Lesikar's Business Communication: Connecting in a Digital World 13th Edition by Kathryn Rentz,Paula Lentz

تمرين 8

As the lead communications specialist at Littleton Advertising and Creative Services, you and your team are tired of the amount of editing you need to do whenever someone submits material to your department for publication in the company newsletter, press releases, annual report, and website. You're pretty sure that the routine correspondence that doesn't come through your department for editing could use some help as well. There is no consistency in formatting, punctuation, and mechanics. You've seen as many variations in capitalization, number use, and abbreviations as there are people in the company. And it's not only the writing that is not consistent. People use several variations of the company's logo in their work.
To employees outside your department, these issues may seem trivial, but you recognize the importance of writing and formatting standards to communicating and promoting your company's brand. This means that your clients should have a reasonable expectation that every document they receive from your company, from routine correspondence to material on the website, will look and sound as though it came from the same company.
You know that it's your and your staff's job to edit written materials before publishing them, but you also think that the employees who write them could be more consistent. After all, how hard is it for someone to use a round bullet instead of a square bullet? Furthermore, it is reasonable to expect that everyone in your department have some consistency in their initial drafts so that your final editing and revising are not so time consuming. Plus, you worry that the documents you don't see (e.g., letters, emails) may not be written or edited as well as they could be and want employees to be empowered to write well independently of your editing.
You think an online corporate style guide housed on Littleton's intranet is your answer and decide to propose to your CEO that Littleton have one. You and your team will develop it and implement it. Because this is summer, it's your slow time anyway, so you have the time to create it. In your proposal, make the case for creating and using a style guide, include a timeline for developing it, and propose a plan for implementing the style guide at your company. An Internet search for corporate style guides will help you gather information for your proposal.