Style points
Editor's note: Nancy Cox is the founder of Research Story Consulting. She can reached at nancy@researchstoryconsulting.com.
"Your research was critical to our recent success. Your report ‘speaks our language’ and that really helps!”
What a great in-box message for any researcher to receive! The first sentence says “research goal achieved” and the second sentence reveals a key clue to achieving that goal: The researcher’s writing style matches the stakeholder’s style – it speaks their language.
How do you achieve this? There is a writing craft secret that researchers can borrow from the publishing industry: the style guide. A style guide serves two main purposes: It aligns all writing consistently across an organization and saves precious deadline time for every writer by providing a quick reference. You likely encountered a style guide in college when a professor insisted upon using APA-style footnoting. Or have seen aspects of a style guide when a stakeholder insisted acronyms must be spelled out in every report mention.
In this article, you’ll learn how to quickly put together a project style guide, a one- to two-page quick-reference document that will guide you from RFP to follow-up presentation. The good news is you are not creating this guide from scratch. Instead, you are gathering and assembling, like a very simple jigsaw puzzle that has only a few large pieces.
Risks without a style guide
Without a style guide, two of the biggest risks are what this author calls style collide and style slide. Style collide is when your writing style doesn’t jibe with the stakeholder’s taste. For example, say you used contractions in a discussion guide but your stakeholder firmly believes contractions and other aspects of a more conversational style have no place in business writing and she sends it back to you with a scolding note. That’s style collide. No matter how you resolve this language conflict, avoid style collide by making note of it in your project style guide before you write the report.
Style slide is that inadvertent inconsistency that can creep into a project over time. For example, between crafting slide 24 and 25 for Stakeholder A, you were interrupted by two days of solid meetings with Stakeholder B. Returning to write slide 25, you use the term “Latinx market” (the preferred term of Stakeholder B) which in slide 1-24 was “Hispanic market” (the preferred term of Stakeholder A). Then as you cut and paste, slide 28 flips back to “Hispanic market.” This inconsistency can create a cognitive speed bump that shifts stakeholder focus to language choice and away from key findings. It’s similar to when you’re watching a movie and you notice the villain flashing a sizable ruby ring in one scene, only to have it disappear in the next. This continuity problem disrupts your attention and makes you miss critical dialogue.
A style guide will help avoid style slide. You’ll develop the quick habit of reviewing your styles before diving back in, reacquainting yourself with the correct terms for this project. You’ll avoid having to make some fiddly corrections before submitting your findings and, more importantly, save yourself from the embarrassment of having to explain the mixing of demographic terms during the presentation.
Three easy pieces
Here are the three pieces you need to assemble your project style guide: your stakeholders’ project-specific keywords; links to stakeholders’ existing organizational style guides (if any); links to existing foundational style guides preferred by stakeholders (the Associated Press Stylebook, the Chicago Manual of Style, etc.).
Wait, you may think, there are two existing guides? Why not skip creating a project style guide and just use those existing guides? Well, the existing guides are broad and, in the case of foundational guides, can be quite sweeping (as in, the Chicago Manual of Style’s 1,192 pages). You won’t need all those entries, just a link for reference. Similarly, the organizational style guide won’t be solely focused on your project.
Piece #1: Project-specific keywords
You’re already using project-specific keywords in the RFP phase. Simply create another document, Project XYZ Style Guide, and list those keywords – the products and services, campaign names, business categories, channels of distribution, touchpoints, KPIs, etc. Be sure to include how the stakeholder refers to their industry such as using wellness industry vs. health care industry. Keyword alerts include capitalization, unusual spellings, trademarked words, abbreviations and acronyms.
Having the project-specific key terms in one handy style guide saves critical time in every phase. When you finally get RFP approval, the style guide helps you pick right up on using keywords. When it’s late at night and you want to double-check if this stakeholder uses “click-thru rate” or “click-through rate,” you won’t have to search through project e-mails – none of which have “click-thru rate” in the subject line. Or worse, sift through meeting transcriptions, which are notorious for misspellings. Or ask AI, which wants to be helpful by serving up even more spelling options. You can simply refer to your style guide.
Don’t hesitate to ask questions about keyword or style preferences.
- Ask if your stakeholder has an organizational style guide. (See the next section on how to find that guide if your stakeholder is unsure.)
- Ask if there are any words or phrases they often correct or may even be forbidden to use. Stakeholders will often have a ready list including: brand confusion (Supergoop! vs. goop); misspellings (stationary instead of stationery); misused terms (referring to all members of the military as soldiers although only a member of the Army is a soldier); genericizing brand names (remember the “lawyers of Kleenex” campaign?); policy dictates such as using crash instead of accident (adopted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since the 1990s and subsequently adopted by many other traffic safety and department of transportation agencies).
One question that can save a lot of report-revising time is asking for stakeholder agreement on how to attribute respondents’ quotes. For some projects, this may be overtly evident when each focus group is a distinct segment such as Holiday Baker, Everyday Baker, Reluctant Baker, etc. For other projects, each respondent may carry a long trail of demographic, behavioral and attitudinal attributes just from the screener. Ask your stakeholder for agreement on up to three critical attributes for the quotes. Generate some example quotes with your proposed attribution including any capitalization, punctuation or abbreviations. Better to hash out before report writing if it should be Spanish-speaking or Spanish speaking vs. noticing you have inconsistently used both in the report.
Gaining agreement on the attribute wording may also reveal which attributes stakeholders have predetermined are the most critical. Example: In a driving safety study, rather than the age of the driver, your stakeholder may prefer seeing the differences between newly licensed drivers vs. drivers licensed more than three years. With people waiting longer to obtain licenses vs. the traditional 16-year-old’s rite of passage, the stakeholder may feel that age is no longer a proxy for driving experience. Asking this question early in the research could even influence the study design and analysis.
Piece #2: Stakeholders’ existing style guides
Yes, some stakeholders do have style guides. But you typically have to ask. Even if you are within the organization, you might be surprised that style guides exist. Be aware that style guides are called various things: brand guidelines, media guidelines, communication manuals, communication style guidelines and/or glossaries.
Style guides may live in different departments: media relations, human resources/training development (part of onboarding), marketing/branding (parent brands and sub-brands), even in an organization’s marketing/advertising agency. Wording preferences and guidelines may also be embedded in an organization’s templates.
If you are directed to an existing guide, great! Just put a link to that guide in your project style guide. If you are told there is no guide, don’t give up hope – your stakeholder may not be aware of organizational style guides. Do an online search. Try the various terms above. You may unearth some guides. Always check the publication date then verify with your stakeholder that any guide you discover is relevant. For example, a researcher testing a new ad campaign finds the current campaign style guide, which clarifies that the jingle is never referred to as a jingle but instead is “sonic branding.” That’s a wording difference that this researcher needs to confirm with the stakeholder.
An example of a detailed style guide is the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). WSDOT states that this guide augments its use of the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook. (More on the AP Stylebook in the next section.) The WSDOT augmentation is critical. Without this handy guide, a researcher would likely use the common term “bicyclists” or even “cyclists.” WSDOT style is people-first, which means the preferred term is “people using bicycles” – an example of how everyday language could style collide with the stakeholder. And while the AP Stylebook is also people-first, it still recommends using bicyclists. Again, the augmentation is critical.
Using the WSDOT guide, the researcher can use the correct term in the RFP (signaling diligence and alignment), project communication and the final report. The researcher is proactively alerted to ask permission to use “bicyclist” or “cyclist” on a screener, survey question or discussion guide, demonstrating knowledge and respect for the stakeholders’ preferences or mandate. Diligent, aligned, knowledgeable and respectful – desirable perceptions to cultivate!
Piece #3: Foundational style guides
There is no need to get into the grammatical weeds in your project style guide. There are three foundational guides in the U.S. that can help align your grammar and level of formality with your stakeholders. Once you’ve determined the stakeholder preference, you can link to that style guide in your project guide.
Two broadly used style guides are the Chicago Manual of Style (often shortened to Chicago-style, Chicago or CMOS) and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). Both the CMOS and APA have fairly robust free online search functions on their websites. Example: Does the abbreviation PhD require periods? Both say no.
A third style guide is the Associated Press (AP) Style Guide. This guide offers a very limited online search function. If you are writing about breaking current events the AP sometimes publishes publicly available topical reference guides as was done for terms used during the papal conclave in 2025. AP style can vary dramatically from CMOS and APA. Example: AP style retains the periods in Ph.D. but the preference is to not abbreviate and instead describe the person as holding a doctorate in a specified field. You can see how this explanation slants toward news reporting.
Three ways to determine your stakeholder’s preferred foundational style:
- Ask directly. This works very well if you are engaged with a stakeholder related to producing content – a marketing agency or an organization that publishes regularly in industry journals.
- Refer to an organization’s published style guide. Some, like WSDOT, state up front which guidelines they follow.
- Diagnose it yourself. There are marked differences in the level of formality across these three guides. Most project stakeholders have a preference: the higher-level formality of science research-rooted APA; the mid-level formality of the literary and university press style of the CMOS; or the AP’s least-formal, journalistic style.
While not comprehensive, a guide’s stance on the use of contractions is a key formality “tell.” Contractions are easy to spot in the published writing of your stakeholders – press releases, published reports, items in industry journals, leadership speeches (style is often top-down in organizations). Scan for the most commonly used contractions, the personal pronoun contractions: they’re, we’re, it’s, you’re, etc. The absence of contractions reveals APA style as APA prefers to avoid contractions except in specific situations such as direct quotations from research participants. Mixed use of contractions may indicate Chicago style as the CMOS states “…any rule against using contractions works against writing that sounds natural and is therefore easy (or at least pleasant) to read.” Liberal use of contractions suggests AP style, which allows for contractions found in the dictionary. Note: the preferred dictionary of all three foundational guides is Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate.
Both CMOS and APA offer free access to common questions on their style guide websites. The CMOS also offers a free 30-day trial for its complete online version. At the time of this writing, CMOS has partnered with PerfectIt software to provide a style-check tool. Use of this tool requires a subscription to both the CMOS and PerfectIt. APA’s full guide is currently only available in a print edition. APA does list a handful of proofreading/editing services that offer discounts to APA members but does not endorse any service. The online version of the AP Stylebook requires a subscription. Since AP updates much more frequently to incorporate more pop culture words and trends than the other guides, it may be more beneficial to use the online subscription over the print version. AP offers a free Stylebook newsletter that might help you determine if the AP is a relevant guide.
Before any purchase, check for access through institutions and organizations. For example, an adjunct professor may secure guides for free or at a discounted rate.
Organizations with corporate communications or media relations departments may have institutional subscription access. Local library systems typically have print editions of these manuals. Some tools such as Grammarly include both APA-style and Chicago-style checks even if not endorsed by either style guide.
Books on writing more effectively, such as Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style” or Constance Hale’s “Sin and Syntax,” are not comprehensive style guides. Their advice and topics may overlap with style guides but they are not regularly updated and not cited as style guides by organizations. Sometimes you may see a stakeholder refer to “The Gregg Reference Manual” but it has not been updated since 2010 (about when the iPhone became popular). If a client references Gregg, consider using the APA style guide with its similar level of formality.
Contradicting beliefs
Throughout this article, a style guide is defined as a guide. Just as the pirate’s code in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films is described as “more like guidelines than rules,” with five generations in the workplace, you may encounter firmly held yet contradicting beliefs about language use and grammar.
For example, which phrasing is correct: “over half of the respondents” or “more than half of the respondents”?
The answer? Either is correct. (See? Guidelines.) Anyone who took a journalism course before 2014 was rigorously taught that the only correct wording is “more than half of the respondents” and that you would only use “over half of the respondents” when describing something physically over the respondents such as “a tent was over half of the respondents.”
While the AP Stylebook of 2014 set off a firestorm when it stepped back from adherence to “more than” (based on an 1800s-era personal preference of William Cullen Bryant, editor of The New York Evening Post), it’s not your goal to ignite a style firestorm. Rather, it’s to respect and use the style preference of your stakeholders.
The hottest debate may be between Team Oxford Comma and Team No Oxford Comma. Not just debated in academic corridors but also on LinkedIn with some proclaiming their Oxford comma allegiance or lack thereof in their LinkedIn headline. The Oxford or serial comma is the comma that hangs out before “and” or any other conjunction in a series of three or more items such as “Tom, Dick, and Harry.” APA and CMOS are on Team Oxford Comma. AP is not – AP style is “Tom, Dick and Harry.” [Quirk’s too! - Ed.] Adding to the Oxford comma confusion, there is no right answer or rule. Furthermore, most British style guides don’t recommend using Oxford comma (except for the University of Oxford Style Guide, of course). What to do? For business formality’s sake, consider defaulting to using the Oxford comma. But, prepare to be corrected by a stakeholder to NEVER use this comma. Note and respect their preference in your project style guide.
Ready for action
Congrats! You’ve put together your style guide with three pieces: key project words and stakeholder preferences including quote attributions; link(s) to existing stakeholder and stakeholder-related style guides; and a link to foundational style guide.
Beyond helping you to speak your stakeholder’s language from RFP through post-reporting follow-up, your style guide:
- Helps onboard other research team members including platform provider programmers, moderators, etc.
- Provides keywords for automated or human transcribers. (Use case: an infection control study included questions on hepatitis which was abbreviated as “hepi” in the brief. Respondents did use “hepi” in their video answers. This keyword was provided to the transcriber since it is not only an uncommon word but it sounds remarkably like “happy” when spoken. Alerting the transcriber resulted in more accurate quotes and avoided potential confusion in the analysis.)
- Makes colleagues proofreading or reviewing the project aware of stakeholder preferences.
- Generates a keyword glossary you may choose to include in the report for future readers.
- Reorients you (and your stakeholder) when working on follow-up research even if several years later – although check to see if there have been style changes in the interim!
- And yes, prevents style collide and style slide.
A painter’s palette
While this article has emphasized the style guide’s role as a trusty companion, it may also help to think of it as a painter’s palette, preloaded with the colors for each canvas so there’s no need to fumble around for that tube of Prussian blue. Your style guide is already outfitted with keywords and links, ready for use in your own art – the art of research.