Finding your voice

What is “voice”? It’s the idea we get of the personality behind the prose. We “hear” a writer in our head as we read, and this shapes our response to what he or she has written.

Establishing a voice is one of the hardest things to do well in written English – but also one of the most important elements of good writing.

Who are you?
To help find your company’s voice, you need to answer these key questions:

1. What’s your relationship with your readers?
2. Do you need to reflect particular brand values?
3. Do you want to put the focus on the customer or the company?
4. How would you describe your company personality? (Conservative, bold, hip, formal, edgy?)

Five rules for a powerful voice
Here are some tips to help establish a voice that will resonate with your readers:

1.  Use the active voice as much as possible
The passive voice weakens the action of a sentence by distancing the action from the subjects performing it.

Passive: The food at the party was enjoyed by the guests.
Active: The guests enjoyed the food at the party.

2.  Know your audience
You can't offer everything to everyone. Knowing your target audience will help you find the right voice, and thereby simplify your message.

3.  Address your reader directly
Your reader is a real person. Write “you” unless you need to be very formal, and address the reader’s needs and interests. This is especially relevant when writing in English, where “you” is used frequently and “one” is reserved for very formal situations. If it is more appropriate to your corporate culture, you can also address your reader directly without using “you”.

Before: We take security needs seriously.
After: We take your security needs seriously.
Or: Why not take security seriously? We do.

4.  Use the simple present tense whenever possible
Before: We have created an editorial team representing all three organizations.
After: Our editorial team represents all three organizations.

5.  Keep it consistent
Using many different voices – within a text or across different forms of communication – may confuse your readers and undermine the credibility of your message. So once your company has defined its voice, use it consistently. This means making decisions on how the company refers to itself, its products and its people.

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Room for flexibility
As you approach different writing projects (web text, white papers, brochures and so on) it’s okay to adapt your voice to ensure suitability to the task at hand. Just be careful that you don’t lose sight of the personality behind your brand.