Content Style Guide Template
Table of Contents
Grammar, punctuation, and capitalization
Approved and unapproved content
Include a link to your external style guide of choice, along with all-important login credentials.
Name of Your External Style Guide | Login Credentials |
link | username: password: |
Most of the grammar, punctuation, and capitalization instructions will be spelled out in the external style guide you choose. Any differences or additions should go here.
Include examples both good and bad. For instance:
lions, tigers, and bears
NOT lions, tigers and bears
Some common quibbles to consider: serial commas, em dashes, numbers, abbreviations, and acronyms.
The main goal here is to guide the writer toward achieving the blog’s feel and voice. Include approved style elements like short paragraphs, headings, bullets, etc. Make a list of words that describe the intended tone of your blog. Here are some to consider:
Focus on consistency of how the different styles on your blog are used. Some questions to consider:
There are many different elements to consider in discussing images, everything from alignment (center, left, right) to alt text to naming to captions to sizes to sourcing, and so much more. Cover as much as necessary here.
Explain the unique parts of the publishing process on your blog in particular. If there is an important element to your publishing process that needs to be consistently completed, it should go here.
Example: Toward the bottom of the story editor is a section for sending a Tweet about the story. You may send the Tweet to the @blog account and/or your personal account.
List a series of approved industry sources and a list of taboo competitors or low-quality sites.
Approved | Unapproved |
How do you give credit to where you found your information? Some sites link to text within paragraphs. Others mention the site by name and link to the site. Still others use footnotes. Whatever you decide, make sure it is consistent
Personas are broad descriptions of target readers who share common desires, questions, and goals.
Persona name Description | Persona name Description |