Apple's official Style Guide has elements GX teams should shamelessly stea... uh... replicate

Apple WANTS to reach the widest possible audience. Government NEEDS to reach the widest possible audience.

It’s a little surprising to me Apple would openly share their official Style Guide. But there it is—a PDF available to anyone with the URL, no login required:

https://help.apple.com/pdf/applestyleguide/en_US/apple-style-guide.pdf

This 238-page monster is mostly a reference guide for how they want you—an Apple writer of some kind—to spell key words, what case to use, and how to refer to product names. For example (bold mine):

In text, don’t write the name Apple Watch by combining the [Apple] symbol with the word Watch.

Correct: Get started with your Apple Watch.

Incorrect: Get started with your [Apple] Watch.

But there are some great passages for Government Experience (GX) teams who must develop content for public audiences.

Inclusive writing

I’m deeply guilty of non-inclusive writing. Although to be fair, I’ve not written for government websites before, so this is something new I have to pick up. And in the past I’ve written to intentionally provoke thought or reaction. I often prefer “polarizing” readers—for or against my ideas—rather than neutrally communicating. Apple has a different goal, as should government (more on that in a minute).

In any case, Apple has a short introduction about inclusive writing and then launches into multiple categories for writers to consider:

• First off, think inclusively in general

• Research word meanings and history when in doubt

• Consider context (words can alter their impact based on context)

• Avoid violent, oppressive, ableist words

• Avoid idioms and colloquial expressions

• Don’t use color as a stand-in for positive or negative ideas

• Choose caution over adventurous language

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

But why be inclusive?

Interestingly, Apple doesn’t directly address why they are pushing inclusive language. I’m sure some would accuse them of pushing a “woke agenda” or something. But I think it’s much simpler than that. It’s all about the bottom line.

While Apple might be interested in advancing certain social or cultural ideas, their first priority is to make money. From everyone. As a mass-market electronics manufacturer, they are trying to capture the entire addressable market. That includes literally everyone. Therefore, using the most inclusive language possible grants them access to the broadest possible user base to capture the biggest pile of cash.

Apple includes everyone so everyone includes Apple on their wish list.

Government inclusivity: Required

Government is not an international electronics behemoth trying to make money. But our inclusivity goal is the same as Apple’s — include everyone. Government, at all levels, must provide for the common good. And that means everyone. But we can’t reach everyone if we deliberately exclude people, starting with language.

More inclusion factors from Apple

I’ll let you look at the Style Guide yourself, but there are a few more notable items for GX teams to consider.

• Apple talks about inclusive representation when using people’s names or in things like photography, videos, or other content.

• Biases and stereotypes are addressed. For example, when referring to holidays, there’s a lot more out there than Christmas, Easter, or Yom Kippur.

• Gender identity and pronouns and even honorifics (like Ms., Mr., Mrs.) are addressed as well.

• There’s also a large section on disabilities and how to sensitively include them without drifting into ableist territory. “Fell on deaf ears” is an example phrase called out as a no-no for obvious reasons.

Do you have a style guide? (Can we see it?)

As our GX Concourse team continues to work with county partners on revamping our public-facing web properties, I’m realizing now we need a style guide, too. Many of the partners we’re coaching through this process are not formal communications or marketing people. Like many of us, developing web content is yet another “hat” they were asked to wear while also doing their “normal job.” So simple, accessible guidelines would help them.

So we’ll add Style Guide development to our growing list tasks. We can use the Apple model as a guide-for-making-a-guide, but if you have a “style guide” of any kind for your team, we’d love to see it. Please get in touch!