To effectively connect with our audiences, we must tell our stories with a distinctive voice that reflects our brand personality. The tone of our stories should be confident and genuine, written in a vibrant, easy to read style. We can do both by what we say and how we say it.
Make it appropriate to the intended audience:
Prospective students vs. prospective donors vs. parents.
Make it personal:
Use second and first person. “You can” vs. “students can.”
Be true, authentic, persuasive:
Claim ownership of Le Moyne’s assets. Speak authentically to the strengths of individual schools and the college at large.
Be conversational:
- Write like you were talking to a friend.
- Avoid sounding stuffy or institutional.
- When writing about complex research and related topics, find ways to explain the work with analogies, examples, illustrations, photos and graphs.
- Use active rather than passive verbs.
Try using some of the following adjectives on for size:
accomplished, caring, concerned, enthusiastic, friendly, innovative, inquisitive, passionate, smart, trustworthy, upbeat, warn, worldly
Higher Education Writing
teen, teenager (n.) or teenage (adj.) Do not use teenaged.
academic titles Capitalize and spell out formal titles such as chancellor, chairman, etc. when they precede a name. Lowercase elsewhere.
academic degrees If mention of degrees is necessary to establish someone's credentials, the preferred form is to avoid an abbreviation and use instead a phrase such as: John Jones, who has a doctorate in psychology. Use an apostrophe in bachelor's degree, a master's, etc., but there is no possessive in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science. Also: an associate degree (no possessive). Use such abbreviations as B.A., M.A., LL.D. and Ph.D. only when the need to identify many individuals by degree on first reference would make the preferred form cumbersome. Use these abbreviations only after a full name - never after just a last name. When used after a name, an academic abbreviation is set off by commas: John Snow, Ph.D., spoke. Do not precede a name with a courtesy title for an academic degree and follow it with the abbreviation for the degree in the same reference.
ACT Use only the initials in referring to the previously designated American College Testing.