Voice
Voice describes the style of the writing and expresses the tone
Perspective: this describes the usage of first-person or third-person point of view in writing. In our usage of a first-person perspective, we will be using plural pronouns (e.g. “we”), and in the usage of a third-person perspective, we will use “Midnight Sun” or variations in describing our team.
Tone
The tone of a piece is the attitude of the writing towards an audience or subject. As we generate content through a variety of forms, tone is necessary to appropriately target the correct audience. Therefore, your choice of words and attitude in writing dictates the type of tone, whether it is formal or informal, upbeat or serious.
Style Guide
In a highly technical field, it is important to tailor our writing in correspondence to a variety of audiences, but a general rule of thumb is to avoid the usage of field-specific terms (also known as jargon) in writing. The writing should take a form where the audience is given context to the type of work and its specifics while keeping the reader engaged.
Optimizing for SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a collection of small changes and add improvements in search results performance on a variety of search engines, such as Google, Bing, etc.
Content Types
Blog
Social Media
Whitepapers
Reports
Emails
The below table summarizes the use cases of the various mediums we post publicly:
Medium | Description | Perspective | Tone | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Blog | A form of written content that is posted on Medium (and featured on social media outlets). These are typically longer posts about aspects of the team, progress, technical descriptions, etc. | 1st Person, plural | Semi-formal: Emphasis on | |
Social Media Post | These are short posts, that include that are publicly displayed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. These are typically team updates, holiday/observances acknowledgement, and public messages. | 1st Person, plural | Exception: Member Spotlights should be in 1st person singular. | |
Whitepapers | 3rd Person | |||
Reports | 3rd Person | Formal: avoid the use of contractions, | Akin to a research paper: exploration, experimentation and analysis to obtain a conclusion. | |
Emails | 1st Person Singular when referring to yourself as a point of contact. Plural when referring to the team. |
Do’s and Don’t’s
Do:
Be informative and detailed in any form of medium. Be conscious of which medium to determine the level of detail required.
Don’t:
Use contractions. The only exception is in social media…