Human communication is about human connection. Throughout history, most of this communication has happened face to face. Communication went far beyond the words themselves — smiling eyes, friendly or unfriendly pitch, pace, and body language worked together to pass on complex information.
Nowadays, most of our communication happens through screens, and increasing reliance on AI tools is making it harder to distinguish human author from machine. As the line between human and robot begins to blur, human-centred tone in communication matters more than ever. Polish your tone with a human touch for better connection and better impact.
Why does tone matter?
Tone matters because your relationships matter. When we communicate, it is to achieve some kind of collaborative outcome — it might be to get something done, to warn others of something, to celebrate achievements, or simply to deepen interpersonal relationships.
When these encounters happen in person, we rely on immediate feedback — the instantaneous, often non-verbal responses of others help us gauge how well our ideas are being accepted. Not only that, but we also mirror each other. Studies have shown we mimic the body language and tone of voice of the people we’re interacting with. If something comes across in a way we didn’t intend, it is often written all over our audience’s face. These in-person moments give you the ability to course-correct in real-time — to say, ‘No, no, that’s not what I meant!’ The power of live clarification is a precious superpower of verbal communication.
When we communicate in our writing, we can no longer rely on this subtext that is rich in information. We can’t get immediate cues from others about what to say next. And we can’t convey our emotional state or attitude towards the person as easily. Our written communications — from emails to longer documents — need to speak for themselves.
We lead and are led by example
Too often, we find ourselves in a cycle of mirroring each other’s stale business phrasing at the expense of deepened human relationships. For example, if you receive an email that starts with ‘I refer to your previous correspondence’, you might reply with, ‘Please find attached the requested document’. Chances are, you wouldn’t respond like this in person. It sounds more like a comic sketch of two robots trying to be friends rather than two humans trying to achieve something together.
In this robotic cycle, shared humanity gets taken out of the equation. But it doesn’t have to be like this! What you’re actually doing when you email people and write documents is building relationships through connection. And it’s up to you what you want that relationship to be built on. While it is possible to build relationships based on an absence of real connection, you’re much less likely to get the action you want.
Human tone produces better outcomes
Honouring someone else’s humanity through ditching robotic language should be good motivation. And it also helps that human-centred tone makes life easier for you. Building relationships based on kindness, care, and genuine connection is better for you and your reader. This is because if you want to have people listen to you, respect you, and do the things you’re asking of them, a positive tone is essential.
People make snap judgements based on tone all the time. We tend to form an impression lightning fast and then look for evidence that we were right in our first impression. This means that we can be rapidly less inclined to do something if we don’t feel the person asking has approached us in the right way.
If you strike the wrong note with your tone, you will sour your audience and may not get the action you want. No matter how clearly you express your message, if your reader forms a negative impression of you, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to undo the negative first impression they’ve made. Creating an impression of being a team player, someone who is helpful, who listens, who treats you as important, is more likely to result in the action that you want. But how do we do this?
How to breathe humanity into your tone
The key to human-centred tone at work is to realise that professionalism and friendly connection can coexist. You can be approachable and authoritative at the same time. Warmth and feeling shouldn’t live outside your working life: they should be core to it.
Start by saying hello and goodbye like a human being. If you’re writing a letter or an email, greet people the way you would if you were speaking to them. That means getting rid of stuffy titles like ‘Mr’ and ‘Mrs’, and dropping stale phrases like ‘Please do not hesitate to contact me’. A simple change to something like ‘Please call me if you have questions’ can make a real difference to your reader.
Write sentences the way you would say them — in the active voice. The passive voice — like ‘the report has been written’ — can make writing appear formal and unapproachable. Instead, write sentences the way that you would say them: for example, ‘I’ve written the report’. The active voice makes what you want clearer to the reader because you put the actor (the person or the thing completing the action) at the start of the sentence.
Use words that people know. Even if people know what long, complex words mean, it’s usually quicker and easier for them to read a shorter and simpler word. These might seem like little things, but when you use bigger words than you need to, you’re on the road to sounding official and bureaucratic. Using clear, simple language is also a good test for you. As the quote often attributed to Einstein reads, ‘If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.’
Unlock more tone tools with Write Online
All these tone tools have one key thing in common. By using them, you’ll appear less like a robot and more like a human. And the more human you appear in your writing, the better your tone will be. This skill will only become more powerful in our changing AI landscape.
Check out Write Online’s Master Your Writing Tone series to unlock more tone tips that will help you stand out from the robots and give your communication impact.