Colleen Blessing

Colleen Blessing is a senior editor at the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the lead author of her agency’s award-winning style guide. She’s been editing government writing since her agency was formed in 1977 and has worked in the Office of Communications since 2006. Contact Colleen at colleen.blessing@eia.gov

News and Events

Roadmap for Creating a Writing Style Guide: One Step at a Time

So, you’re tired of seeing little (or big!) errors on your agency’s website, and you flinch at the random writing styles. You feel like your agency’s content is good, but there are still too many inconsistencies. What you need is an agency Writing Style Guide. A good guide can set styles that improve your agency’s

Colleen Blessing

Nov 20, 2015

Technical Writing Need Not Be Abstruse—Use Plain Language for Maximum Impact

Author writes: Additionally, the method utilized a myriad of factors for the purpose of incentivizing production to hit record-high levels of magnitude in the equivalent time period. Author thinks: My work sounds serious, impressive and interesting. Reader thinks: Huh? Technical writers are great—some of my favorite colleagues are technical writers. But technical writers often need

Colleen Blessing

Oct 23, 2015