Tone and voice

Tone

• Professional but conversational
• Positive but not over-stated
• Relaxed and friendly but not too familiar

Voice

• We keep language simple and clear
• We use short, focused sentences without undue embellishment
• We don't use nicknames, slang or emoticons
• We are clear and concise
• We don’t SHOUT at our reader
• We speak in the first (we, us, our/s) and second (you, your/yours) person
• We value and respect our reader – they are our focus
• Our language is ‘inclusive’ – avoiding biased or prejudicial terms

Plain language

We use plain language, which is

• Faster to read
• Easier to understand
• Preferred by a wide range of readers

Plain language uses:

• familiar, everyday words
• strong verbs in an active voice
• simple sentence framework, with shorter sentences
• headings, bullet points and other formatting techniques to make it easy to scan a document and find key information