content-style-guide

Content Style Guide Skill

A style guide makes a brand sound like one voice no matter who's writing. The useful ones aren't 50 pages of

rules — they're voice principles with examples, tone guidance by context, and a word list people reach for

daily. This skill produces a guide a team will actually use, grounded in concrete do/don't examples rather than

abstract adjectives.

Working from a brief

Given "a style guide for our fintech app", produce the full guide anyway — infer voice principles and

terminology from the brand and audience, and mark inferred choices for the team to confirm. Make every principle

show an example. Never hand back abstract values with no examples.

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided (else infer and label):

• The brand & audience — what you do, who you write for, and how you want to come across.
• Existing voice cues — sample copy you like (and dislike), and any current rules.
• Surfaces — where this applies (product UI, marketing, support, docs) — tone may shift by surface.
• Specifics — preferred terms, things to avoid, locale (US/UK spelling), formality.

Output Format

[Brand] Content Style Guide

1. Voice — who we are — 3–4 voice principles, each as "We are X, not Y" with a before/after example.

2. Tone — how we adapt — how the voice flexes by context (e.g. celebratory on success, calm and brief on errors, warm in onboarding), with a small table: situation → tone → example.

3. Mechanics — the rules that come up constantly: capitalisation (sentence vs. title case), punctuation (Oxford comma, exclamation marks), numbers/dates/currency, contractions, US/UK spelling, formatting (headings, lists, links, buttons).

4. Word list — a do/don't terminology table: preferred term, what to avoid, and why (product terms, jargon to drop, words that are on/off-brand).

5. Inclusivity & accessibility — inclusive language, reading level, plain-language rules, and accessibility (link text, alt text, no "click here", no directional-only instructions).

6. Quick reference — a one-screen cheat sheet of the most-used rules.

Mark inferred voice/terminology choices (confirm with the team).

Quality Checks

• [ ] Voice principles are concrete ("X, not Y") and each shows a before/after example
• [ ] Tone guidance covers multiple real contexts, not one default
• [ ] Mechanics cover the rules that actually recur (caps, punctuation, numbers, spelling)
• [ ] The word list gives preferred vs. avoid terms with reasons
• [ ] Inclusivity and accessibility rules are included and specific
• [ ] There's a one-screen quick reference people will actually use

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not list abstract values ("be friendly, be clear") with no examples — examples are the guide
• [ ] Do not write an exhaustive rulebook no one will read — prioritise the high-frequency decisions
• [ ] Do not ignore tone-by-context — the same voice should sound different in an error vs. a celebration
• [ ] Do not omit a terminology/word list — inconsistent product terms are the most visible failure
• [ ] Do not skip accessibility/inclusivity — they're style rules too

Based On

Content design practice — example-driven voice principles, context-based tone, editorial mechanics, terminology management, and inclusive/accessible language.