Getting the Tone Right

Writing for the web requires a different style of writing than other formats. You need to be succinct, but also clear. Getting the tone right (not too formal, not too informal) is important.

Kate Moran identifies four dimensions of tone in writing:

• Formal vs. informal / casual
• Serious vs. humorous
• Respectful vs. irreverent
• Matter-of-fact vs. enthusiastic

A piece of writing can be anywhere on the spectrum between these poles. It could be 70% casual, 60% humorous, 65% irreverent, and 75% matter-of-fact.

Joe Bunting identifies many different types of tone, but most of them could be classified under the four categories listed by Kate Moran. When you’re writing for business purposes, you want to be clear, engaging, authoritative, and relatively formal. You can use humour, but it should be there to illustrate a serious point that you’re making.

Some usability testers have done Bipolar Emotional Response Tests (BERTs) where they present users with a piece of writing, or a design, and ask them to rate it on a spectrum according to their emotional response to it.

If you visit a website, you expect the tone of the writing to match the purpose of the website. If it is the website of a funeral home, you would expect it to be serious, respectful, compassionate, and relatively formal. It should also be written in plain English, without complex sentence structure, because bereaved people shouldn’t have to wade through a lot of legalese or verbiage to get to the information they need.

If it is a website for kids, it can be much more informal, use humour and irreverence, and be enthusiastic. Kids will be put off by excessive formality.

Some writers use an unexpected tone of voice as a unique selling point for their work, like James Fell, the sweary historian (don’t click on this link if you don’t like swearing). It always makes me smile if there’s an unexpected funny message on a product, so using unexpected and quirky messaging is great if you can do it consistently and well, and use it sparingly.

Consistency is important too; if you use “you” to address the reader and “we” to refer to the company, then stick to that practice throughout your website or piece of writing.

An easy rule of thumb is that words derived from Latin or Greek are more formal, and shorter words, often derived from Old English, are less formal. In the previous paragraph, if I had wanted to be more formal, I could have written “adhere to” instead of “stick to”.

One thing to avoid, even in formal writing, is the use of passive voice, because it is harder to understand. here are some examples of passive voice, and a clearer way of writing the same thing:

Passive voice (less clear)	Active voice (clear)
Books may be borrowed from the library	You can borrow books from the library
It is recommended that…	We recommend that…
It is preferred that a booked appointment is made	We would prefer you to make an appointment

Using “we” as the subject of the sentence also makes it clear that you’re speaking as the company or the institution, and makes it clear that the company recommends something, or wants customers to make an appointment. Using “you” makes it clear that you can borrow books, or make an appointment.

Tone of voice comes naturally to most people when speaking, and it is not that hard to extend it to your writing style. However, you do need to consider the context in which you’re writing, and the audience you’re writing for.