{"id":5306,"date":"2025-04-19T09:34:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T09:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/?p=5306"},"modified":"2026-01-25T21:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T21:07:07","slug":"style-matters-but-not-as-much-as-substance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/style-matters-but-not-as-much-as-substance\/","title":{"rendered":"Style matters \u2013 but not as much as substance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
A writing style guide isn\u2019t just about creating consistency; it also helps to reinforce a brand. (Image by Relea Leonard<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a>.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was the perfect silly season story: a prominent\narch-Brexiter Westminster MP requiring his staff to use imperial measurements\nand to address non-titled men as Esq. British newspapers and the Twittersphere\nhad a field day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether or not you\u2019re a fan of the politician in question,\nyou have to take your (top) hat off to him. Because a writing style guide isn\u2019t\njust about creating consistency; it also helps to reinforce a brand. And if\nyour carefully-constructed public persona is old-fashioned, then your writing style\nshould be old-fashioned too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Whatever your own company\u2019s brand, its style guide is designed to project a certain image”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Whatever your own company\u2019s brand, its style guide (if\nthere is one) is designed to project a certain image. Therefore, you should\nfollow it when writing at work, even if you wouldn\u2019t choose to adopt some or\nall of the house rules in other contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t have a style guide, consider adopting a\nnewspaper one. It will help you to write consistently and to avoid wasting time\non little style decisions such as whether to hyphenate a compound word. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If you don\u2019t have a style guide, consider adopting a newspaper one”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Economist<\/em>\u2019s excellent guide is a favourite among fund managers. The Guardian<\/em>, too, has a comprehensive \u2013 and amusing \u2013 guide, which you can find online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to the silly season, don\u2019t be distracted by the\nfunny stories. It doesn\u2019t hugely matter whether we address a letter to John\nSmith, Mr John Smith or John Smith Esq. Just as investors judge a fund on its\nstrategy and performance, we should judge our politicians on their ideas and policies\n\u2013 not on their style guides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the perfect silly season story: a prominent arch-Brexiter Westminster MP requiring his staff to use imperial measurements and to address non-titled men as Esq. British newspapers and the Twittersphere had a field day. Whether or not you\u2019re a fan of the politician in question, you have to take your (top) hat off to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Style matters \u2013 but not as much as substance”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[188,190,186,156,184],"class_list":["post-5306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-brand","tag-consistency","tag-style-guide","tag-writing","tag-writing-style"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5306"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5314,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5306\/revisions\/5314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}