Voice: The task force has been assembled

Active voice beats passive voice nearly every time. Except if you work for certain government departments, where they have raised the use of the passive voice to a high art. (The passive is popular in business circles when there is bad news in the air and it’s important that, um, nobody gets blamed.)

Tone: Entertain them? Or accidentally humor them?

Tone is one of the most difficult factors for business writers to get right. It’s easy to hit the wrong note and send the wrong message, which is why so many writers take refuge in “safe” verbs, neutral nouns and familiar jargon. Relax! It’s OK to amp it up a little. Not everything has to be couched as a Pollyanna positive. The real world, which treasures straightforwardness, involves plenty of negatives. We don’t mean you should wallow in the downside, but there is room for negative examples in moderation. It’s also quite acceptable to use conversational tones and expressions, especially in content that can benefit from being more “familiar” – such as careers sites.

We can go on and on about tone and voice – and we will, if you’re interested. Over the last few years, several Ergo Editorial clients have hired us to overhaul the voice of their Web content.