Writing for Accelerate

What is tone of voice and why does it matter?

The words people use tell you something about their personality. Are they friendly? Do they see you as an equal? Or are they talking at you rather than with you? It’s the same with organisations or brands. Think of the difference between Waitrose and Tesco. They don’t sound the same and you wouldn’t expect them to either. The way we communicate in writing or in person – our tone of voice – helps people understand the kind of organisation we are. When we write in a way that reflects our values and our personality, we can connect with the people we need to and get our message across.

Our brand personality

We have a brand personality that reflects who we are at our best. We want this to come through whenever we communicate – with each other, with people who use our services, with healthcare partners and anyone who encounters our work. When we’re working well at Accelerate, people see us as exciting, expert and ambitious. The words we use will help us bring this personality to life and help more people connect with our work. Whatever we say or write, and whoever our audience is, we want these three qualities to come through.

Writing for our communications – some pointers

1. Be bold – use bold language that confidently talks about our work and the change we are making happen. We transform. We change. We do. We don’t need to be modest about our achievements or our ambitions.
2. Be inclusive. Give your writing a more personal, human touch by using ‘we’ ‘you’, ‘us’ and ‘our’. This helps us sound like real people rather than a remote, impersonal organisation.
3. Keep sentences short. Aim to get to the point quickly and don’t overload your sentences with too many thoughts. A useful guide is around 25 words per sentence, around four sentences per paragraph, and around six to eight words per headline. This helps create a clear narrative that people can easily navigate and helps get your message across too.
4. Use headings, subheading and bullets. Think about how people access and read information today. Reading is rarely an uninterrupted, linear process. People look for the immediate: the headline, the first few words, a caption or a subheading. Make it easy for them by using short, engaging headlines and subheadings. Use pull-out quotes or captions to make clear what comes next.
5. Be specific – try to avoid writing in vague, general term. Be specific and illustrate what you say with examples, case studies and real life stories where you can. This all helps show the change we create.
6. Use facts and figures. This isn’t always necessary or appropriate but where we have facts or statistics to back up, evidence or illustrate what we’re writing, use them.
7. Read your writing out loud. Does it sound a bit stiff? If you’re tripping over your words or feel unnatural saying it, the tone isn’t quite right.
8. Use everyday English where possible. Try to avoid formal, ‘corporate speak’ and use conversational, natural language instead. This doesn’t just sound more human – it’s easier to understand too. Sometimes we need to use medical terminology. When we do, think about the audience and whether all of them will understand it. If not everyone will be familiar with the term, include a short, plain English definition of it. Once you’ve done that, you can revert to using the medical term on its own.

Swap formal words for everyday ones:

Additional – extra
Advise – tell
Complete – fill in
Comply with – keep to
Consequently – so
Ensure – make sure
Forward – send
Furthermore – also, as well
However – but
In excess of – more than
In the event of – if
Obtain – get
On receipt – when we / you get
On request – if you ask
Particulars – details
Prior to – before
Regarding – about
Should you wish – if you want
Thus – so
Whilst – while

A note on grammar and spelling

We use UK English.

We only ever capitalise:

• proper nouns (people’s names, towns and cities, countries, organisations)
• nationalities, languages and religions
• days of the week and months of the year
• headlines and subheads are always sentence case.

Contractions

We use contractions (‘you’re’, ‘we’re’). Some contractions like ‘should’ve’ and ‘could’ve’, are a bit too colloquial (and clumsy) – avoid these. It’s fine to mix contractions and full versions. This mostly depends on the rhythm you want in your writing, and what you want to emphasise.

We use the Guardian style guide as our reference. Take a look there if you have any specific questions that are not covered in these brand voice guidelines.

Abbreviations and acronyms

If there’s a chance your reader won’t recognise an abbreviation or acronym, spell it out the first time you mention it. Then use the short version for all other references.

• Ankle-brachial pressure index (ABPI)
• District Nurse (DN)

Numbers

Spell out a number when it begins a sentence. Otherwise, use the numeral. This includes ordinals.

• Ten new employees started on Monday, and 12 start next week.

Sometimes it feels odd to use the numeral. If it’s an expression that typically uses spelled-out numbers, leave them that way.

• That is a third-party integration.

Numbers over 3 digits get commas:

• 999
• 1,000
• 150,000

Write out big numbers in full eg one million. But feel free to abbreviate them if there are space restraints, as in a tweet or a chart: 1k, 150k.

Dates

Generally, spell out the day of the week and the month. Abbreviate only if space is an issue within the piece you’re producing.

• Monday 24 January 2020
• 24.01.20

Times

We’re down with the kids and healthcare workers, who use the 24 hour clock to record patient information. For events and training, we us the 24 hour clock to ensure it’s clear of the start and end times wherever people are in the world.

• 09.30 – 14.00
• 15.00 – 17.00