Finding Your Voice

What a difference a few words make – change or add a few and your whole tone transforms.

I was posting online recently and was about to say a situation was “quite different,” but in the context of the comment t it felt smug so I changed it to “very different.” Which made my response  . . . very different.

(Yeah, I know I’m always ranting about not using “very.” Quite sorry about that.)

Call it tone, voice or attitude, but the feeling you convey depends on factors like word choice, sentence length, even punctuation.  Watch this paragraph on humor go from loose and casual to stff and formal:

Casual: Looking for a few good laughs? Write short and tight – dump the long sentences and fancy words. Be absurd. Be outrageous. You’ll get guffaws. One last thing: You’d better be funny.

Formal: Do you want to make your readers laugh? Keep your sentences short and simple, and don’t try to impress with elaborate structure and showy vocabulary. Make absurd statements and outrageous comments that bring laughter. And never forget to actually be humorous.

Simply using “funny” or “humorous” changes the whole attitude.

Here’s how you can use language to strike different tones:  

Casual Voice: Engage Your Reader

• Keep it simple: Use short words and sentences. Stick to plain language like “about” instead of “approximately” and “end” rather than “terminate.” Long sentences are tedious; elaborate language can alienate your reader.

• Be conversational: Write the way you speak, using contractions and addressing the reader directly. Who says “One cannot appear to be sophisticated by communicating in the vernacular”? No one I know.

Humorous: Make ‘Em Laugh

• Use “K” Words: As Walter Matthau said in The Sunshine Boys: “Words with a K are funny. Alka-Seltzer is funny. Cupcake is funny . . . Words with L and M are not funny.”

• Play with your words: Have some fun with puns and other word play. But don’t put quotation marks around your puns; it’s the written equivalent of air quotes and no funnier.Challenging Voice: Provoke Your Reader

Provocative: Challenge Them

•  Go for emotion: It’s not just an assault but a “senseless act of violence.”

• Speak directly: “How in the world can you justify voting for that candidate?”

• Be emphatic: “A completely useless idea.”

Trend Alert: Social Media

Yeah, A.I. will continue to get bigger and more influential but it’s not the only thing to stay on top of, says CMS Wire:

10 Social Media Trends You Can’t Ignore

Reading List: Wasteful Words

I‘ve written about “weasel words” and how they sap your message’s strength. Words and phrases like  “very,” “just” and “some people say” steal your vitality like the sneaky creature that sucks the contents of other animals’ eggs and leaves the shell intact. You seem to have said something . . . but what?

Angela Elwell Hunt thoroughly explores these verbal varmints and offers strategies for hunting them down and eradicating them in her practical guide, Track Down the Weasel Words.

Read it and keep your copy safe from sucking.

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