Editorial Guidelines

Introduction

A physician’s duty is, “First, do no harm.” So, a writer’s first duty is, “Don’t harm the reader’s understanding.” Even to the extent that, when all else fails, you may need to bend or break a grammatical rule, choose clarity. Spelling, however, is a different matter. You fail to check, correct and recheck your spelling at your own peril. If you struggle to write clearly, read your drafts out loud, with or without a listener. The awkward phrase that can hide in typescript tends to jump out at us in speech. (Microsoft Office/Word has a distressing habit of catching errors selectively, making multiple checks a necessity for even the best spellers.)

The following is a set of editorial guidelines that should be followed in the writing of the DCAM Framework and all best practices aligned with DCAM.

Language

In general, strive for clarity. Clarity is nearly always enhanced by brevity. Brevity is hard.

Remember that your audience may speak English as a second (or more) language, so avoid slang terms or jargon and opt for the root words of the slang or jargon instead. Your reader, while an accomplished person and a high-level thinker, may be new to the data environment.

If regularly asked to copyedit the writing of others on actual paper, certain editing marks are important to know. These can be found here.

For the sake of clarity and consistency, some words and phrases are preferred over others or have additional restrictions on their use when writing for EDM Council documents. Since writing for the EDM Council is about data management in general, terms are not specific to any industry.

In addition to the advice below, the DCAM document includes a substantial Glossary.

Adopt – preferred in the context of a strategy or cultural practice
Business Requirements – determine what these are in each case, add context (data management, data or both); business requirements are different than data requirements or data management requirements
Component – use only in reference to the 7 DCAM components
Cross-organization Control Function – preferred over Organization-wide control function or cross-control function
Data Management (DM) initiative – the overall DM function; use lower case, “data management” when referring the generic activity
Define – preferred action versus design, develop, describe or specify
Element – use only in reference to data
Enterprise – refers to the top-level function in the organization – synonym can be Group
Function – used with the seven Component names
Firm – to be avoided entirely in favor of Organization
Implement – preferred in the context of a process
Internal Audit – the formal audit function, only use lowercase audit if referring to the generic activity
Office of Data Management (ODM) – do not use the synonym Data Management Office (DMO)
Operating Unit – used for business, business line, line-of-business, operations, control function, etc., to be inclusive of all units in an organization regardless of operating type or level and to be industry agnostic
Operations – minimized use because it implies a required operating structure; replaced with “business”
Organization – refers to the entire business entity – do not use the synonym Firm
Organization-wide – refers to actions across the entire business entity
Process – used when describing the complete activity – minimize the use of “procedure”
Program – limited to use with DMP so the other Components cannot be programs
Program Management Office (PMO) – a subset of the ODM
Stakeholder – does not require segregation of stakeholders into “relevant stakeholders” or other descriptive subdivisions. If there is a desired priority of stakeholder, use “primary” and “secondary”
Technology – multiple contexts: 1) overall technology function-replaces IT – normalize the language (business, data, technology function); 2) technical infrastructure
Do not use personal pronouns
Avoid the use of simile and metaphor as both cloud specificity and veer away from the desired clarity.

i.e. & e.g. Usage

The Gregg Reference Manual Suggests that in general, it is better to use common language in business communications rather than abbreviations such as i.e. and e.g. These should be saved for expedient communication and technical writing, which includes the DCAM. Still, the greatest clarity will usually be found in the common language, using for example in place of e.g. and namely or that is in place of i.e. Despite this if these abbreviations will substantially shorten your writing or add to clarity, use them. Containing parentheses will alert the reader that you are offering a clarifying aside to the main text.

The Chicago Manual of Style states that i.e. and e.g. should be “confined to parentheses and notes and followed by a comma.”

Title Case

Title case is used to capitalize the following types of titles and headings in APA Style:

Titles of references (e.g., book titles, article titles) when they appear in the text of a paper,
Titles of inventories or tests,
Headings at Levels 1 and 2,
The title of your paper and of named sections within it (e.g., the Discussion section), and
Titles of periodicals—journals, magazines, or newspapers—which are also italicized (e.g., Journal of Counseling Psychology, The New York Times).

Here are directions for implementing APA’s title case:

Capitalize the first word of the title/heading and any subtitle/subheading;
Capitalize all “major” words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns) in the title/heading, including the second part of major hyphenated words (e.g., Self-Report not Self–report); and
Capitalize all words of four letters or more.

This boils down to using lowercase only for “minor” words of three letters or fewer, namely, for conjunctions (words like and, or, nor, and but), articles (the words a, an, and the), and prepositions (words like as, at, by, for, in, of, on, per, and to), as long as they aren’t the first word in a title or subtitle. You can see examples of title case in this APA Style Blog Post.

Sentence Case

Sentence case, on the other hand, is a capitalization style that mainly uses lowercase letters. Sentence case is used in a few different contexts in APA Style, including for the following:

The titles of references when they appear in reference list entries and
Headings at Levels 3, 4, and 5

Here are directions for implementing sentence case in APA Style in these two contexts:

Capitalize the first word of the title/heading and any subtitle/subheading;
Capitalize any proper nouns and certain other types of words; and
Use lowercase for everything else.

Component Acronyms

Identify the acronym in the Heading 2 of the Component Overview and the Cap-Sub-cap section
Then apply acronym through the remainder of the section

Forward Slash

“/” when used should be used without spaces as follows “xxxxxxxxxx/zzzzzzzz

Copyright, Trademark and Service Marks

Ownership marks are important because they inform any reader or user that your products and materials may not be used elsewhere without explicit, written permissions. They are legal notices not to infringe on your property. In the event these notices are ignored, their presence dramatically eases the process of stopping the misuse. You may deny permission or require compensation for the use.

There are three main symbols. TM, © and SM.

TM, meaning Trademark, is most often applied to business logos and certain products. Use of TM generally indicates that a trademark has been applied for or the application process is underway. Once a trademark is awarded TM is replaced by ®, meaning that the trademark has been accepted and is registered with the appropriate government agency.

Products can include both physical objects and things like software, an instruction manual, or a Guide like this one, even in cases where the material exists only on a computer screen.

However, written material is most often covered by copyright, which is easier to obtain and much less expensive. You can register copyright by merely submitting copies of your work to the federal copyright office and paying a small fee. Registration can be done easily by any business or individual.

For services, use SM, meaning Service Mark. Service marks are used to indicate ownership of distinct, descriptive phrases used to characterize your products and services. A bit confusing, a service mark can contain or be only a graphic. A familiar example of a service mark is “Think Different,” used by Apple computers, whose trademark is the outline of an apple with a bite taken. Another is Zales (jewelers) whose service mark is “The Diamond Store.”

While this overview contemplates only U.S. marks and rights, most other countries recognize these marks. In turn, the U.S. recognizes these same rights registered in other countries. However, there may be instances where an additional registration is advised. Only an attorney can advise you on both the nuances of these marks and alternatives.

Resources

The Elements of Style usually called just Strunk & White after its authors is an indispensable source for writing well and clearly. In under 100 pages, it covers most questions and confusion you will be encounter in writing.
The Gregg Reference Manual by William Sabin is your fallback if Strunk & White does not address a particular question of usage. Gregg represents a massive step up at almost 600 pages and 1600 topics. Gregg is recommended over other style guides such as AP, MLA, APA, and the Chicago Manual because it is designed for programs in business education, and therefore business writing. If you want to explore the distinctions between style manuals, an exhaustive list is available on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_style_guides
An alternative to Gregg is The Business Style Handbook: An A-to-Z Guide for Effective Writing on the Job, usually called The Business Style Handbook. This book is a 280-page style guide for people who write on the job. The authors are Helen Cunningham and Brenda Greene.
Copyright submission, https://www.copyright.gov/registration/
Trademark submission, https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-process/filing-online

The Color Palette

Primary Colors

To be used for logo and all branding.

CMYK: 99 74 13 2
RGB: 0 84 148
HTML: #005494
PMS 2935U

CMYK: 5 55 80 1
RGB: 231 135 71
HTML: #E78747
PMS 716U

Secondary Colors

To be used as accent colors such as section backgrounds (collateral sidebars) and head-lines.

CMYK: 80 40 4 0
RGB: 41 131 191
HTML: #2983BF
PMS 7704U

CMYK: 0 0 0 30
RGB: 188 190 192
HTML: #BCBEC0
PMS 420U

Text & Background

Darker color to be used as primary text color and light blue to be used for all background color accents.

CMYK: 67 57 47 27
RGB: 84 88 97
HTML: #545861
PMS 7547U

CMYK: 9 3 1 0
RGB: 229 237 245
HTML: #E5EDF5
PMS 656U

DCAM Framework Guidelines

The editorial guidelines described above continue to apply for writing and editing DCAM Framework content, in addition to the items listed below, which are specific to DCAM Framework content only.

DCAM Document Titles

Component – all caps
Capability – all caps
Sub-capability – cap and lowercase – no period

Sub-capability Section Guidelines

Description – a short overview, the big picture. Keep them to no more than two sentences of factual statements, not recommended best practice
Objectives – These are commands or instructions. “Go here and do that.” This is done in the simple present tense, but if you think of how you would instruct a subordinate, or how your boss directs you, it will come to you automatically.
Advice – paragraph form, casual style, recommended best practice
Questions – actual question ending in “?”
Artifacts – identify a thing if possible; if not, revert to evidence of…
Scoring – follow standard language protocols written in sentence form

Standard Language for Scoring Guidance

The standard language for scoring guidance is defined below. The standard language is to be used as the basis for understanding how to score each Sub-capability. Each of the six rating criteria should be a blend of standard language plus specific information to help the reader establish the Sub-capability score.

Not Initiated	Conceptual	Developmental	Defined	Achieved	Enhanced
No formal capability exists.	No formal capability exists, but the need is recognized, and the development is being discussed.	The formal capability is being developed.	The formal capability is defined and validated by directly involved stakeholders.	The formal capability is established and understood across the organization and is being followed by the stakeholders.	The formal capability is established as part of business-as-usual practice with a continuous improvement routine.

An example of blending standard language (shown above) with specific information (1.3.1. The Data Content Strategy is Defined):

Not Initiated	Conceptual	Developmental	Defined	Achieved	Enhanced
No formal data content strategy exists.	No formal data content strategy exists, but the need is recognized, and the development is being discussed.	The formal data content strategy is being developed.	The formal data content strategy is defined and validated by directly involved stakeholders.	The formal data content strategy is established and understood across the organization and is being followed by the stakeholders.	The formal data content strategy is established as part of business-as-usual practice with a continuous improvement routine.

When writing scoring guidance, it is important to consider the stakeholders defined in the Upper Matter. The scoring guide should not repeat the stakeholders but should be mindful of how the reader will interpret the stakeholder groups.

Revision History

Date	Author	Description
May 2020	Mark McQueen	Addition of Scoring Language Guidance