Content Publishing Class: Part Four

I finished the last content quality class of the series. This session was less formal than the previous three sessions, and relied more on input from the attendees. We started with the exercise of listing the resources we use frequently in writing and editing. Of course, the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications (MSTP) is indispensable, as are the various style guides each division uses to supplement the guidance in MSTP. The are Web sites that we use a lot that are internal to Microsoft, such as sites with legal and branding guidance. The most popular public Web sites that the attendees listed were Dictionary.com and Webopedia. I tend to go to the bookshelf when possible—we usually use the American Heritage dictionary as the standard at Microsoft, and for style the Chicago Manual. I refer to usage guides fairly often too, especially the Merriam-Webster Usage Dictionary and Bryan Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage.

After the exercise, the instructor encouraged us to work on coordinating our documentation efforts with groups outside of our own work groups to help promote consistency across Microsoft. She encouraged us to join or form virtual teams composed of members in multiple divisions, and to network outside of Microsoft as much as possible. This company is big, and even though we have centralized resources to help us be consistent in how we present content, a lot of the centralized resources were produced fairly recently and old styles remain entrenched. Also, much of the guidance is open to different interpretations. There are efforts under way to unify production processes and content styles, and a high-level team has been formed to guide these efforts, but it will be a while before it all comes together.