What Is A Style Sheet (and why do you need it)?

Discover what a Style Sheet is and how it can help your brand.

Many of us writers — dare I say most of us? — have looked up the spelling of the same word at least a couple of times over the years, just to double-check if we spelled it correctly. If you are or were part of a marketing team, overflowing with creativity and amazing ideas, you certainly noticed different variants of the same word present in copy ( e.g. Style Sheet — Style sheet — style sheet) — or the recurring questions: how do we write this product name? capitals or not? How about the price, should it have a space in between the amount and the currency? We heard these so, so many times, isn’t it, dear writers?

When you notice spelling or formatting inconsistencies in your copy or when questions like the above keep repeating themselves, it’s time to put that creativity of yours to work and create a rock-solid reference document. A Style Sheet to keep your copy consistent and your team aligned. Let’s take a closer look at what a Style Sheet really is, why your brand needs it and what steps can you take to implement this reference document that will bring a multitude of benefits to you, your creative teams, and overall, to your brand.

“If you are aiming at the top, consistency is the name of the game.” — Olawale Daniel

What is a Style Sheet?

We hear it all the time: consistency is the key to success. But from hearing it to implementing it in our daily writing and copy, it seems sometimes to be quite a leap. What if I told you there is an easy way to keep all spelling, formatting, and specific terms of your business well-organized in a reference document? Yes, I’m talking about a Style Sheet tailored to your brand/business and created to bring consistency and unity to your writing.

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” -Mark Twain.

It includes spelling and punctuation, capitalization and hyphenation, abbreviations, inclusive language guidelines, specific terms and expressions, numbers, fonts and formatting, and any other sections you might consider necessary to ease your or your creative teams’…