Using Style Guides

What is a Style Guide?

A Style Guide is a small book or publication with the main purpose of providing guidance on language use. Such manuals, as we may also call them, specify details of writing style such as punctuation, capitalization, spelling, word usage, grammatical conventions, syntax and sometimes even structural and formatting issues.
In our case - the world of localization - there is often extra specific information, a good example of which would be the translation of variables or the localization of the user interface.

Why use a Style Guide?

We assume everyone who wants to translate has a good command of their own native language at the written level. However, being a good writer does not always equate to being a good translator. Both activities require practice and experience, but in the second case, that of the translator, a good Style Guide can help enormously in preventing the typical errors a beginner would make when translating.
Such booklets, guides or manuals are designed to aid translators, especially those who are starting to learn the profession, to avoid such errors from the beginning and provide the best translation possible.

What makes Style Guides so important?

The main goal of a Style Guide is therefore to provide future translators with the main and most important translating rules, normally including not only the basic grammar and syntax of every language, but also, and most importantly, the most common errors that can occur when translating from a specific language to another, that is the case of the famous "false friends", most of which are only known by professional or very experienced translators.
A Style Guide will offer guidance on those "typical errors", not only on the translation of single words, but also complete sentences, that is to say, the syntax of every language. That will constitute a great help for beginning translators, helping them avoid errors which they otherwise would not know.
Last but not the least, the use of a Style Guide also helps to bring clarity and consistency to the style of the documentation translated into a target language, i.e. the final product information the users receive, ensuring that language is used consistently.

You can download the style guide for your translation language here.

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