RE: style guide

["Elizabeth Wilczek" <betsywilczek -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

Sun's _Read Me First_ is a wonderful resource for writing about computers, 
but your drug company co-workers will need some standards it doesn't 
include--for example, the way to present chemical formulas or nicknames.

An intranet style guide can supplement huge written style books like the 
Chicago Manual or AP Style Guide with short answers to questions that come 
up again and again,

For example, give the rules for abbreviations (like B.A.) and acronyms (like 
NATO).  When do you spell out numbers and when do you use numerals?  How do 
these number rules apply to talking about dates, time of day, money?  Post 
some boilerplate language people can cut-and-paste to acknowledge 
competitors' trademarks and (more important) protect your own.  You might or 
might not have some company standard about punctuation--serial commas, 
em-dashes versus en-dashes.

Just my two cents worth--
Betsy Wilczek
New Jersey Society for Technical Communication