# 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