Developing Your Company’s Corporate Writing Style
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Most corporations don’t bat an eyelash at hiring someone to develop a good company logo. But what some corporate owners don’t realize is that developing and utilizing a corporate writing style can be just as important and effective as a logo, slogan, or advertising.
Take a look at the brochures and websites of two major corporations and chances are you will notice a distinct difference in the style and feel of each. The phrases and expressions, the type of grammar and punctuation will each be unique to the other. That’s because those companies have most likely defined their own specific corporate writing style, by way of a style guide. A style guide is a book that defines the rules for vocabulary, sentence structure and cadence to be used in written communications for a particular company.
Finding and defining the appropriate style for your corporation can be tricky, because the language that is suitable for, say, a law firm will be very different from that of a pet supply company. For this reason, when deciding to create a corporate writing style guide, an independent consultant is the best way to go.
This consultant will initially spend some time getting to know your company by looking at all of your existing corporate literature, and by learning about your objectives and typical audience. Once he/she is confident that they understand your company thoroughly, he/she can then begin to draft a corporate style manual.
Ultimately, the goal with developing a corporate writing style is to create strong corporate recognition and branding. A good consultant will rewrite some existing literature to demonstrate these two strategies in action. Senior management, of course, should make the final approval.
A good rule to follow is to have the style guide available in print and electronic format so that it can be easily and widely distributed among your staff. Enforcement is key! Once all of your employees are familiar and comfortable with the writing style, devise a good editing process where all written communications are reviewed and checked for adherence to the style guide.�
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meredith | Nov 12, 2008 | Reply
Not the most useful information in the world. It’s heading suggests it might give some tips for developing a corporate style guide, when in fact all it does is recommend the activity is outsourced to a consultant.