The rules in brief
Style guide >
Everything in this style guide comes down to ten rules. Apply them to the next document you write and it will be better than the last one, whether or not you read another word.
- Put the answer at the top. The first paragraph should tell the reader what the position is and what you want them to do. Write it last, once you know.
- Ask for a decision, not a note. 'Invited to note' means nobody has to do anything, and if you ask for nothing that is usually what you get. Say what you want approved, authorised, or changed.
- Order by importance, not chronology. You reached the answer by working through the analysis. The reader does not have to repeat your journey. Give them the best stuff first.
- Cut the background section. The people who need the background already know it. The people who do not will not start reading now.
- Write headings that say something. 'Financial performance' tells the reader nothing. 'Margins fell everywhere except the north' tells them the conclusion before they read the section.
- Say who did what. 'It was decided' hides the decision-maker, and that is often the point. Name them.
- Tell the reader why the number matters. A £1.4m variance is a fact. Whether it is a problem, and what happens next, is what the reader came for.
- Round the numbers. Nobody decides anything on the strength of the third decimal place. Write £1.4m, not £1,437,216.
- Write the talk before you open PowerPoint. Slides are not a plan. Work out what you are going to say, then create slides that illustrate your message. Don't make slides that are walls of text. No one can read and listen at the same time.
- Read it aloud. Every sentence you stumble over is a sentence the reader will stumble over. It is the cheapest edit available and almost nobody does it.