Voice and tone
When we speak about Voice and tone, we mean two different ways we express ourselves.
Our voice is how our personality comes across in copy and content.
Our tone is how formal vs. informal, expressive vs. functional we need to be to communicate appropriately with our target audience.
Voice
Tone
Our tone flexes as needed to best serve our purpose, taking channel and audience into consideration. Formal vs. informal tones tend to be determined by audience, while functional vs. expressive tend to be determined by content type.
Formal vs. informal
The tone of your communications should be most informal when communicating to current students and alumni, particularly when you are just trying to whet their appetite to learn more about your topic. At the other end of the spectrum, your tone in explanatory communications to professional external audiences—public officials, prospective partners, or other university leaders—should be more formal and straightforward, but never stiff or boring.
Formal
Tends to be more: External, professional
Informal
Tends to be more: Internal, student
Functional vs. expressive
Communications goals and content types give us a cue about tone of voice as well. Some content types and channels lend themselves to a more straightforward, functional tone. Other channels give us greater flexibility to be expressive in our tone.
Functional
Webpages, one-pagers, PowerPoints
Neutral
Homepages, ad campaigns, magazines, flyers, email
Expressive
Social media
this is used for spacicing purpose
