Re: Giving a Document **One Voice**

[Beth Agnew <beth -dot- agnew -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca>]

Hi Kirk,
I have had to do this many times. I find the best way to tackle it is to 
have a macro perspective first, then deal with it on the micro level. By 
that I mean, get a sense of the overall document as a whole. It seems 
onerous, but a solid readthrough of the entire manual first will give 
you an idea of where the voice changes. Piece by piece, it's harder to 
discern. However, when you're running straight through from front to 
back, you can perceive the breaks more easily. A second start-to-finish 
read where you mark the places that snag you, would be the next step. 
Mark the places where the tone, pace, rhythm, and voice change or seem 
inconsistent. Then you can go back at the page and paragraph level to edit.

At the micro level, does one writer favor longer sentences than the 
others? Is there too much passive writing from the lawyers? Some writers 
have pet words they overuse. Much of this editing is applying style and 
correct usage consistently through the document. When you've gone 
through the bits, go back up to the overall level and read through it again.

Literally, if the voice you hear in your head sounds different, that's a 
place you need to smooth out. The art is in coming up with a collective 
voice that is not specifically _your_ voice. It won't be a bad job if, 
in the end, it does sound like you wrote the whole thing. That's 
perfectly acceptable. If you can manage to come up with a consolidated 
voice, you've done a masterful job.
--Beth