english-for-designers

Voice, Tone, and Style

For what is this guide?

With a huge amount of content, it’s important to make the right impression on the right people. To do this, first of all it’s useful to understand yourself. The next step is to define the audience that can receive your message. And keep that in mind when creating smth. For example, you can change your intonation in different situations and contexts (tone). But your way of communication is still recognizable due to the general manner (voice, style). Synergy of the words you use (What) and the way you do it (How) give the most successful communication.

So, Voice, Tone, and Style help:

1. To make a clear impression;
2. To be understandable;
3. To be recognizable;
4. To be consistence;
5. To be your own.

Voice

A voice is consistent. It’s a tool for the representation of your position and point of view.

Main points of my Voice:

• informal, but polite;
• almost no slang;
• an open attitude.

Shortly, CHEER: Clear, Honest, Empathy, Enthusiastic, Reliable.

Tone

A tone is mutable. It can differ depending on the context.

My Tone is:

• in informal cases (e.g. social media): open, cheerful, playful;
• in formal cases (e.g. CV): confident, direct, informative. …but still is CHEER :)

Style

Style is a compilation of what your writing looks like.

What IS my Style:

• headers-questions;
• use of lists;
• in long reads — recap in a list at the end;
• lists with semicolons (short version) or dots (long version);
• moderate use of emoji;
• clear language;
• use of contractions;
• use of abbreviations. First use: Human-Computer Interacting (HCI). Second use: HCI.
• the passive voice can be used from time to time :);
• write numbers up to ten in words;
• aim for an average sentence length of 20-ish words.

What IS NOT my Style:

• rude attitude;
• confusing or illogical division of text;
• toooo informal tone.