Welcome to the MoCo Style Guide

Motive Content Ltd | Date of this build: 2021-08-20

Why the style guide matters

Style guides act as neutral arbiters of 'the right way' to write for particular organisations, brands or projects. They are especially important for work that involves multiple authors working at different times and places.

With proper use, the style guide helps us to:

Be consistent. We avoid inconsistencies that confuse or annoy readers.
Reduce confrontation, because the authority lies with the style guide. People tend to think that their way of writing something is the best way — but we don’t all agree. The style guide acts as a neutral arbiter of style. This makes it easier for us to set aside personal preferences and biases and to understand why particular changes are made.
Raise the level of trust among colleagues. It is easier to collaborate on content when everyone works to the same conventions without heated debate.

And, writing to a consistent style means:

Less rewriting. We produce high quality content more quickly.
Faster onboarding. New authors can quickly understand and meet expectations.
Better content. Consistency helps us to appear professional and authoritative. Readers are more likely to absorb and act on our communications.

Ultimately, consistency helps users to find, understand and use our content more easily.

Why writing matters

Good writing is vital for credibility.

Weak writing is often interpreted as weak thinking. This perception compromises your delivery and detracts from the impact of your argument. And weak writing forces your readers to work harder to extract meaning — so they may just give up.

How you communicate is as important as what you communicate.