Building a house style guide from scratch, covering every possible grammar and punctuation question, would take forever and largely duplicate work that's already been done well by established reference works. The smarter starting point is choosing an existing, well-regarded style manual and dictionary as your foundation, then documenting only the exceptions specific to your organization.
Why Starting From an Established Standard Saves Real Time
Widely used style manuals — journalistic style guides favored by online writers, academic style guides used in research writing, and others — have already resolved thousands of grammar and usage questions through years of careful editorial work. Adopting one as your foundation means your writers have a comprehensive, trusted reference for the vast majority of questions, freeing your own house style guide to focus narrowly on the specific terms and decisions unique to your business.
Choosing your foundation should involve:
- Selecting a general style manual appropriate to your content type and audience
- Selecting a specific dictionary to resolve spelling and usage questions consistently
- Stating both choices clearly at the start of your house style guide
- Documenting only the exceptions where you deviate from or add to that foundation
A Simple Framework
- Choose a widely recognized style manual that fits your content's tone and audience
- Choose a specific dictionary as your reference for spelling and word usage questions
- State both clearly at the top of your house style guide so every writer knows where to look
- Build the rest of your guide as a documented list of exceptions to that foundation, not a full rewrite of it
> Tip: Many words — especially newer, industry-specific compound terms — shift over time from being written as two separate words, to hyphenated, to eventually one combined word. Your chosen dictionary is the tool that resolves that question consistently, rather than leaving it to individual writer preference each time it comes up.
Example
Before: A team debating the correct spelling and capitalization of a common industry term every time it comes up, with no shared reference to settle the question.
After: The same team resolving the question once by checking their designated dictionary, documenting the answer in their house style guide, and never needing to debate it again.
Common Mistakes
- Attempting to build a comprehensive style guide from scratch instead of building on an established foundation
- Failing to clearly state which style manual and dictionary the organization has chosen
- Letting different team members default to different dictionaries or references inconsistently
- Rebuilding rules already well covered by the chosen foundation instead of focusing only on genuine exceptions
Once your foundation is chosen, refining specific word choices and finding the clearest phrasing for your documented exceptions is worth the extra care. SeoWolf's Thesaurus Tool can help when you're deciding how to phrase a specific style rule clearly.
You don't need to reinvent grammar and punctuation — you need to choose a solid foundation and spend your actual effort on the handful of decisions that are genuinely specific to your own business.