{"id":5220,"date":"2025-07-24T09:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T09:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/?p=5220"},"modified":"2026-01-25T21:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T21:08:38","slug":"find-your-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/find-your-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding your voice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Retro
Writing voices are trickier to modulate than speaking voices. (Image by tookapic<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a>.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do you consciously think about your voice as you write? If not, there\u2019s a risk that some of your texts may strike the wrong note. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing voices are trickier to modulate than speaking\nvoices because the tone of a text relies only on words and grammatical\nstructures. In writing, we can\u2019t use facial expressions, body language or\nchanges in volume to add nuances to our messages. Perhaps that\u2019s why GIFs and\nsmileys are so popular on social media. It\u2019s not appropriate to use smileys in\na fund report or press release, so what can you do instead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You should adapt your writing voice to suit your audience and your intention” <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Think about how you talk to your granny, a puppy, old\nuniversity friends, colleagues and clients. Do you use the same vocabulary,\nsentence structures and vocal pitch regardless of who you are speaking to?\nProbably not. Similarly, you should adapt your writing voice to suit your\naudience and your intention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good place to start is with your words. Experiment with\nusing more and less formal vocabulary (chief executive officer\/CEO\/boss; statistics\/numbers\/stats,\nfor example). Similarly, notice how using contractions such as \u201cit\u2019s\u201d and\n\u201cwon\u2019t\u201d changes the tone of your text. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experiment with your sentence structures and punctuation\ntoo. And notice how serious journalists use very short sentences, rhetorical\nquestions and sentences beginning with \u201cand\u201d or \u201cbut\u201d to emphasise key points\nor to signal a change in direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Don’t lose the connection between your speaking and writing voices”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Most importantly, don\u2019t lose the connection between your\nspeaking and writing voices. Try reading your texts aloud as you write and edit\nthem. If a sentence doesn\u2019t sound right when it\u2019s spoken, it probably doesn\u2019t\nread well either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A natural, conversational writing voice exudes confidence\nand professionalism, and so it\u2019s well worth learning how to make the most of\nyours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you consciously think about your voice as you write? If not, there\u2019s a risk that some of your texts may strike the wrong note. Writing voices are trickier to modulate than speaking voices because the tone of a text relies only on words and grammatical structures. In writing, we can\u2019t use facial expressions, body … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Finding your voice”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[140,142,144,146,148,150,152,154,156],"class_list":["post-5220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-confidence","tag-contractions","tag-grammar","tag-professionalism","tag-text","tag-vocabulary","tag-voice","tag-words","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5220"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5256,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5220\/revisions\/5256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fundwriting.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}