Between us we’ve written and edited thousands of articles for internal audiences, yet it’s still amazing how often a new (and contentious) spelling or grammatical issue crops up for debate in the team.
Take compass directions, for example. Do they need capital letters? one of us pondered aloud – and that was enough to spark a mass conversation.
The frustrating answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. The difference is subtle. Knowing when to use them, and when not to use them, comes down to context.
(So we hit on “I’m heading north”, which needs no capital N. As a general direction, it remains lower case. But when we’re referring to the northern area of the UK as a specific location, like “I’m going to the North”, we bring in the capital N.)
It’s the type of thing we obsess over. It’s not just about being right – it’s about being consistent, and making content as easy to digest as possible.
Consistency breeds familiarity and trust. Consistency makes your tone of voice appear more simple and credible. Consistency leads to fewer distractions, interpretations, duplications and arguments over style, which saves precious time.
So quite often, it’s worth sweating the small stuff when it comes to language in internal communications!
Interested in exploring effective internal communications writing further? Check out our content workshops for inspiration.
