A short guide to tone of voice

The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. Everything we would tell a client about tone of voice in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

Writing for the web is largely an editing job: the first draft is always longer than it needs to be. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

What is actually at stake

Write like a knowledgeable person talking, not a brochure. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. The practical test is whether someone new to the project could tell, in a minute, that it had been handled.

How to approach it

Consistency builds recognition. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.

What to watch for

Jargon signals insecurity more often than expertise. The cost of getting this wrong is rarely visible on the day it happens. The teams that stay on top of it are the ones who put it on a calendar rather than a wish list.

What this looks like day to day

Pages that answer a real question outlive pages written to fill a slot in a sitemap. Three things worth confirming about tone of voice before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Write like a knowledgeable person talking, not a brochure — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you are not sure where your systems currently stand on this, it takes us about an hour to find out.