Our style, that is. As we talk about who we are, I'll throw out a request for help in developing our very own Discover Mediaworks Stylebook. The Associated Press Stylebook is a useful reference -- I have a copy on my desk and you're welcome to borrow it if you can find my desk.I prefer AP style most of the time because readers are used to it (most print publications follow AP Stylebook rules). But we're free to develop our own style; I'd argue that, in some instances, we should.
Are we going to say "Web site," which is AP style, for example, or are we going to use the increasingly common "website"? And the AP Stylebook calls it "e-mail," but when was that last time you or anyone you know actually hyphenated that particular word?
And so on.
Maybe I'll start a Basecamp project on this. In the meantime, feel free to comment here or email me with your suggestions for how Discover Mediaworks can best say it with style.
Mary E.
You can also get the stylebook for your iPhone for $30.
ReplyDeleteI think what Mary means by this is that there is no "The stylebook". The AP stylebook is one particular stylebook that has a fairly wide following, but we as a company need to decide whether we follow all of the guidelines set out therein, or make our own, such as writing email instead of e-mail, or Discover Mediaworks vs Discover, which I've seen as a shortened version of the full name when it has already been used in a sentence.
ReplyDeleteEven if we aren't about to publish our own guidebook on the subject, as we continue on our foray into the Social Media world, the more we're going to want to make sure that we're all on the same page, especially when talking about Discover and what what we do here.
Randy: "The stylebook" app Trevor referred to was the AP Stylebook. Back to your message, though, to which all I have to say is You Go, Guy! And to expand on your example, on first reference our company is Discover Mediaworks, Inc. On second reference what are we: Discover? DMW? This question comes up much more often than you might think -- in news releases, in pitches, in contracts. I've seen us listed all three ways in the same document, I think even on the same page, probably (shudder) in the same paragraph. All of which of course drives me crazy. But that's not to say that even that can't be our style, cuz it can. If we want to be whatever we say we are in the moment, that's, well, it's a non-style style, I guess. Doesn't mean it couldn't be or shouldn't be codified, though. ("On second reference, Discover Mediaworks, Inc. shall become whatever the writer feels like calling it.") On the other hand, if we want to reflect a higher degree of professionalism, not to mention make it easier for everyone who writes and reads our copy along the way,these are the nit-picky little things we'll have to get figured out...
ReplyDelete