Defining Voice and Tone
Quick start
Collect or infer:
- •Brand attributes (3-5 adjectives describing personality)
- •Target audience segments
- •Competitive positioning
- •Existing content samples (good and bad)
- •Contexts requiring tone variation (support vs. marketing vs. legal)
Then produce output using TEMPLATES.md. Validate with RUBRIC.md.
Workflow
- •Audit existing content to identify current voice patterns and inconsistencies
- •Define 3-5 voice principles with "this, not that" contrasts
- •Map tone spectrum across emotional contexts (celebratory → neutral → serious → crisis)
- •Create do/don't examples for each principle
- •Document tone modulation rules for specific scenarios
- •Run the rubric check. Revise until it passes.
Degrees of freedom
Freedom level: Medium
- •Default: follow templates exactly
- •Allowed variation: number of voice principles (3-5), tone spectrum granularity, example quantity—as long as rubric passes
State awareness
- •New brand: Start from scratch; prioritize differentiation from competitors
- •Existing brand: Audit first; preserve what works, fix inconsistencies
- •Rebrand: Document departures explicitly; create migration guidance
- •Multi-product: Define shared core voice with product-specific tone layers
References
- •Templates: TEMPLATES.md
- •Rubric: RUBRIC.md
- •Examples: EXAMPLES.md
- •Tone spectrum reference: reference/tone-spectrum.md