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Re: style guides: persuasion to follow rules or enforcement
Subject:Re: style guides: persuasion to follow rules or enforcement From:Troy Klukewich <tklukewich -at- sbcglobal -dot- net> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 8 Jun 2007 08:52:38 -0700 (PDT)
Hi:
I think both techniques are needed:
1) Management and lead writers encouraging compliance through persuasion and education, explaining why stylistic consistency is important to the customer and impacts translation budgets.
2) But at the end of the day enforcement is also needed.
Even with persuasion, I've found that some writers simply can't be bothered to follow conventions and just want to write "their own way," no matter how out of sync their content is with the rest of the organization and how much more it costs to translate. Personally, I find this approach unprofessional, especially given my prior consulting background where I had to write to all kinds of different standards, some of which I did not even agree with.
For enforcement, it makes sense to set stylistic expectations with a career ladder. Writers are expected to understand and apply stylistic standards as an integral part of their job. This should be made explicit and a prerequisite for career advancement. At higher levels, writers should be expected to submit well-reasoned ideas to the style guide as a living document.
MBOs can help, too, especially for writers who have great difficulty taking direction. If they want the extra bonus, they need to be able to work and apply the style guide. For some writers, financial incentive is a great motivator when all else fails.
It all comes down to managing to expectations.
Style really is important to writing. Technical writing is not a stream-of-consciousness free-for-all, but a highly disciplined, professional act.
Troy Klukewich
Information Architect
Oracle
----- Original Message ----
From: Katriel Reichman <katriel -at- methodm -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Sent: Thursday, June 7, 2007 1:39:48 AM
Subject: style guides: persuasion to follow rules or enforcement
One approach to getting writers (including product managers, pre-sales and
other non-technical writers) to follow style guides or "policies for working
with Word" is rely on goodwill (or gentle arm-twisting - see Jawboning
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawboning> ). Another approach, less common,
is build-in compliance to the authoring/editing process. In other words,
enforce compliance. Enforcement sounds draconian, but heck - a lot of
people pay taxes because they're afraid of being audited. A lot of people
use crazy styles, local formatting, and commit other cardinal sins because
(1) it's easier than following policies and (2) there is no enforcement
mechanism.
I am interested to hear experiences/opinions on
a) the efficacy of compliance enforcement vs. gentle persuasion.
b) can/should compliance efforts be directed beyond technical writers to
other staff who create lots of documents.
Looking forward to feedback,
Katriel
Katriel Reichman
Method M Ltd. - the method is in the message
<mailto:katriel -at- methodm -dot- com> katriel -at- methodm -dot- com,
<http://www.methodm.com/> www.methodm.com/blog/, www.methodm.com/author-max/
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