/precautions• Writing for translation• Writing style

Phase I –

Topics analyzed and harmonized

• Capitalization

• Grammar

• Punctuation

• Writing style

• Acronyms and abbreviations

• Numbers

• Measurements

• Legal (warnings, cautions, notes)

• Software

• Terminology

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Our guide does NOT include:

• English language terminology management

• Reading level guidelines

– Patient-facing literature vs. clinician-facing

publications

– Multiple, conflicting sources available for

assessment

• Style conventions for software strings

• Visual design

• Branding

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Phase I – Find commonalities, continued

• Team leader captured the analysis of

commonalities and differences in spreadsheets

and posted the spreadsheets on the shared site.

• The team created a draft style guide, which

included all of the commonalities across the

existing style guides.

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Phase II – Resolve differences

• Reviewed Phase I draft

• Analyzed differences among style guides

– Using spreadsheets from Phase I

– Style guide team met 2x/month to resolve differences and to reduce deviations as much as possible

– Divisions retained custom rules on a case-by-case basis

• Began publication tool selection

– Considered: PDF, Sitebuilder, Sitebuilder + Twiki

– Rejected: Author-IT, XMetaL, Medtronic Masterbrand site, other Help authoring tools

– Chose Sitebuilder at first

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Phase II – Stylistic differences

• Numbers– Spelling out or using numerals for numbers

– Commas in numbers consisting of 4 or more digits: 1000 vs. 1,000 vs. 1 000

– Forming plural of numbers: 3’s, 3s, or not recommended

– Using a hyphen to indicate a negative number

• Ranges of numbers– 30 g to 60 g

– 30 ~ 60 g (tilde)

– 30 - 60 g (hyphen)

– 30 – 60 g (en dash)

– 30 — 60 g (em dash)

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Phase II – Stylistic differences, continued

Measurements• Spacing

• 2lb vs. 2 lb

• 18°C vs. 18 °C

• Order of SI and Imperial units in US-only manuals

• Abbreviating “inch”• 2 in

• 2 in.

• 2"

• Repeating units of measure• 64 KB and 128 KB vs. 64 and 128 KB

• 24 x 24 x 12 cm vs. 24 cm x 24 cm x 12 cm

• −30° C to 57° C (−22° F to 135° F) vs. −30 to 57° C (−22 to 135° F)

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Phase II – Stylistic differences, continued

• Telephone numbers

– (800) 123-4567

– 800.123.4567

– 1-800-123-4567

– +1-800-123-4567

– (800) 123 4567

– +1 800 123 4567

• Capitalization of first word in bulleted lists

• Plurals—using “(s)” construction to indicate an

item that may be plural or singular

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Phase III – Final steps

• Create online style guide using MediaWiki

• Complete user acceptance testing

• Develop and deliver training to tech comm

groups throughout company

• Communicate upcoming release of the style

guide to stakeholders and potential users

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Style guide maintenance

• Each division will decide how to enforce use of

the style guide.

• Writers will negotiate potential changes with

individual project teams.

• The style guide team will continue in a governing

role, meeting regularly to discuss needed

changes and additions.

• A subteam will coordinate style guide rules with

for translation and editing tools.

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Challenges

• Resource availability– Work is not a high priority

– Lower priority delays completion

– Project depends on each team member’s input

• Tool selection needs– Low cost

– Minimal training requirements

– Easy upkeep

– In-house availability

– PDF export capability

• Implementation– Management support and enforcement

– Effective publication/distribution

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Lessons learned?

• Longer face-to-face meetings increased

commitment and productivity.

• The team leader remained consistent and

dedicated to the goal.

• Collecting and tracking documents on a shared

site (such as Sitebuilder) helped with team

communication and continuity.

• Ongoing management support across the

company helped push the team forward.

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How to build a corporate style guide

Analyze multiple existing style guides for

similarities and differences (about 1 year)

Resolve differences (about 3 years)

Create final draft in Word

Put final content into a Wiki (switch from a Sitebuilder

wiki to MediaWiki just before release)

Perform user testing and incorporate feedback

Finalize release and implementation/training plan

Deliver training to all tech comm divisions

Release the Medtronic Global English Style Guide!

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