Voice & Tone
Voice & Tone
What do we sound like?
Voice and tone are similar, but not synonymous, aspects of brand-building. “Voice” means the consistent, overall personality of a brand. At the same time, “tone” is the mood a brand expresses depending on the situation - it’s all a bit ethereal and in flux, but it’s important to have a sense of the Grey + Miller voice and tone before communicating with the market.
Down to Earth
Offer practical advice and easily digestible info. Avoid jargon and words of the day.
Enthusiastic
Genuine excitement is contagious. Let it shine in your copy.
Conversational
Use contractions where you would in speech and try to establish a natural rhythm. If you feel like a tool reading your copy aloud, it might not be conversational.
Insightful
Demonstrate a clear understanding of your audience—including its challenges, successes, values, and priorities.
Friendly
Be the person everyone wants to sit by at a dinner party. Invite questions; spark conversation; laugh with, not at.
Witty
Grey + Miller is targeting the literary crowd, so have fun, be witty, make jokes, and be a little “edgy,” but don’t take it too far.
Tones
Yay
Surprising in a fun way
Modern
Witty
Punchy
Zany
Candid
Empathetic
Motivating
Uplifting
Utilitarian
Guiding
Nay
Surprising in a scary way
Trendy
Silly
Aggressive
Juvenile
In your face
Pandering
Salesy
Sappy
Robotic
Pushy
Copywriting Guidance
Copywriting Guidance
The Basics
AP
For the most part stick to AP style. You can break the rules for certain things (especially design), but a good rule of thumb is to just use AP style when in doubt. If there are major departures then it should be listed here in this style guide.
Headlines
Keep your headlines short and punchy. If it’s getting over 10 words, you probably need a subheadline.
Subheadlines
Subheadlines aren’t always necessary. Use them only when your headline needs a payoff or additional context, and try to keep them as short as possible.
Body Copy
Use sentences of various lengths and constructions. Don’t batter folks with an onslaught of short, staccato sentences, and don’t try to channel James Joyce. Build for rhythm and effect.
Grammar
We prefer proper grammar in most cases, but not all.
Because sometimes a sentence fragment needs to stand alone. For impact.Because sometimes you need to make up a word. For funnification purposes.Because a blind adherence to certain grammar rules can render your copy damn near inscrutable. And that’s an atrocity with which we will not put up with.Use your instincts as a writer.
UX Copy
If you’ve ever had a hard time navigating a website, or wondered whether or not your form actually got submitted, or wanted to throw away your phone while paying for parking on your city’s mobile app, you’ve experienced bad UX.
The goal of UX copy is to help users navigate and understand digital interactions. UX copy is integral to UX design and architecture. These disciplines should work together to guide users through digital experiences in a clear, efficient way. While clarity is king, the brand voice and tones can (and should) shine through.
Confirmation messages, error messages, and input prompts can be fun or interesting and highlight the Gray + Miller personality while communicating what users need to know.
Naming Rules
We’re the Gray + Miller Agency, Gray + Miller or GMA.
If you’re going to use GMA, make sure that the name is actually spelled out previously on the page/collateral/email, etc before using GMA instead of the full name. It’s good to switch up the naming convention so you don’t constantly repeat yourself, which makes copy hard to read and boring after a bit.
Example
Here at the Gray + Miller Agency, we love puppies. But GMA doesn’t just love puppies, we’re also quite fond of hedgehogs.
Quibbles
We don’t care if you call it the serial comma, or the Oxford comma. Just use it. Yes, there’s an argument against it, but for clarity’s sake, we’re gonna use it.
Serial Comma
We don’t care if you call it the serial comma, or the Oxford comma. Just use it. Yes, there’s an argument against it, but for clarity’s sake, we’re gonna use it.
Sentence Caps (for headlines/headers)
With a few exceptions, we stick to sentence caps.
Numbers
In body copy, spell out the numbers one through ten. In headlines and UX copy, use digits for all numbers.
Ampersands
Only use them in headlines if you’re trying to save room for design. Never use them in body copy.
Bulleted Lists
Definitely use bulleted lists when possible as it conveys information in a more digestible way. To keep your lists nice and scannable, keep the language as concise as possible and give the items in your list a parallel structure—if one item is a present-tense verb phrase, they should all be present-tense verb phrases. If one item is a full sentence, make them all full sentences, and punctuate them.
am, pm
We keep these clean and simple, with no periods and a space between them and the digits.
7 am 8:15 pm
Dates
Spell out months and days of the week. Keep the digits free of “ths,” “nds,” and “rds.”
Your draft is due October 7, 2029.
When space is limited, you can use the following abbreviations:
Jan.
Feb.
Aug.
Sep.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
M, T, W, Th, F
En Dashes
Use en dashes to express a range.
M–F
Jan–June
7–10
Use an em dash to separate a thought from the rest of a sentence, much like a semicolon. You can use one at the end of a sentence to tack on an afterthought—it keeps things light and conversational. Or use two—no spaces on either side—to insert a parenthetical thought.
Acronyms
When using acronyms in long-form body copy, spell out the referent in parentheses on the first mention. For ads and other short-form copy, don’t use them.
Feel free to use pop culture acronyms where they work, but please, please, don’t spell them out. And stick with acronyms most people know: LOL, WTF, OMG, ICYMI, IMO, BTW, DM/PM. Stuff like that. Remember that we’re speaking to authors, not some weird subreddit.
