USC Dornsife Messaging, Voice
and Tone Guide

We build voice and tone on the scaffold of our messaging strategy. While message is our self-definition, voice and tone are the expression of our personality through content.

Our Message is what we say about who we are.
Our Voice and Tone is how we say it.

By speaking as “USC Dornsife” we offer our audiences an authentic way to understand who we are and how we relate to them.

A Note to Writers

This guide expresses what sets USC Dornsife apart — the values, differentiators, and personality that, when taken together, form our public-facing brand. Informed by a series of stakeholder interviews, they are intended to help you understand the college in a textured way and to give your writing depth.

In some instances, you might be able to use short phrases from these pages in your work (for example, in headlines) or add nuance to a sentence. But primarily, your goal is to let these messages shape what you say.

We Are:

… Fearless Explorers
Fueled by curiosity and a sense of adventure, we seek out knowledge and experience, and we seize opportunities to break new paths.

… Connectors
We know that breakthroughs happen when we collaborate and involve multiple perspectives. So, we join the forces of the sciences and the humanities, institution and industry, college and community, to create more effective and equitable solutions for challenges both local and global.

… Prepared for an Unknown Future
As creative and agile thinkers who look for not just the best answers but the best questions, we navigate complexity with confidence.

… Energized by What’s Next
Like Los Angeles, we’re ahead of the curve. We influence what’s next by taking ambitious leaps into emerging areas of scholarship.

… A Vibrant Mosaic
Our diverse experiences, range of identities, and excitement for new ways of thinking are a key source of our strength.

What Makes Us Strong

We’re a powerhouse school of arts and sciences with all the benefits of a large, world-class research university and a network of outstanding professional schools.

We’re an institution that has the will and agility to solve big problems. Our strength across many fields is amplified by our investments in areas where Dornsife can become a world leader.

We value curiosity for its own sake, encouraging it to expand and breach boundaries of disciplines — whether or not it has any immediately obvious practical application.

We do not prepare students for any one career. We prepare them to be engaged citizens and leaders, with the skills to adapt and evolve along whatever path they pursue. The skills they cultivate through the liberal arts — analysis, communication, collaboration, making connections, separating fact from fiction, and empathy — are common to every discipline and they are skills that will never become obsolete.

Our researchers tackle social and global challenges so complex that they are best addressed by converging expertise — from Earth scientists to economists, political scientists to poets.

We live and study in the heart of Los Angeles, one of the greatest incubators for ideas that shape culture and influence change.

What Makes Us Distinctive

We value and communicate our research mission in equal measure with our educational mission. Our scholarship feeds teaching, as students are not just memorizing facts or reading acclaimed novels — they work shoulder-to-shoulder with those who make the discoveries or write the texts assigned in class.

USC Dornsife’s educational programs stack up with the best of the best. Students find an unmatched choice and customizability in their academic pursuits. Our programs are defined by amazing experiential and applied learning opportunities — not just the quantity, but in the quality.

We break down walls between the academy and the public square, enabling our work to have a more relevant, tangible, and far-reaching impact across the public and private sectors. And we encourage our faculty to take on projects that call for academic expertise.

Our “branch campus” on Catalina Island is 100% unique among research universities. The USC Wrigley Marine Science Center is not just for students and faculty exploring the ocean — it is where our community working across every field can explore their interests and be inspired by the wonders of nature.

Our alumni are proud members of the Trojan Family — an unrivaled global network of mutual support.

We invest in emerging areas of scholarship — fields like environmental economics, narrative medicine, and quantum and computational biology, where opportunity meets societal need.

Distinguishing Voice from Tone

Voice and tone are how we speak with a unified “personality.”

Voice is character.
It describes how we, as an institution, feel and act. It’s how we personify the relationship with our audiences. Our voice is consistent across the platform. It’s who we are.

Tone is mood.
It’s how we sound, constructed through style elements: vocabulary variations, rhythm, mood, structure. Just as our tone of voice changes based on circumstance and environment, your tone might shift a little to suit the content you’re creating or the platform on which you’re communicating.

Our Voice

Our voice is that of an accomplished professor — a productive scholar and dynamic educator. 

She works with determination to make new discoveries and convey her findings in ways that anyone can understand. Her curiosity helps her connect with students and community partners from all walks of life. 

Inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit of Los Angeles, she leverages opportunities to challenge the status quo — and encourages her students to do the same.

Our Tone

• Inspiring, but not inspirational
• Energized, but not overly caffeinated
• Conversational, but concise
• Encouraging and enthusiastic

Speaking “USC Dornsife”

Ideas and Words
This is a lexicon related to ideas that are core to USC Dornsife. By using these words liberally, you can help to create frames of meaning and evoke what it feels like to be part of the community. This list is expandable: Add words or add an idea.

Before and Afters
In light rewrites, some simple copy strategies can help you create the USC Dornsife voice. Before-and-after examples illustrate how.

Best Practices
Based on how our core audiences read online content, these best practices can help you keep users engaged for longer.

Avoid Jargon

Universities tend to use the same type of language, which dilutes substance and breaks attention. When we talk about something, it should be clear and make a point. Because much of the Dornsife website is a public-facing resource, we should be cognizant of the reader’s experience — and we should create a welcoming environment that gets them excited about everything we are doing at Dornsife together.

For example:

Every great research university is now “interdisciplinary” — so only use the word when it is truly necessary to convey your meaning.

Sure, students are going to be “a new generation of future leaders” — but that’s not how you would describe your own college student to a friend.

“Impactful” has little impact on a reader. Give an example, instead!

Ideas and Words to Frame Our Writing

Best Practices

• Surface the message rather than bury it, so as to engage and encourage the reader to want to keep reading.
• Be direct — what can you cut without losing meaning? Remove unnecessary words; use simple constructions (eg: “to” instead of “in order to”)
• Talk to the reader. For example, use “you” instead of “as a Dornsife student.”
• Let the excitement breathe — avoid burying it under laundry lists of phrases or descriptors
• Use simple words with no more than 2 syllables (eg: “help,” not “assist”) unless the longer word more clearly communicates your meaning.
• Avoid equivocal constructions such as “is designed to,” “we strive to.” Just say what it does. Instead of “We strive to create a welcoming community,” say, “This is a warm community.”
• Minimize leading with “We.” As much as possible, start with “You,” the reader. Your reader should be the main character in this narrative.
• Avoid internal-think! Prospective students don’t care which office is in charge of your campus experience, what the “learning outcomes” are, or how long ago the university created the program they’re interested in.
• Avoid welcome messages such as “Welcome to the department of…” — get to the point.
• Use active, not passive constructions: “where internationally known scholars pursue new ideas,”not “where new ideas are explored by internationally known scholars.” The active voice is energetic and confident.
• Keep sentences relatively short. Don’t exceed 20 words per sentence and aim for 15 words average. (Shorter sentences are easier to read for screen readers as well as humans, so this is an accessibility issue, too.)
• Keep paragraphs short — 5 short sentences or fewer.
• Break up pages with subheads that clearly communicate the content.

The following examples put best practices into action. The style and details might guide your thinking about the messages that your unit wants to convey and your approach to updating content.

Engage and Inspire

Before:

Student Research
Students in USC Dornsife benefit from a liberal arts environment located in the heart of a world-renowned research university. USC Dornsife offers a full range of majors and degrees that provide students with the best opportunities to generate innovative, groundbreaking research.

Undergraduate students: USC Dornsife offers numerous opportunities for undergraduates to work with world-class faculty in their laboratories, in the field, or out in the community.
Graduate students: Small, high-quality programs foster close intellectual partnerships between students and some of the world’s most distinguished faculty.

After:

Student Research
Conduct innovative research in world-class labs or get your hands dirty out in the field. Whether you’re a freshman or a PhD candidate, at USC Dornsife you can put your curiosity to work, while grappling with the issues you care about most. Here, you’ll be immersed in the discovery process with experts who define the future of their field and help us make sense of the world.

Focus on Exploration

Before:

Welcome to the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Office of Undergraduate Programs. Earning your undergraduate degree at USC Dornsife is the difference between a good education and a life-changing experience.

Each student has a different undergraduate experience at USC Dornsife. Whatever yours will be, count on it being exceptional. Explore what USC Dornsife has to offer.

After:

You are an explorer, always turning over rocks to see what’s underneath. Follow your own, unique path as you search for knowledge and unleash your creativity at USC Dornsife.

Be Energetic

Before:

Life in Los Angeles

USC is located in the heart of Los Angeles, a vibrant international city. This second largest metropolis in the U.S. is a magnet for art, culture, food, industry, and commerce. Southern California’s moderate climate and varied landscape allows for year-round recreation including skiing, hiking and surfing, among many other activities. With close proximity to the ocean and beautiful beaches, the campus is located within an hour’s drive to the desert and mountains. L.A. and the region also boast numerous venues for live music, theatre, art and dance — there’s something for every student’s taste and budget. The ethnically diverse city also hosts an abundance of cuisines from around the world. Heart of the entertainment industry, the world often turns to L.A. and Hollywood for what’s hot and what’s not.

After:

Vibrant Los Angeles

The energy running through Los Angeles fuels innovation in everything from style to tech start-ups. Ethnically diverse, decidedly international, a cultural capital and outdoors wonderland, this city is a dynamic stage for exploration and adventure. Whether you’re craving Korean BBQ tacos or a ten-mile hike, you’ll find it all — and at USC Dornsife, it’s right outside your door!

These practices are geared to your public audience, and the circumstances under which they’ll be visiting your website — possibly on mobile, almost certainly on a screen with multiple tabs open and frequent alerts.

Underlying all of these practices is the number one rule: Write for your audience.

Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself, at this point in their exploration, what do they need to know, what will inspire them, how can you keep them on your page when there are so many distractions, so much competition for their attention?