There are many tools that can be used to improve your writing. Recently, I learned about the importance of understanding the context in which your audience will receive your work. Additionally, I explored the concept of using your own voice in writing. Respecting the context and using your voice are two ideas that may seem unrelated, but that is not the case. 

Context Vs Voice

Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Content is King, but Context is God” explains why it is important to put yourself in the audience’s shoes when creating content. This will make them more likely to receive the content in the way that you want. I thought about how Vaynerchuk’s idea applies to all non-fiction storytelling. For example, if I were to write a left-leaning political story for a right-leaning publication it would need a persuasive tone. The same story written for a left-leaning publication could be told differently. After all, context is God. 

William Zinsser’s On Writing Well talks about using your own voice in your writing. Zinsser uses the example that if he were to write one book about baseball and one about jazz, readers would know that both books are from the same author. This is because no matter what the subject is, Zinsser is writing in his own voice. 

Do They Contradict Each Other?

Vaynerchuk tells me to consider the context when writing for my audience, but Zinsser tells me to use my own voice no matter what I am writing about. At first, I found this to be contradictory. If I needed to consider the context, that probably meant I would need to write it differently than how I would want to. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I could respect the context while maintaining the integrity of my voice.

How Do You Use Both?

The key is to spend the time developing your voice to the point that it will stick with you no matter what. If Zinsser really did publish books about jazz and baseball, the books would likely be received by different audiences in different contexts. But, because Zinsser is a veteran writer with a strong personal voice, readers would have no trouble detecting that it’s the same author. 

A LinkedIn community article, “How can you maintain a consistent voice when writing for different industries?” emphasized this idea. This article states that when you write for different industries, the context in this case, you adapt your voice. Although you do adapt, you keep in mind your limits and do not compromise your authenticity and integrity. So, even if your voice is slightly altered based on the context, it is still strong enough to be heard no matter what.