How Style Guides Make Lives Easier

Scriptorium Team
1 day ago
3 min read

Style guides are worth your time, and we're here to explain why. On the surface, creating a style guide may sound like a tedious task, but solidifying a few important stylistic decisions can save you and your team many hours of extra work and maintenance.

What is a style guide?

In its simplest form, a style guide is a reference document developed by a team or organization that outlines specific rules and guidelines for writing, helping ensure that writers' work aligns with the organization’s voice, grammar preferences, and writing style. Overall, style guides are a way “to make common elements consistent across documents written by many writers” (Purdue Owl, 2026), leading to reliability in how an organization or business communicates and presents itself.

Why do organizations need a style guide?

Style guides unify material across multiple channels, solidifying critical grammatical elements by giving writers a solid foundation to reference and build on. For writers, the guides boost overall confidence and reduce the need to ask stylistic and grammatical questions.
Style guides ensure alignment and professionalism. “When everyone has the same email signature format, uses the same fonts, and creates presentations from the same templates, you’ll present a clean, united front.” (Raka, 2023).
Style guides are a way to represent and convey who you are as an organization, helping establish a connection with your intended audiences.
Style guides reduce noise. When there are too many voices in the room, it is challenging to reach a consensus on how to approach documents, branding, templates, and written outreach across each channel of your organization. An established style guide (which can be open to feedback) sets the tone and provides a foundation for your organization's communication.

Why should you have a style guide "Keeper and Expert"?

A designated style guide Keeper and Expert on the team has a strong understanding of the client or project context and can help with assessing potential updates and changes to the style guide. When employees have questions about the style guide or would like to suggest additions, they can come to the style guide Keeper and Expert, who is responsible for answering questions and making updates. The Keeper and Expert is also there to ensure that the style guide isn’t changing without others knowing.

In the background rests a coffee mug sitting on a stack of notebooks and writing documents. A quote rests on the forefront that states, "Style guides are a change to represent and convey who you are as an organization, which helps establish a connection with intended audiences."

Why should everyone know where the style guide is located?

As self-explanatory as this may sound, all employees must know where the style guide is located. Clear and quick access to

your organization's style guide will ensure that it is used and applied as often as possible, especially during busy weeks or on projects with tight deadlines or quick turnarounds. If your style guide is a living document, ensure that employees know how to access the live and latest version.

Want to create a style guide but don’t know where to start?

The beautiful thing about style guides is that your organization can make its own! If your organization evolves, so can your style guide, provided the transformation is implemented in a sustainable and organized way. Stylistic choices

can be built into templates to save time on projects,

and the rules are yours to establish according to your organization’s preferences.

At Scriptorium, we’ve helped clients establish their style guides by reviewing their current documents and collecting the grammatical and stylistic choices they have already made, which helps lay the foundation for their organization's guide. From using a serial comma in lists (e.g., The foundation’s established goals are to provide understanding, knowledge, and services to the community), to using inclusive language to ensure all employees and clients feel recognized within text (e.g., Changing the wording ‘he/she’ to ‘they’), the creation of a style guide brings together your communication goals in one solid document.

Not sure where to start? Scriptorium is here to support you in taking the first step in asking the necessary questions to start your style guide development process.

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Sources:

On brand style guides: What is a style guide and how to create one?
On academic style guides: Style Guide Overview
On business style guides: What Is a Style Guide and Why Your Business Needs One
On how style guides keep you and your team professional and aligned: How a Style Guide Can Help Your Team Stay Professional
On why style guides are important: What is a style guide and why is it important?