The right tone is important. If it’s off, music doesn’t sound quite
right. When you’re speaking to somebody, the wrong tone can completely
twist the meaning of your words.
Speak too softly and you’ll be painted as accusing and secretive, too enunciating and you’ll be construed as condescending.
True, these assumptions have a lot to do with the context of the
physical situation. But just because there is no bodily presence or
audible voice doesn’t mean that there is no tone on the Web. If
anything, tone is doubly important there.
Not Just Any Word Will Do
On the Web there are no gestures, facial expressions, or other body
language. There is no way to communicate intimacy by standing in closer,
no way to see someone blush or to behold the intensity of one’s eyes.
Words on screens have no volume, presence, or depth. Sarcasm is
difficult enough to gauge in person; trying to discern it from text is
so difficult, we may miss it altogether.
In reading, our only clues are the context of the surrounding words
and sentences. When we read text off a website, we gain the benefit of
some visual context: the graphical style and imagery present elsewhere
on the site, for instance, can help impart in what mood the text should
be consumed.
When decoding tone from screen text you must determine a number of
things. Which words are used, and which aren’t? In what order are the
words presented and how are the sentences formed? Are they
straightforward and concise? Veiled behind clever poetic devices?
Hinting and vague? Exciting or bland?
The right word choice can communicate: a light tone or a dark one,
business-like curtness or quirky fun. A business that presents itself as
quirky can be construed as either fun and inviting or a mangled mess. A
restaurant’s website can convey class or smugness. These are fine lines
and, admittedly, they are also subjective.
The mood of the audience at the time of reading your screen text can
make all the difference. Someone in a foul mood could misinterpret your
content entirely. Such a situation, however, is completely outside of
your control. All you can do is make sure your published content is
written as precisely as possibly to steer the reader into the desired
mindset.
That is why tone is so crucial, and its implementation is a very
careful and honed art. Just as painters will obsess over the right
shade, and musicians dwell on just the right note, so too must writers
question the merit of each and every single word.
Tone is the Vanguard
Getting the audience into the right mindset is key to a successful communication exchange.
It doesn’t matter what the exchange consists of – an advertisement
(persuasion), information, or emotion – to be received, the written
content must be allowed into a receptive host. Not only that, it must
find a hospitable nest waiting for it. Otherwise it will soon be
discarded.
Paragraphs and sentences contain the information meant to be
imparted; but tone helps the reader’s mind prepare to receive and retain
that info. The content could be the best, most attractive, most
worthwhile topic in all the world, but if it is conveyed poorly, it
won’t germinate in any receptive minds.
Doing More With Less
The advent of Twitter and ever-decreasing amounts of text
aesthetically allowed on webpages have made word counts more intense.
Tone, emotion and mindset must be conveyed in just a few words.
It is literary minimalism and, with such constraints, every detail
counts. There is no room for fluff, yet the sentences must flow
pleasantly for the reader.
Tone is a complex attribute. Communicating just the right tone
requires its own fair share of words. Paring it down to the extreme at
the very least risks compromising that tone and, therefore,
miscommunicating with the reader.
The mark of a good content writer nowadays isn’t merely whether he or
she can write well, or even if he or she can write concisely. It comes
down to how the writer can manipulate his or her written tone – how they
can anticipate the needs of their client and adapt to the demands of
the client’s readers.
A good writer can convey the same information but in two entirely
different tones, and the audience will believe they read two separate,
distinct pieces of content.
What a Difference Can Make
Tone is to content as CSS is to HTML.
Tone is to information as the right tie is to a suit.
Tone is to writing as your first impression is to new people.
Tone is an accent, a container, an impression, a detail, but it is
one of the most important ones because it defines to others everything
within itself.
What other elements do you think are important to content writing
besides tone? Do you think with increasing amounts of video and photos
that written tone will become a less prominent issue?
Vince Ginsburg