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House Style Copy QA

Example prompt: "When I move a draft into the 'Ready for Sub' folder in Google Drive, read the doc and check it against our house style guide (also in Drive — 'Style Guide v3.2'). Look specifically for the things the sub keeps catching: serial commas where we don't want them, US spellings, numbers under ten written as digits, datelines in the wrong format, and our list of banned phrases. For each issue, note the paragraph it appears in, the exact text, what the style guide says, and a suggested fix. Write the report as a comment thread anchored to the right paragraph in the Google Doc — don't change the body text. Then post a Slack message in #subs with the draft link and a count of issues by category. If there are zero issues, still post the all-clear message."

The Problem

Sub-editors spend a chunk of every shift catching the same handful of style infractions: serial commas where the house style drops them, US spellings sneaking in from autocorrect, numerals written out when they should be digits, datelines in the wrong shape. None of it is hard to fix — it is just relentless. The writers do not enjoy being told twice in a week to take out the same comma, and the subs would rather use their attention on the harder calls about structure and tone.

How GloriaMundo Solves It

We build an event-triggered workflow that fires whenever a draft moves into the 'Ready for Sub' folder in Google Drive. An integration step reads the draft and the current house style guide. An LLM step compares the draft against the style guide and produces a structured list of deviations — paragraph reference, exact text, the rule it violates, and a suggested fix. A code step groups the issues by category so the report is scannable. An integration step writes the issues back as anchored comments on the original Google Doc, which is what sub-editors are already used to working with. A final Slack message in #subs links to the draft with the issue count by category. Glass Box preview shows every flagged issue before anything is written back to the document, so a writer can see exactly what the QA pass will surface.

Example Workflow Steps

  1. Trigger (event): Fires when a Google Drive file is moved into the 'Ready for Sub' folder.
  2. Step 1 (integration): Read the draft article from Google Docs.
  3. Step 2 (integration): Read the current house style guide from Google Docs.
  4. Step 3 (LLM): Compare the draft against the style guide and produce a structured list of issues with paragraph references, exact offending text, the rule, and a suggested fix.
  5. Step 4 (code): Group the issues by category and count them.
  6. Step 5 (integration): Add a comment anchored to the relevant paragraph in the Google Doc for each issue.
  7. Step 6 (conditional): Branch on whether the issue count is zero.
  8. Step 7 (integration): Post a Slack message in #subs — either with the issue counts by category and the draft link, or the all-clear message.

Integrations Used

  • Google Drive — watch the 'Ready for Sub' folder for new drafts
  • Google Docs — read the draft and the style guide; write back anchored comments
  • Slack — notify the sub-editor that QA has run

Who This Is For

Sub-editors at small and mid-sized publications, in-house comms teams maintaining a brand style guide, and independent publishers who want the writers' first drafts to land cleaner without hiring another set of eyes. Particularly useful where the style guide is detailed and the production cadence is high.

Time & Cost Saved

A QA pass on a 1,200-word feature typically takes a sub 10-15 minutes before they can start on the real edit. This workflow surfaces the mechanical issues in under a minute and lets the sub spend their time on tone, structure, and the harder calls. Across a newsroom producing ten drafts a day, that is two to three hours of sub time back per shift.