…Or Not
Voice is important.
Mother and very talkative toddler walk through the security entrance into the children’s library. Mom looks down at Johnny and puts her finger to her lips. “Remember Johnny, use your indoor voice.”
We’re not toddlers, but we need to remember that voice is important. When you read over a document, hear these words in your head, “Remember…use your reader-friendly voice.”
A reader-friendly voice IS NOT:
- Intimidating: We write to get through to readers, not to showcase our knowledge or call attention to our expertise.
- Overly clever: If the typical reader of a business or technical document notices the eloquence of the language or the aptness of a well-turned phrase, the technical writer is probably being way too clever.
- Professorial: Infowriting is neither textbook material nor lecture notes. Our relationship to our readers is collegial, not schoolmaster-pupil.
A reader-friendly voice IS:
- Competent: Infowriting doesn’t showcase knowledge; it builds on it. Readers must be convinced that we know what we’re talking about, and gaps in foundational knowledge show up as defects in the writing. Writing with a competent voice means assembling all the relevant facts, eliminating knowledge gaps, and building the document on a solid base.
- Conversational: Boredom, inattention, laziness, and distraction show up in oral conversations. They also affect the voice that comes through written documents. To keep the reader engaged, adopt the reader’s point of view and use the reader’s language.
- Wise: writing with a wise voice means anticipating the reader’s questions, finding the answers, and integrating that information into the fabric of the document.