Re: Style Guide or Style Edict?

["Wayne J. Douglass" <wayned -at- VERITY -dot- COM>]

At 11:36 AM 1/16/97 -0700, Rikki wrote:
>Lisa Higgins wrote -
>How are style guides used at your company?  Ours falls under the
>draconian "you must do it this way" approach -- the result is a fair
>number of writers and editors who deliberately (and defiantly) do what
>ever they think is appropriate.  Do you use a guide as a basic direction
>or is it cast in stone?
>
Having written a couple of style guides in my time, I am always amazed at
the resistence they encounter. Since style guides usually codify
conventions, who cares what the corporate identity folks would like to see?
If there is one, I'll use it and make my life simpler. If there isn't one,
I'll do the best I can.

I think resistence to style guides is more prevalent in technical writing
than other journalistic endeavors. Submit something to the New Yorker and
you know they're going to rework it to their style, whether you like it or
not. Resist and you simply won't be published there.

--Wayne Douglass

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