The document outlines the process a company took to build a corporate style guide over several phases: Phase I involved analyzing existing divisional style guides to identify common topics and differences. 34 common topics were found. Phase II focused on resolving differences found in Phase I through monthly meetings over 2 years. Stylistic differences in areas like numbers, measurements, and punctuation were harmonized. Phase III included finalizing the style guide content, migrating it to an internal wiki, user testing, and planning training and release communications. The multi-year process resulted in a centralized Medtronic Global English Style Guide to improve consistency.

1. How to Build a Corporate Style Guide
January 13, 2015
Laurie Buckeye, Senior Technical Writer, Neuromodulation
Lisa Stammer, Senior Technical Editor, Cardiovascular

2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. 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

7. 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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8. 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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9. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. 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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13. 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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14. 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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15. 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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16. 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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17. 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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18. 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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