Tone of voice guidance
Tone of voice is not just what we say, but how we say it. While the final shape of your tone ultimately depends on your audience and messaging, please bear in the mind the rules that all our official copy should follow.
Keep our core values front and centre
What we do and who we are should inform our tone of voice. This means bearing in mind our mission and history, and taking inspiration from them in your own writing. Our institutional boilerplate provides this at a top level.
Boilerplate example
“At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that the diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.
“Throughout our history, we’ve fostered social justice and improved lives through academic excellence. And we continue to live and breathe this spirit today, not because it’s simply ‘the right thing to do’ but for what it helps us achieve and the intellectual brilliance it delivers.
“Our reformer heritage informs our conviction that great ideas can and should come from anywhere. It’s an approach that has brought results across the globe, from the communities of east London to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
“We continue to embrace diversity of thought and opinion in everything we do, in the belief that when views collide, disciplines interact, and perspectives intersect, truly original thought takes form.”
Using key messages
To simplify this further, we can extract the following sentiments and weave them into our copy -
- We believe in access to a great education, regardless of background, and we provide the resources and support to ensure this.
- We believe that difference leads to strength and positive outcomes on a local, national and global level.
- We are proud that our community of staff and students is one of the most diverse in the Russell Group, and what this means for our impact.
- We are proud of our roots and remain connected to them. Our past informs our work in the present.
Who is your audience?
We focus on what we do, not what we try to do. This means backing up claims with evidence and ditching words and phrases such as “we aim to / we try to / hopefully”.
Writing with confidence requires knowledge of who we are. So familiarise yourself as much as possible with Queen Mary’s work, news and achievements.
Our key messages toolkit has a range of facts, stats and case studies you can use to substantiate your copy and write from a place of authority. When we write with confidence, we inspire our audience’s confidence in us.
Use simple language
This means we use Plain English as much as possible. We keep it simple and unstuffy, and write in a way that’s approachable and engaging.
Use short sentences. Don’t overcomplicate or over-intellectualise your messaging. Remember, our audience has come to us for a reason, and we should make their experience as straightforward as possible.
Check your facts
When engaging with a Higher Education institution, people look for facts, proof and credibility. We must tread the fine line between self-promotion and leading with the benefit to our audience. They want to feel confident about what we’re communicating, whether it’s research news or information about our programmes.
By putting our audience’s needs first, using simple language, real-world stories and only the most up-to-date data, we demonstrate our integrity (and fulfil our compliance obligations). In doing so, we build trust and enhance our reputation as a leading university.