CONCLUSION
The process derived from the existing literature of technical communication
researchers and practitioners for creating a corporate style guide proved to be useful.
Creating a corporate style guide and creating a web style guide for higher education
institutions are very similar, except for the part about the web. I would recommend the
method—get managerial buy-in, form a committee, define the audience, create the
content, and distribute and get feedback—to anyone thinking of doing the same, as long
as they keep in mind that ―there is no right or wrong way to create a web style guide‖
(Taylor-Collins 471). One major deviation from the corporate style guide process was
creating the web-specific content. Our survey results on the major content areas can get
one started on piecing together a guide.
Surveying higher education web style guides in order to find the ―best models‖
revealed a variety of approaches and content among institutions. We soon realized that
the different documents served different audiences and different institutional contexts.
Even if the ―best‖ web style guide could be revealed, it might not be appropriate for the
needs of other institutions. To be sure, we found some web style guides more
comprehensive than others, but ―comprehensiveness‖ (i.e., including editorial, visual,
and technical standards) may not be necessary for a school that has detailed policies in
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place governing website communication or that has extensive existing editorial style
guides. In fact, based on our working definition of a web style guide—basic design
principles composed of editorial as well as visual and web standards—70% of the web
style guides we surveyed were not comprehensive because they did not include editorial
sections in their documents.
The marked separation of web from editorial standards is interesting, as it is
necessarily a separation of form and content. I think this is a reflection of the traditional
demarcations of these two functions: traditionally, the Marketing Department created
the content for web publications whereas the Information Technology Department
coded it for the website. The web style guide content survey indicates that this is the
present arrangement at many institutions. Nonetheless, I think this is an artificial
distinction because the content to a large extent determines the form, particularly when
writing for the web. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language, and at its root is the
idea of determining the structure of content and applying markup to reflect this
structure. Put this way, the structure determines the form (visual display) of content on a
web page. Also, the fact that some institutions such as MCC are combining these two
responsibilities into one position points to the changing nature of web communications.
The consequences of merging writing and coding responsibilities for technical
communicators are many. For one thing, writing for the web is intimately connected to
coding for the web, and technical communicators who pride themselves on their writing
ability can only benefit themselves by learning coding standards. Not only does good
web writing help people find the information they need, it also increases a web page's
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search engine results. What employer does not want to attain higher Google search
rankings? The strengths of technical communicators—clear, organized writing that is
audience-specific—will only become more important as the web as a medium continues
to mature.
Rather than look for the ideal model for web style guides, it is more fruitful to
consider what most web style guides contain. The fact that higher education web style
guides display such a variety of content areas points to the relatively unstable
classification of web standards and best practices in website creation and maintenance;
there are few generally accepted criteria in the industry, and similarly there are few
shared topic areas in higher education web style guides. My survey of the common
content areas of 70 higher education web style guides and the derived ―Top 14‖ list
breaks new ground in web style guide creation. Through this research, I have identified
what appears to be standard in the emerging genre of web style guides. Further, my
experience with the study and creation of ―best practices‖ for web style guides has led
me to believe that guides that contain information on both editorial and technical
standards better support the connections between form and content inherent in web
writing practiced by technical communicators.
Those writing for users of a content management system (web publishing
software that allows non-technical users to update web content) will undoubtedly
disregard much of the coding and visual standards for their style guide because those
areas are locked down by the web publishing system; specific coding details will only
be a distraction. Instead, editorial standards and instruction on ―writing for the web‖
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will take a higher priority. Nonetheless, institutions who use the ―Top 14‖ list and the
supporting master list of common content areas can know they are in step with their
peers, even if they wish to deviate from it, depending on their specific needs.