9 Best Technical Writing Style Guide Examples in 2025

A strong technical writing style is informative, clear, and concise. It guides the reader through a complex topic so they understand or know how to use a product or service.

On a related note, a technical writing style guide helps you write in a particular style, no matter your industry or technical area of expertise. It provides a set of standards or writing rules/recommendations for the tone, grammar, and structure of a technical document. Consider it your point of reference for writing consistently. 

Not all style guides are created equal, though. Certain guides are more appropriate for developers, while others are more useful for report writers. Here are seven technical writing style manuals to help you determine the best option for you. 

What Is a Style Guide in Technical Writing?

A style guide in technical writing is a standardized set of rules that govern the language, formatting, structure, and presentation of documents. It ensures consistency across all written materials, making content easier to read, understand, and use, especially in complex or regulated environments.

Style guides cover elements such as

• Terminology and word choice
• Grammar and punctuation usage
• Heading formats and document structure
• Tone and voice (e.g., formal vs. conversational)
• Visual elements such as tables, bullet points, and graphics
• Citation and referencing rules

Organizations often adopt established guides like the Microsoft Writing Style Guide, APA Stylebook, the Google Developer Guide, or they may create internal style guides tailored to their industry, audience, and products.

Using a consistent style guide not only improves clarity and professionalism but also supports collaboration across teams and ensures compliance in regulated industries.

9 Best Technical Writing Style Guide Examples

1. Google Developer Style Guide

Best for: Developers and software documentation writers

The Google Developer Style Guide is a comprehensive and highly practical resource specifically designed for writing clear, consistent, and user-focused technical documentation, particularly for software and developer audiences. It provides detailed editorial guidelines tailored to Google's own developer products, but it's widely respected and applicable beyond Google-related content.

This style guide stands out for its clarity, accessibility, and modular structure. You don’t need to read it cover-to-cover; it’s designed to be searched and navigated by topic. Whether you need quick guidance on how to structure a bulleted list, format code snippets, or strike the right voice and tone, you can find concise, actionable recommendations.

Key features include:

• Guidance on voice and tone, emphasizing clarity, inclusivity, and reader empathy.
• Best practices for organizing complex technical content, such as APIs, tutorials, and how-to guides.
• Rules for formatting code, file paths, commands, and other developer-specific content.
• Recommendations on bias-free language, user-centric phrasing, and global accessibility.
• Easily searchable, web-based structure for just-in-time reference.

Google's guide is ideal for technical writers creating developer-facing content, such as SDK documentation, open-source project instructions, or internal engineering wikis. It's especially useful for teams that value precision, consistency, and efficiency across fast-moving documentation projects.

You can explore the guide directly here: Google Developer Style Guide

2. Microsoft Writing Style Guide

Best for: Computer technology writer

The Microsoft Writing Style Guide is a straightforward resource for all types of technical documentation, including app and website writing. Some tips from the guide include. 

• Write short, simple sentences.
• Replace complex sentences and paragraphs.
• Include that and who. · 
• Use an active voice and indicative mood most of the time.

According to the guide, Microsoft's approach to voice and style is warm and relaxed, crisp and clear, and ready to lend a hand. It helps you write in an active voice rather than passive, which is more engaging for the reader.

3. The Apple Style Guide

Best for: Software developers, UX writers, and anyone writing for Apple platforms

The Apple Style Guide is an essential resource for anyone creating technical content for Apple platforms, including macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and other Apple ecosystems. While it's often viewed as a go-to guide for software developers and UX writers working within the Apple environment, its reach goes far beyond app documentation. It's also highly useful for crafting end-user help content, training materials, onboarding instructions, and support documentation.

The guide focuses on helping writers produce clear, consistent, and user-friendly content that aligns with Apple’s overall voice—simple, direct, and elegant. It offers extensive guidance on word choice, technical terms, grammar, punctuation, and how to address users in a helpful, respectful tone.

Key highlights include:

• Specific rules for referring to Apple products, technologies, apps, and hardware
• Terminology and phrasing guidance that aligns with Apple’s product ecosystem
• A strong emphasis on clarity for global audiences, with a dedicated section on writing for non-native English readers, focusing on vocabulary simplicity, active voice, and cultural sensitivity
• Recommendations for inclusive language, ensuring accessibility and respect across diverse user groups
• Tips for interface-related writing, such as labeling buttons, menu items, and onscreen instructions
• Nuanced usage notes that clarify subtle but important distinctions (e.g., the correct way to write file names, product names, and units of measurement)

Because of its broad applicability, the Apple Style Guide is not only relevant to Apple employees or developers—it’s a valuable reference for any technical writer who values precision, reader-centered writing, and consistent style in digital documentation.

The guide is available publicly as a searchable website: Apple Style Guide

4.  Mailchimp Content Style Guide 

Best for: Marketing teams, content strategists, UX writers, and customer support documentation writers

The Mailchimp Content Style Guide is a standout resource for teams writing customer-facing content, particularly in marketing, UX, and support contexts. While Mailchimp is best known for email marketing, its style guide has become widely respected for its modern, human-centered approach to content. It offers clear principles for writing in a way that is accessible, inclusive, and aligned with brand voice.

Unlike more technical guides focused on software or engineering documentation, Mailchimp’s guide is built around tone, empathy, and reader experience. It focuses on writing with clarity and purpose while maintaining a warm, conversational voice that builds trust with users.

Key features include:

• A comprehensive voice and tone guide that helps writers adjust tone based on context (e.g., error messages vs. success confirmations).
• Strong focus on plain language, making it ideal for general audiences and global users.
• Extensive guidance on inclusive language—with concrete examples of how to avoid bias and write respectfully about gender, race, ability, age, and more.
• Rules for grammar, punctuation, formatting, and common word usage to ensure brand consistency.
• A public-facing style guide website that’s easy to navigate and adaptable for internal documentation teams.

This guide is especially helpful for companies building their brand voice or developing content standards across marketing, support, and product writing teams. Its emphasis on emotional intelligence and reader empathy sets a benchmark for content that’s not just clear, but genuinely helpful.

You can explore the guide online here: Mailchimp Content Style Guide

5.  Digital Ocean Technical Writing Guidelines

Best for: Open-source contributors, DevOps professionals, cloud platform writers, and developer educators

The Digital Ocean Technical Writing Guidelines are a valuable resource for individuals writing documentation in the cloud computing, infrastructure, or open-source space, particularly those contributing to tutorials or product documentation on platforms like Digital Ocean’s Community.

Unlike traditional corporate style guides, Digital Ocean’s guidelines are highly collaborative and community-focused, designed to help freelance writers, engineers, and open-source contributors create high-quality, consistent documentation for technical audiences.

Key features include:

• Audience-centered writing guidance, emphasizing clarity for readers with a range of technical backgrounds.
• Tips for writing effective step-by-step tutorials, command-line instructions, and code samples.
• Formatting and structure recommendations, including how to use headings, callouts, and numbered lists effectively
• A strong emphasis on clear, minimal language and active voice, ensuring the content is easy to follow.
• Style recommendations for cross-platform compatibility, including naming conventions, units of measurement, and common DevOps terminology.
• Guidance on writing for a global audience, with considerations for language simplicity and cultural awareness.
• Contributor-specific advice on how to submit, revise, and improve documentation collaboratively.

The tone of the guide is professional but approachable—ideal for writers who may not be formally trained in technical writing but need to produce clear, reliable content for developers and engineers. It’s also a great starting point for teams looking to adopt a lean, practical style guide for cloud documentation or tutorials.

The Digital Ocean Technical Writing Guidelines are publicly available here: Digital Ocean Writing Guidelines

6. GitLab API Style Guide

Best for: API documentation writers, RESTful API developers, and DevOps technical communicators

The GitLab API Style Guide provides clear and detailed standards for documenting APIs within GitLab’s extensive developer ecosystem. While it’s intended primarily for internal contributors to GitLab’s open-source platform, it serves as an excellent reference for anyone writing API documentation, particularly RESTful APIs.

This guide focuses on ensuring that API docs are consistent, precise, and developer-friendly, and it reflects GitLab’s commitment to open-source transparency and usability.

Key features include:

• Naming conventions for endpoints, resources, attributes, and methods, with a focus on clarity and predictability.
• Guidelines for writing descriptions of parameters, responses, and error messages, emphasizing simplicity and accuracy.
• Best practices for documenting authentication, pagination, and rate limits, which are common across many APIs.
• Recommendations on maintaining consistent terminology and formatting throughout the documentation.
• A clear, structured approach to organizing endpoints, using consistent RESTful principles.
• Tips on how to write changelogs and deprecation notices for evolving APIs
• Encouragement of concise language, example-rich entries, and formatting that supports quick scanning and comprehension.

While it’s more technical and narrowly focused than general style guides, the GitLab API Style Guide is especially useful for technical writers and engineers documenting APIs, building developer portals, or contributing to open-source infrastructure projects.

You can view the guide here: GitLab API Style Guide on GitLab Docs

7. AP Stylebook

Best for: Any technical writer

The Associated Press Stylebook is an English style and usage guide for proper language and is published for journalists and editors. The style manual is an excellent tool to guide your technical writing's punctuation, abbreviations, numerals, spelling, etc. You can purchase a hard copy (hundreds of pages long) and use the table of contents to answer your questions get the stylebook online (it's searchable and customizable).

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8. The IET Guide to Technical Report Writing

Best for: Technical report writer

If you write technical reports, consider the IET Guide to Technical Report Writing your go-to for the most commonly accepted tech report format. It's concise and focuses on keeping your reader's needs at the forefront of your writing. You can first read the 10 laws of good report writing in the guide, including:

• Produce the report for your reader(s).
• Keep the report as short as possible.
• Organize information for the convenience of the reader.

It then goes into elements such as report format, diagrams, etc.

9. A List Apart 

Best for:  Website developers

A more informal style guide with an informal tone, A List Apart is concise but comprehensive. It's an excellent resource that discusses image use, writing snappy introductions, achieving clarity, and more. A List Apart is primarily designed to help writers create articles for the site, but it's helpful for any technical writer. For grammar rules and formatting, the guide refers to the Chicago Manual of Style.

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Key Benefits of Using Technical Writing Style Guides

Implementing a technical writing style guide offers more than consistency—it directly improves the quality, efficiency, and usability of your documentation. Below are the core benefits, each of which contributes to stronger communication across teams and end users.

Saves Time

A style guide eliminates guesswork. Writers don't have to debate formatting, terminology, or tone—guidelines are already defined. This speeds up the writing process, reduces back-and-forth editing, and ensures faster onboarding for new writers or contributors.

Improves Technical Communication

Style guides help present complex information in a structured, accessible way. By standardizing voice, formatting, and terminology, documentation becomes easier to read, scan, and understand, especially for technical or non-native English readers.

Enhances Team Collaboration

When teams follow a unified style, collaboration becomes smoother. Editors, engineers, product managers, and technical writers can work from a shared foundation, reducing inconsistencies and miscommunication.

Supports Brand and Voice Consistency

A technical writing style guide ensures that all documents—from API docs to user manuals—align with your company’s voice and tone. This builds trust with users and reinforces your brand across multiple channels.

Reduces Errors and Rework

Standard rules for grammar, punctuation, formatting, and content structure reduce the likelihood of mistakes. Style guides also help avoid ambiguous phrasing or inconsistent terminology that can confuse readers or introduce risk in regulated industries.

Scales Documentation Quality

As teams and documentation needs grow, a style guide ensures that quality doesn’t decline. It allows multiple writers to produce cohesive content, even across departments, languages, or regions.

Improves Accessibility and Inclusion

Many modern style guides include guidance on writing inclusive, bias-free content. This ensures documentation is respectful, welcoming, and accessible to a global and diverse audience.

Choose a technical writing style guide

Write with consistency by choosing a technical writing style manual. Another option is to create your own based on these examples. This is also an excellent strategy if you write collaboratively, as it ensures all technical documentation has a similar style. 

Conclusion

Choosing the right style guide is essential to producing clear, consistent, and user-friendly documentation. Whether you're writing code-heavy API documentation, customer support content, or formal technical reports, a style guide provides the structure and standards needed to maintain professionalism and clarity across all deliverables.

Each guide serves a specific purpose. For example, the Google Developer Style Guide helps standardize complex developer documentation, while the Mailchimp Content Style Guide emphasizes voice and inclusivity in customer-facing content. Others, like the Microsoft Writing Style Guide and Apple Style Guide, provide robust frameworks for product and UX writing aligned with brand identity.

By understanding the differences and benefits of each technical writing style guide, writers can make more informed choices, improve their workflow, and ensure that their documentation meets both user expectations and organizational goals.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why is a Technical Writing Style Guide important?

A technical writing style guide is important because it ensures consistency, clarity, and professionalism across all technical documents. Whether you're working with a team of writers or producing content individually, a style guide provides standardized rules for grammar, terminology, formatting, tone, and structure. This reduces confusion, minimizes errors, and makes documents easier for readers to understand, especially in complex or regulated industries.

It also streamlines collaboration, speeds up the writing and review process, and reinforces a unified brand voice. Ultimately, a technical writing style guide is not just about aesthetics, it's a critical tool for improving communication, reducing risk, and supporting user success.

What are the key elements of a Technical Writing Style Guide?

A technical writing style guide typically includes the following key elements:

1. Voice and Tone – Defines the personality and emotional tone of the content (e.g., formal, conversational, authoritative) to ensure consistency across documents.
2. Grammar and Mechanics – Establishes rules for punctuation, capitalization, verb tense, and sentence structure to eliminate ambiguity and maintain clarity.
3. Terminology and Word Usage – Specifies preferred terms, banned words, acronyms, and industry-specific language to promote accuracy and consistency.
4. Formatting and Structure – Provides standards for headings, lists, tables, spacing, and visual hierarchy so documents are easy to scan and navigate.
5. Document Types and Templates – Offers guidance or templates for common document types such as user manuals, SOPs, reports, or API documentation.
6. Style Conventions – Covers spelling (e.g., US vs. UK English), units of measure, date and time formats, and numerical expressions.
7. Code and Technical Elements – For developer content, includes conventions for displaying code snippets, file names, commands, and error messages.
8. Accessibility and Inclusivity Guidelines – Promotes bias-free language, plain language, and global readability to support diverse audiences.

These elements help technical writers create documentation that is accurate, professional, and user-centered, regardless of who writes it or when.

How do I choose the right Technical Writing Style Guide?

Choosing the right technical writing style guide depends on your audience, content type, and industry requirements. The goal is to select a guide that supports clarity, consistency, and usability across all your documentation. Here’s how to decide:

1. Audience – Consider who will read your content. Developer documentation may benefit from the Google Developer or GitLab API Style Guide, while general user content may align better with Microsoft or Mailchimp’s style guides.
2. Content Type – Match the guide to what you’re writing:
   
   • API and developer docs: GitLab, Google.
   • Software documentation and help content: Microsoft, Apple.
   • Marketing or support content: Mailchimp.
   • Formal technical reports: IET Guide to Technical Report Writing

1. Industry Standards – Some sectors expect adherence to specific style guides. For example, engineering teams may follow the IET or IEEE guidelines, while public-facing writers may use the AP Stylebook.
   
   
2. Brand Voice and Team Needs – Choose a guide that fits your organization's tone. If no single guide meets your needs, use one as a base and create a customized version for your team.
   
   
3. Usability – Look for a style guide that’s easy to search, apply, and share, especially for teams collaborating across departments or time zones.

To help you compare the strengths of major guides side by side, see the comparison table in the conclusion section of this article. It summarizes the benefits, audiences, and formats of top style guides to help you make an informed choice.

What is the difference between a style guide and a writing manual?

A style guide and a writing manual both support effective writing, but they serve different purposes and focus on different aspects of the writing process.

A style guide provides rules for consistency in grammar, punctuation, formatting, terminology, tone, and document structure. It ensures that all content adheres to the same standards, making documents clear and cohesive, especially when multiple writers contribute. Style guides are typically organization- or industry-specific and focus on how content should be presented.

A writing manual offers instruction on how to write well, covering broader principles of composition, clarity, organization, and audience awareness. It’s more educational, often including writing strategies, examples, and exercises to build writing skills. Manuals are especially helpful for teaching writing techniques, whereas style guides assume a baseline level of proficiency and provide rules to follow.

In short:

• A style guide governs the rules of consistency.
• A writing manual teaches the skills of effective writing.

For technical writers, both are valuable—style guides ensure uniformity across documents, while writing manuals help sharpen the overall quality of the writing itself.