As I mentioned in my last post, the U.S. Energy Information Administration has created a great style guide that’s worth your attention. You can download the 114-page manual here, but let me give you some of the highlights of the publication:

The guide addresses three areas: grammar, writing, and EIA style.

Grammar here refers to the rules that govern all American English, such as the that/which distinction.

Writing includes suggestions for using simple words instead of more complex or bureaucratic phrases or tailoring the style to the intended audience. doesn’t just give grammar edicts, but provides writing tips as well.

EIA style means the rules the agency applies to be consistent when two or more choices are feasible. The agency uses “email”, not “e-mail,” for example.

The editor of the guide, Colleen Blessing, pulled together some of the most common issues in each and made a one-page “quick tips” page for handy reference. She also put together a one-page summary of what it takes to write well, crystallized in these five subheads:

Use short sentences

Use short paragraphs

Avoid jargon

Be consistent

Consider your audience

There are separate sections in the guide that expand on these concepts, but it’s remarkable enough just to make those principals part of a federal agency’s writing philosophy, don’t you think?

It’s also noteworthy that the guide gives 17 pages (27-43) of “Commonly Misused Words,” such as “affect” vs. “effect,” and gives samples that could have been pulled from EIA documents: “Policy decisions affect energy markets,” “What was the effect of the committee’s work?” That’s the type of approach that shows an editor’s understanding of her writers and what issues cause them problems. Interestingly enough, Colleen told me she didn’t include in that section words that aren’t a problem for her writers. Outside the EIA, “it’s” and “its” get mixed up, but the scientists and engineers in this energy agency don’t trip over those two.

That sensitivity to the writers is clear throughout the guide, starting with its introductory material: “This is a Writing Style Guide — not a rule book. … Our goal is to provide guidance on style issues so the EIA content has uniformity that conveys professionalism. … Style consistency enhances our credibility. Inconsistency in style or misused words will cause users to question the accuracy of our data. A uniform style tells users that EIA has high quality standards for our words as well as our numbers.”

Indeed, because the writers frequently make numeric references in their work, there’s an extensive discussion on it, with rules such as “Use the same level of significant digits in a comparison or section. Example: Consumption rose by 2.0% in February and 3.2% in March.” (Write it as 2.0%, not 2%.) Similarly, there’s a fair amount of detail about how to write units of energy, scientific notations, and international currencies.

In other words, as good as the EIA style manual is, it’s intended for a narrow audience: the 375 agency employees. To structure something for your organization, you’ll need to find out what’s most relevant for your employees.

Exactly how to do that is the topic for the next blog post.