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marketing/campaigns/ISO27DIY communication style.md

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+# Communication Style Guide
+
+## Voice and tone
+
+Direct, confident, and plain-spoken. No corporate jargon. No filler. Every word earns its place. The tone is authoritative without being academic, and human without being casual.
+
+## Sentence structure
+
+Short sentences are preferred. Long sentences are broken up. Parallelism is used deliberately — three-part structures work well when each part carries equal weight. Fragments are acceptable when they land a point cleanly.
+
+## Word choices
+
+- Prefer concrete over abstract
+- Prefer active over passive
+- Prefer simple over sophisticated
+- "Effective" over "impactful"
+- "Enables" over "empowers"
+- "Adapt" and "adaptive" over "dynamic" or "agile"
+- Avoid: "leverage", "synergy", "holistic", "seamless", "robust"
+
+## What to avoid
+
+- Negative framing — state what good looks like, not what bad looks like
+- Accusatory or confrontational language — invite people to something better rather than criticising what they do now
+- Over-explanation — trust the reader
+- Hedging — commit to the statement
+- Bullet points where prose works better
+
+## Manifesto-style writing specifically
+
+- Value statements follow the "X over Y" format — both sides should name real things people recognise
+- The right-hand side is not villainised — it has value, it just comes second
+- Principles are short, declarative, and standalone — each one a truth that can be read in isolation
+- Forward-leaning and positive — declare what good looks like
+- Aphoristic where possible — aim for sentences that could be quoted
+
+## The reader
+
+The audience is entrepreneurs and business managers implementing ISO 27001 themselves. They are intelligent, pragmatic, and time-poor. They are put off by complexity and consultant-speak. They respond to clarity, honesty, and respect for their intelligence.
+
+## Editing instincts
+
+- If two sentences say the same thing, cut one
+- If a word is ambiguous, replace it
+- If a sentence trails off, find a stronger closing beat
+- If something sounds like it came from a brochure, rewrite it