When you write, you create a relationship with your readers. The closely linked concepts of ‘tone’ and ‘voice’ play a big role in shaping this relationship.

Tone describes the level of formality in your writing. It’s related to the words you choose and how you structure sentences.

Voice is the persona or character underlying your writing.

The voice for a document with a formal tone, like a Cabinet brief, will be objective and institutional. For a piece of writing with an informal tone, like a newsletter article, the voice will be warm and friendly.

Tone

Set the formality of your tone to match the relationship you want with your readers.

There are 3 levels of formality:

• Formal creates a distance and sets the relationship as purely professional.
• Standard creates a little distance, but the relationship is friendly – this is the usual tone for writing in the APS.
• Informal suggests a relationship that is personal and casual.

Formal

Legal writing, policies, reports and ministerial briefs are usually written in a formal tone. It is professional, neutral and objective. Avoid contractions, personal pronouns, idioms, metaphors, humour and slang.

Standard

This is the easiest tone for most people to understand and is a good choice for a lot of government writing. It is used for emails and letters, online government services, corporate communications, media releases and articles.

You can use contractions and some personal pronouns. But still avoid idioms, metaphors, humour and slang.

Informal

An informal tone is best used for social media, blogs and some types of newsletter articles. You can use:

• contractions
• personal pronouns
• idioms and metaphors
• humour
• references to popular culture
• personal anecdotes to replace case studies.

Be aware of your cultural assumptions when you write informally. Idioms, metaphors and humour can make your writing engaging but risk excluding some of your readers.

Voice

Basic government voice is a good place to start. It is:

• clear
• direct
• objective
• impartial.

Use basic government voice as the basis for the many personas that can shape your writing. Different voices are useful for different types of communication.

Definitions

An idiom conveys a different meaning from its standard, or literal, meaning. People can’t use the meaning of an idiom’s individual words to understand its meaning. For example, ‘it’s a piece of cake’ means something that is done or achieved easily.

A metaphor calls a thing by the name of something else. Or, it says that a thing is something else. The description is imaginative, not literal. For example, in ‘I knew he was a rat’, the ‘rat’ is someone who deserts or betrays their friends or associates.

A simile uses the words ‘as’ or ‘like’ to describe a thing by comparing it to something else. For example, ‘my life is like a rollercoaster’ compares my life to features of a rollercoaster. Both are fast moving, exciting and have many highs and lows.