Customizing your team's style guide
What’s in this article:
Intro to your style guide
Customizing the style guide will ensure your content that sounds like your brand. Style guides can be org wide or limited to specific teams. Once linked to a team voice, WRITER Agent will automatically apply your customizations to outputs generated by WRITER Agent and custom agents. Learn how to link your style guide to a team voice here.
Examples of popular customizations:
- Use an Oxford comma (or not!)
- Always introduce acronyms when first mentioned
- Never use the 🤮 emoji
- Use sentence case for headlines and headers
- Avoid writing in passive voice
- Write times like 7PM and not 7 p.m.
- Use gender-inclusive nouns if possible – e.g., “police officer” and not “policeman”
- Avoid wordy phrases — e.g., say “Clearly, the report shows” instead of “It’s clearly evident that the report shows”
- Write confidently — e.g., write “We should meet next week” rather than “I think we should meet next week”
Customizing your style guide
WRITER already has default style guide settings in place from the moment you create your account. You can customize the style guide for your team to have it applied to deliverable generation in WRITER Agent. Remember that updates to the style guide settings apply to your whole team, not just you.
Either select AI Studio from the left menu, or select the settings icon (⚙) from the profile menu to access your team settings.
Navigate to Style guides from the Voice & style menu on the left and then access your team from the list.
From the general tab you're able to select the following to apply to WRITER Agent outputs:
- The format of the language used
- The WRITER assessed reading level or the Flesch-Kincaid Grade level
- Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is a standardized readability formula that approximates the grade level of a text by factoring in sentence length and word length.
- The delivery: select between a passive or active voice and/or choose to split infinitives
- Manage how acronyms should be defined
- Rules related to capitalization
- Rules in regards to currency and money
- How dates, months, and years should be displayed
- The way numbers, fractions and units are displayed
- The format of times and time zones
- Rules regarding social media and the use of emojis
Customize rules regarding punctuation from the next, Punctuation tab.
The Proofreading section allows you to control multiple options around clarity and inclusivity. If your users are using the doc editor or extensions this section allows you granular control on how WRITER proofreads the content in those tools.
The next, Compliance tab allows you to control the compliance checker WRITER Agent uses to keep your content compliant based on the regulations selected in this section.
If we're missing a rule important for your organization to ensure brand-compliant deliverable generation, contact support from the Custom rules tab and our team will be able to assist you.
FAQs
Q: Under Clarity, which should I use: WRITER Readability Level or Flesch-Kincaid?
We evaluate readability using the WRITER Readability Formula (based on Linsear Write) and generate content that meet your target complexity level using a custom deep-learning model. Whether you've selected the Simple, General, or Advanced level, we'll take a sophisticated approach to creating writing suitable for your audience.
Flesch-Kincaid is based on a readability formula that considers the length of a sentence and the number of syllables in those words:
0.39 x (words/sentences) + 11.8 x (syllables/words) - 15.59
Q: What’s included in your Inclusivity settings?
We’ve developed this feature in close partnership with customers who have been leading diversity and inclusion initiatives at their respective organizations. In keeping with the golden rule of “above all else, ask the person what they prefer,” we’ve also carefully considered guidance posted from communities themselves.
Resources on inclusive language:
- WRITER Guide: Diversity and inclusion in the workplace
- National Center on Disability and Journalism
- The Diversity Style Guide
- GLAAD Media Reference Guide
Q: How do I change from/to UK/US English?
WRITER supports four spelling models: American English, United Kingdom English, Australian English, and Canadian English. You can change your preferences from the Style guide Settings tab. Any changes you make here apply to all of the users on your Team.
WRITER currently only supports grammar and spelling checks in English.
Q: What if we don't have an internal decision around one of the writing rule options?
Maybe your team doesn't have any preference on how your team uses ellipses or how you format measurements. That's okay! You can either make an internal decision and configure the rules, or you can opt to leave the style guide option turned off.
Q: What style guide options are Included in my Plan?
Enterprise plans
✅ All style guide categories and custom writing rules
Team plans
✅ All style guide categories
Free users
Spelling, grammar, and punctuation only
Q: How can I create a custom rule?
If you're on an Enterprise plan, the WRITER team can help you! Reach out to your CSM to get started.