The effect of style and typography on perceptions of document tone

This work presents a study of the effect of stylistic and typographic elements, such as passive voice, personal pronouns, and letter spacing, on readers´ perceptions of document tone. The study was administered as an online survey that asked participants to rate the formality of text passages that exemplified a particular style or typographic condition. Results indicated that active voice, personal pronouns, verb contractions, and informal punctuation cause texts to be perceived as significantly more informal in tone.