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Reducing bias in your writing

You can reduce bias in your writing by considering the meanings and origins of your word choices and how those might be perceived or understood by your readers.

Even thinking twice about what example user names you include in your documentation can help reduce bias in your documentation.

See also accessibility guidelines.

And for general writing style, see style guides.

Check out these resources to help you with this kind of attention to your writing:

Free guides:

• Atlassian Design System - Inclusive Writing
• Google’s Developer Style Guide on Inclusive Documentation
• Microsoft Style Guide on Bias-Free Communication
• American Psychological Association (APA)’s Guide on Bias-Free Language
• Writing inclusive documentation, from WordPress

Free resources:

• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) on Terminology, Power, and Oppressive Language
• The Conscious Style Guide - a collection of resources
• Diversity Style Guide
• Linguistic Society of America Guidelines for Inclusive Language
• Linguistic Society of America Additional Inclusive Language Resources
• American Psychological Association (APA)’s Guide on Bias-Free Language

Paid resources:

• The Responsible Communication Style Guide

Relevant talks from Write the Docs:

• What They Don’t Tell You About Creating New Style Guides

Providing inclusive example names

• Wikipedia’s lists of most common forenames and most common surnames by region.
• Splunk style guide on example names
• Behind the Name - name generator
• The Story Shack - name generators