Style guidelines help make Microsoft products and services easier to understand and inspiring to use by establishing a consistent voice. In addition to providing technically accurate information, we want to convey our trustworthiness, responsibility, empathy, and passion. Style is not just what we say to our users, it’s how we say it.

An essential aspect of style is establishing a consistent and friendly voice. Our voice represents the way Microsoft products, services, tools, and content speak to our users. Even though the content we produce varies widely depending on audience, subject matter, and intent, it’s important that it share a consistent, recognizable voice. Whether we are writing an SDK, producing a video for a consumer audience, or crafting a Twitter post, a unified voice is critical for creating a relationship of trust and engagement with our users.

All the content we create should convey the same values regardless of the writer, subject, or medium. Using consistent rhetorical approaches can help establish and unify our voice. This chapter offers style guidelines that you can use to make our messages more effective.