Writing for the ear, not the eye

The most common complaint we hear is that a voice sounds robotic. Often the voice is fine and the script is the problem. Text written for screens is dense, nested and full of things nobody says out loud.

Short sentences win

Listeners cannot scroll back. Keep one idea per sentence and let the voice breathe between them.

Say numbers the way people say them

“Your order total is 1,249.50” is a mouthful. “Your total comes to just over twelve hundred and fifty” is how a person talks. Round when precision does not matter.

Kill the parentheses

Brackets, slashes and footnotes work on paper. Out loud they turn into strange pauses. Rewrite them as their own sentence or cut them.

Read it yourself first

The fastest test is free: read the script aloud once. Anywhere you stumble, the voice will too.

• Front-load the point of each sentence
• Use contractions, they sound human
• Avoid lists longer than three items
• End on the action you want the listener to take

Good voice copy feels almost too simple on the page. That is usually the sign it is right.