What is Voice?

Voice is one of the most talked about yet most elusive parts of effective writing. You get an impression or feeling from a piece of content, but it's not always easy to tell why.

It's a lot like your handwriting. If 5 members of your family wrote out identical grocery lists, my bet is you'd be able to match them pretty quickly. But if I asked you what about the list revealed the writer, you'd have a hard time pinpointing specific unique strokes or letter formations.

That's not to say your handwriting doesn't vary in different situations (don't look at my notebook, please!), but even when you try to write neatly, subtle idiosyncrasies like the way you make your E's will give you away to anyone that knows you (even if they don't know why).

In a business, it's important to have consistent voice throughout all of your communications. Invisible shifts in your voice are off-putting to your customers. They won't be able to pinpoint it, something about you will feel inauthentic -- which we all know means less trust… and less sales.

Part 1: What is Voice?

“I know it when I see it"

Have you ever read an article and thought… “that sounds like " or “this guy reminds me of "?

At the same time, have you ever received a customer service e-mail and could feel it was a form letter and not written by the person you emailed?

This is voice. It's difficult to identify but you “feel it" when it's off. The purpose of today's post is to break down where those feelings come from and what makes a voice.

What makes a voice?

Voice is made up of three main components

1. Tone
2. Cadence
3. Vocabulary

Tone

Tone is easy to understand and easy to recognize. You can usually find the tone by asking two questions: “how is the author feeling?" and “what is the author's personality?" Answers include: frustrated, sarcastic, aggressive, empathetic, sad, impertinent, flippant, or joyful… among many, many others. Tone gives you the emotional backdrop to the voice. Tone can stay consistent through the piece or change depending on the subject or the character development.

Tone in writing is just like tone in speaking, but often more difficult to convey. We've all had those moments where we send a sarcastic text message that was lost in translation and misinterpreted by the receiver. It's also easy to let your own emotions accidentally affect tone -- like when we reply to a boss or a client that is irritating us that day. While our words may be professional, our tone can often cause problems.

It's difficult to recognize tone in our own work because we are reading the text in our head as we would like it to sound. That's why it always helps to have others review your work (even emails when they're important ones) to make sure there isn't an underlying tone you may be missing.

Cadence

Cadence is the rhythm of the writing, and the most subtle piece of the voice equation. Often, when you have group-work that requires multiple authors in one piece, it's the cadence shifts that are the most noticeable. Dramatic shifts in cadence mimic riding in a stick-shift with a new driver -- you're riding along smoothly when suddenly you feel a violent jerk.

Cadence is created with a combination of sentence length and word choice. Some writers have a very staccato-type cadence with short, choppy sentences while others have more flowing, musical cadence with longer sentences. Shorter cadences can convey urgency, frustration, or aggressiveness, while longer cadences usually give a more peaceful, relaxed feeling.

Intentional shifts in cadence can create drama in a piece and also highlight important moments.

For example:

Today I was walking along the sunlit streets of Manhattan, enjoying the majestic shadows created by the towering structures overhead, when suddenly a clumsy man passing by brushed my arm causing my coffee to tumble.
Not cool, man. Not cool. At all.
However, I brushed off the moment and continued my stroll, determined to have a pleasant morning.

This is an example of a noticeable and intentional shift in cadence that illustrates the shift in the author's interrupted morning. The long, flowery opening sentence is interrupted by 3 short, choppy sentences. And then, she quickly shifts back to her original cadence. It paints the imagery of her strolling along, then stopping abruptly, then continuing again.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is simply the words that you use. Often non-native English speakers are given away in their writing for failing to understand the subtle connotations between synonyms. “Said" vs. “Claimed" vs. “Uttered" all have similar meanings but different connotations. Often when you say someone “claimed" something, you are subtly implying they are lying or wrong. These subtle differences can make huge differences in voice.

Vocabulary also includes the readability of your writing. Are you using longer, more advanced words or simple vocabulary?

While some articles recommend that you always write for around a grade 7 reading level, I find it depends vastly on your market. If you are targeting customers for a one-off purchase like a supplement or an ebook, then maybe that will be most effective. But if you strive for a long-term relationship with a more advanced consumer, you might want to write more robustly.

For example, most of my readers are business owners and I want intelligent customers. If my writing is too comprehensive for you, then we're probably not the right fit. This doesn't mean you should write complex sentences for the hell of it… I've found even with an intelligent market, simple is always better. (FYI, I put the first half of this post through a readability test and ended up with a grade-level range between 9.34 and 11.38)

These three elements can be combined in countless different ways. Next, I'm going to cover the 7 Primary Voices that you'll find in online writing, with examples of each.