Voice & Tone
The voice and tone for Office of Technology Services (OTS) is polite while at the same time being authoritative and efficient.
What is voice and tone?
If you’re like many folks, you might not be sure of the difference between voice and tone. Maybe you’ve never deliberately crafted a voice and don’t know where to start.
In this section, we’ll discuss the differences between voice and tone, how we describe our organizational voice.
Adapted from 18F’s voice and tone.
The Difference between Voice and Tone
Our voice is our unique personality.
It can be helpful to think of voice as analogous to a person’s voice. Just as you can identify your best friend in a crowd as soon as you hear her distinctive laugh, you can use an author’s or organization’s voice to identify a piece of writing even if you haven’t seen the byline. A well-crafted voice communicates personality and values — it’s a distilled representation of an author or organization.
Tone is more like attitude — the emotional context of a piece.
It can be helpful to think of authorial tone as analogous to a person’s tone of voice. Just as a person would use a somber, sympathetic tone of voice to console a friend about the loss of a pet, an author writing a story about a natural disaster would most likely use a somber, serious tone. Conversely, an author writing a blog post about the launch of a new product might use an enthusiastic, upbeat tone.
Voice and Tone Examples
Do this.
Do you need a document template? We have them in the Templates section of this website. They are created so you can just start typing.
Don’t do this.
OTS requires the use of templates. The templates are provided for your convenience in creating documents.