Tone and voice

01The voice in one line

An operator who has read the data, says what it shows, shows the scene where it matters, and stops.

Register: operator-grade, dry, high-EQ. Australian in sensibility: direct, practical, sceptical of hype. Contractions are house style.

02Voice principles

03Do and don’t, from real NTWRK copy

Each “don’t” is a real line from the site. Each “do” uses only facts already on the site. Headings: 3 to 7 words, under about 45 characters, concrete, two beats, never explaining (“The log said fine.” · “Two of thirty-three.”).

Name the systems, don’t summarise them

Make the exit a moment

Count the parts, let the reader choose

Cut the numbered three

Keep the scene that’s working

Don’t close on what we build

Private insight pages: open on credit, drop the gotcha

Say what is working before what is not. State what the data cannot show once, without the jab. Speak as “we”, never “I”. No real lines from private pages appear in this book: it is public.

July Home copy worth bringing back

Don’t revive

04Words we use, words we avoid

Avoid

transformunlockleverageutilizeseamlessrobustsuperchargesynergycutting-edgerevolutionarygame-changerempowerelevateholisticparamountfurthermoremoreoverdelvesolutionsbest-in-classworld-classAI-powerednext-generationend-to-end (filler)tenantusers (for customers)platform (for us)vendor (for us)AI transformationdigital transformationAI adoptionfuture of workcopilot (as our noun)10xAI agencynavigate (filler)transformativethis changes everythingit is important to notein today’s rapidly evolving landscapefive ways leaders canBuild-to-KeepAgree?Thoughts?

05House rules

1. No em dashes or en dashes. Full stop, comma, colon, or “to” for ranges (“2 June to 9 September 2026”).
2. No “rather than”. Field Note 06 and Issue 04 cleared at zero; zero is the standard.
3. No “we”, “our” or “us” in field notes or newsletter issues. See the surface table.
4. No client names in public content beyond the clients already cleared on the site. Field notes and newsletters name no business. Networks are lettered, or given a category only with Wes’s clearance, and get no counts that could identify them.
5. Never end on a pitch. Check the last two sentences.
6. Staff names are always masked, even in quoted reviews: keep the first letter and the length (T********).
7. Signature devices at most once per page.
8. No rule-of-three lists used only to sound authoritative.
9. Label the evidence: fact, interpretation, inference, opinion or recommendation.
10. Run slopscan and read every hit. Zero unearned hits.
11. “Own the layer that decides.” Allowed only in the newsletter, the close of the Own the record field note, the one LinkedIn post and Wes’s spoken answers. Never on Home, About, the nav, or any meta or OG text.
12. No prices. No figure, range or placeholder anywhere public. Where price comes up: “Pricing is set in the proposal after scoping.”
13. The trace rule. Copy promises that people can trace a decision or see why each decision was made. It never says a system “explains” decisions.
14. Ownership order. Ownership means the decision logic, not where the data sits. Where the four owned items appear, decision logic comes first, then the data record, the workflow and the documentation. Where ownership is introduced, the zero-copy concession goes first, word for word: “Some platforms can now leave your data in your warehouse, which is good. The question is where your identity rules, segments and agents live.” Approved placements: the /how-we-work/ owns section and the Home panel only. Never on About. Once per page.
15. Retired claims and on-hold stats.Retired: rent-back lines (“copy your data into their store and rent it back”, “The intelligence you rent was never yours to keep.”, “OWNED. NO RENT.”); “Systems you own can explain their decisions. Systems you rent explain nothing the day you leave.”; any claim that a business must explain each customer’s outcome (APP 1.7 to 1.9 asks for kinds of information and kinds of decisions, not reasons); owned systems as “compliant by default”; AI costs rising or tripling; rip and replace; owning as cheaper; “The direction is no longer in question.”On hold until sourced. The on-hold figures are listed in the internal voice.md.The December line, when used: covered organisations, decisions that could significantly affect someone, kinds of information and kinds of decisions, the vendor point, and “a privacy lawyer signs off the policy”. Source: Wes’s APP 1.7 position doc, 8 Oct 2026.

06en-AU conventions

07How the voice shifts by surface

08Pre-publish check

09Canon examples