A style guide is a set of standards people use when writing communications. It provides practical advice about achieving impact and consistency, covering matters ranging from abbreviations and preferred spellings to capitalisation and acceptable terminology.
In some cases, there is a right and a wrong way of doing things. In others, it’s a question of preference and consistency. The style guide gives us a place to go to resolve the many questions that arise with the English language.
Poor accuracy and inconsistency ring alarm bells with readers. If people see it in our writing, they may assume we have the same approach to delivering legal advice. Common standards also help people see us as a cohesive firm with a global message. Inconsistencies occur when we copy and paste text from other documents, so always check the style and tone when reformatting. Good style helps win people’s trust.
Taylor Wessing’s style guide is your first point of reference for anyone who writes or contributes to our client, marketing, PR or employee communications. We developed it because some style matters are specific to our profession or our firm. It’s used across all our English language communications.
Please note this guide does not relate to legal drafting, correspondence or documents generated in the course of providing legal services. You can find separate house style guidelines for legal services communication on the intranet.