Style guides

Brill list of words to avoid from the style manual of the Office for National Statistics. I always like it when these lists are either grumpy or include at least a little humour in them. Ideally, both.

For example:

drive out (unless it is cattle)

And:

deliver (pizzas, post and services are delivered – not abstract concepts)

And perhaps my favourite:

one-stop shop (we are not a retail outlet and creating a single place for everything often does not meet user need)

Many local council's in the UK will now include a web page that explains their policy on clear language. This example from South Tyneside is deliciously concise and provides a near-perfect introduction to the world of plain English.

Some useful insight on designing a style guide from Angela Moore writing on the excellent Scroll blog. If you've ever needed a style guide or you have one and no one uses it, this is a really good place to start.

Allow me to share a tip of my own. It sounds silly, but there is one style guide of mine that got used the most. I knew it would make a huge impact if everyone embraced it, but there was low digital maturity in the team. So I printed hard copies out and put them on everyone's desks.

It worked because they could see it right there in front of them and watch each other use it as a reference document. Within a few months, they were adding new stuff to the guide themselves and gradually we all moved to the digital version, which was collectively kept up to date. Win!