Voice & Tone
Voice & Tone

Voice & Tone

3 Ways to Speak HackerNoon

✅ 1. Be Factual.

  • We are genuine but informal: we write the same way we speak.
  • We use clear and concise language.
  • We are down-to-earth and approachable in our communications.
  • We avoid unnecessary jargon where possible (and when it's not possible to avoid some industry lingo, we ELI5).
  • We back up our statistics, claims to fact, and sweeping generalizations with proper citation.

✅ 2. Be Purposeful.

  • WHO ARE YOU WRITING FOR? Always consider the end-user.
  • Write to educate, entertain, guide, enlighten, and empower. Write with purpose. Even in Slack.
  • Only smart people can make what’s deeply technical widely accessible: we take time to think things through, do our research, and understand.
  • We help demystify technical terms and concepts by curating and adding commentary to the tech stories told by our community of over 12,000+ contributors, as well as removing needless industry jargon.

✅ 3. Be Hilarious.

  • The Internet is a crazy place. We don’t take it (or ourselves) too seriously.
  • We like to use GIFs to make ourselves understood, and to prove to our discerning readership that we’re down with what the kids are spreading on the interwebs these days.
  • Remember: great copy is really just on-point cultural references, with a side dish of sass and a custom-made meme or two.

Examples of HackerNoon's Voice & Tone in the Wild

💌 HackerNoon's Abandoned Draft Email

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