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      Creating & Using a Style Guide

      What is a Style Guide? 

      • The Style Guide is a reference document that records all the decisions a team makes about how they will do certain things in the translation.
        • Decisions about:
          • Capitalization
          • Punctuation
          • Word Choice
          • Formatting
          • Updating Key Terms
          • and other things

      Benefits to using a Style Guide: 

      • The Style Guide will help the team members to be consistent in their translation work
      • The Style Guide will increase efficiency, preventing the same question from being asked multiple times
      • The Style Guide will help team members know what to do when they encounter new problems
      • The Style Guide will help new team members quickly catch up to style decisions that have already been made 
      • The Style Guide will help the Publishing team

      Who should manage the Style Guide? 

      • The Style Guide should be managed by a leader on the team (such as a CIT or a QC), who has regular interactions with the translators and is aware of the style decisions being discussed and made by the team

      How to build the Style Guide: 

      • As translators bring up questions about word choice, spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, etc., keep a record of how it was handled 
      • Entries should be categorized by type for easier reference. 
      • Suggestions for where to build your Style Guide:
        • Via a shared document or spreadsheet such as in MS Office, Teams or Google docs

       

      Keep in mind that the Style Guide needs to be:

      • EASY for team members to access
      • VISIBLE - if the Style Guide is not easily accessed or visible, people will forget it's there

      Consider providing the entries in the Style Guide in both the Language of Wider Communication and the team's mother tongue.  

      Tips for Creating the Style Guide:

      • Suggestions for where to create your team's Style Guide:

        • Via a shared document such as in MS Office, Teams or Google docs
      • Record questions about word choice, spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, etc., & document the decision made
      • Entries should be categorized by type for easier reference
      • Provide example sentences for the style guide users

      How to encourage team members to use the Style Guide:

      • The document should be readily accessible to any team member who needs to view it. 
      • Notifications when new items are added could be helpful–such as a daily or weekly summary. 
      • When Team Members bring questions to you, ask them if they have checked the Style Guide first.
      Style Guide Sample Categories & Entries: (these are only for example)

        • CAPITALIZATION

          • “God” should be capitalized when referring to the creator of the universe.
          • “God” should not be capitalized when referring to pagan gods.  
        • PUNCTUATION
          • Insert a comma after the last item in a list, before “and.”
        • SPELLING
          • “Color” should be spelled in the American English way, not the British (“colour”).
        • WORD CHOICE
          • We will use [specific translation] for ‘burnt offering’
          • We will use [specific translation] for ‘tabernacle’
        • FORMATTING
          • Indentations, paragraphs, spacing, etc.

       

      Sample of a Style Guide in a spreadsheet: