SCA Style Guide: Speaking and Presenting
Voice and Tone
What's the difference between voice and tone? Think of it this way: you have the same voice all the time, but your tone changes. You might use one tone when you're out to dinner with your closest friends, and a different tone when you're in a meeting with your boss.
Your tone also changes depending on the emotional state of the person you're addressing. You wouldn't want to use the same tone of voice with someone who's scared or upset as you would with someone who is laughing.
A voice doesn't change much from day to day, but our tone changes all the time.
The SCA's Voice
Our job is to foster a global coffee community and support activity to make specialty coffee a thriving, equitable, and sustainable activity for the entire value chain. We actively live our values and demonstrate our commitment while providing access to Knowledge, Community, and Influence.
At the SCA, we like to communicate in a friendly, straightforward, and globally agnostic way. We consider our voice to be:
Authoritative
Approachable
Consistent
Friendly
Instructive
Inclusive
Choosing a Tone
Think about your listeners’ needs in different situations, then use these needs to determine your tone.
If you're having trouble finding an appropriate tone, try reframing the situation: how would you talk to a friend who's in the same situation as your listeners?
Further Reading
Further reading suggested in 18F's impeccable content guide:
MailChimp’s voice and tone guide: This beautifully designed tool allows you to select different content types and learn more about what the user might be feeling while listening to them, along with examples of tones appropriate to those content types. Super simple to use, this is a great quick reference for creating diverse types of content.
The nonviolent communication (NVC) framework for feelings: Pinpointing the most appropriate tone for a piece of content starts with identifying what your listener might be feeling when they read that content. This list of feelings is broken into two categories — feelings you experience when your needs are being met and when they aren’t.
Speaking at a Trade Association Event
The SCA is a trade association. This means that, although we are an association of companies and individuals advancing our members’ common business interests, we must also keep in mind that our members are frequently business competitors. This is why trade associations receive special scrutiny under antitrust and unlawful competition laws. Since competitors are generally not allowed to agree among themselves on prices and wages, we must be very careful about how we talk about those subjects.
At this point, you may be thinking, “what about fair trade prices?” Fair trade prices are set by independent organizations, which individual companies are free to accept or not. They are not set by agreement between coffee companies, which would be prohibited.
The SCA sometimes arranges benchmarking price surveys and publishes the results. This activity is protected in the US by a “safe harbor” rule that permits benchmarking where the companies contributing information are anonymous to the reader and the price information is at least three months old.
You might also wonder why other publications can advocate for specific prices or wages. If they are not trade associations and the authors are not competitors, they do not have the same considerations.
If you are in any doubt as to whether you can write something that involves pricing, especially advocating for higher (or lower) prices or wages, first ask your supervisor or editor, who may then consult with our legal counsel, Marshall Fuss (mfuss@marshallfuss.com).
Coffee Price
Average Price
Any time we reference an average price, the “average” cannot include price information gathered within the three months prior to publication. When sharing or including average price information, include a note of the date range used to compile the results.
Alternatives to the “C” Price
When discussing alternatives to the C market, use language that encourages readers to seek legal advice before engaging with any alternatives:
However, any initiatives like these that make use of shared cost or pricing information should not be undertaken without the advice of expert antitrust/monopoly council, as US and EU competition laws and directives can create significant risks in this area. Although it’s tempting to argue that supporting a buying price is fundamentally different to supporting a selling price, current case law does not support this distinction, even within the context of specialty coffee: many existing initiatives currently function within “grey” areas of antitrust/monopoly law.
Chapters
Chapters with SCA staff support should be described as “staff-supported and volunteer-led.”
Speaking About People
It's important to speak for and about other people in a way that’s compassionate, inclusive, and respectful. Being aware of the impact of your language will help make the event a better steward of our values in the world. In this section we'll lay out some guidelines for speaking about people with compassion, and share some resources for further learning.
Age
Refrain from referencing a person’s age unless it’s relevant to what you’re writing. If it is relevant, include the person’s specific age, offset by commas.
The CEO, 16, just got her driver’s license.
Don’t refer to people using age-related descriptors like “young,” “old,” or “elderly.”
Coffee Value Chain Roles
The coffee value chain and systems have roots in colonial and neo-colonial systems largely dependent on very inexpensive land and “nearly free” labor. The net impact has been a value chain that consistently undervalues the labor of farmers and farm workers in most geographies where coffee is produced.
Coffee farmers and farm workers are smart, competent, and capable; they are business partners and economic actors. When speaking about coffee production or coffee origins, speakers should ensure that coffee farmer and farm worker voices are included: source translated quotes and/or elaborate on their specific experience.
Avoid using language that diminishes coffee farmer and farm workers’ agency, contributions, or experience. Conversely, avoid fetishizing “origin” or coffee production.
Here are some helpful questions to guide your story while preparing, as suggested by Nikkita Oliver’s training on Storytelling and Nonprofit Communication:
Is this a story that you, as the facilitator of the story, should be telling or can someone else tell it? Are you connected, part of, or a member of this individual’s community? This is a critical question for coffee buyers telling stories about coffee farmers and farm workers.
Are you sharing someone’s story with dignity, nuance, and informed consent? Is their humanity intact, or are you oversimplifying or over-sensationalizing their story? Are you prioritizing the voice of the person whose story and experience is being shared over that of the audience?
Have you considered who this story helps by telling it? Are you fighting stereotypes and myths or contributing to them? Have you provided sufficient socio-historical and political context?
Disability
Refrain from referring to a person’s disability unless it’s relevant to what you’re writing. If you need to mention it, use language that emphasizes the person first: ”she has a disability” rather than “she is disabled.”
When speaking about a person with disabilities, don’t use the words “suffer,” “victim,” or “handicapped.”
Avoid colloquial phrases that may associate impairments with negative sentiments, like “deaf to our pleas” or “blind drunk.”
Gender and Sexuality
Refrain from calling groups of people “guys” or calling women “girls.”
Avoid gendered terms in favor of neutral alternatives, like “server” instead of “waitress” and “businessperson” instead of “businessman.”
It’s OK to use “they” as a singular pronoun.
Use the following words as modifiers, but never as nouns:
lesbian
gay
bisexual
transgender (never "transgendered")
trans
queer
LGBT
Refrain from using these words in reference to LGBT people or communities:
homosexual
lifestyle
preference
Avoid “same-sex” marriage, unless the distinction is relevant to what you’re writing. (Avoid “gay marriage.”) Otherwise, it’s just “marriage.”
When writing about a person, use their communicated pronouns. When in doubt, just ask or use their name.
Hearing
Use “deaf” as an adjective to describe a person with significant hearing loss. You can also use “partially
deaf” or “hard of hearing.”
Heritage and Nationality
Don't use hyphens when referring to someone with dual heritage or nationality. For example, use "Asian American" instead of "Asian-American."
Medical Conditions
Don’t refer to a person’s medical condition unless it’s relevant to what you’re writing.
If a reference to a person’s medical condition is warranted, use the same rules as writing about people with physical disabilities and emphasize the person first. Don’t call a person with a medical condition a “victim.”
Mental and Cognitive Conditions
Don’t refer to a person’s mental or cognitive condition unless it’s relevant to what you’re writing. Never assume that someone has a medical, mental, or cognitive condition.
Don’t describe a person as “mentally ill.” If a reference to a person’s mental or cognitive condition is warranted, use the same rules as writing about people with physical disabilities or medical conditions and emphasize the person first.
Vision
Use the adjective “blind” to describe a person who is unable to see. Use “low vision” to describe a person with limited vision.
Preparation Resources
Adhering to our recommendations to prepare to speak can help keep our presentations clear and consistent. This section lays out our "house style," which applies to all of our content unless otherwise noted in this guide.
Key References
The SCA’s house style is built on US spelling found in the Oxford English Dictionary and mechanics found in the Chicago Manual of Style.
Basics
Present for all audience members. Some people will listen to every word you say, others may not.
Focus your message. Create a hierarchy of information: lead with the main point or the most important content, in sentences, paragraphs, and sections.
Be concise. Use short words and sentences. Avoid unnecessary modifiers.
Be specific. Avoid vague language. Cut the fluff!
Be consistent. Stick to the copy patterns and style points outlined in this guide.
Creating an Outline
The purpose of a presentation outline is for each presenter/panelist to know what they will be discussing, when, and how much time they have to accomplish this. Once this has been solidified, all presenters should have a well-rounded idea of the overall flow of the presentation.
What should an attendee walk away from your presentation having learned? Does your outline evidence that they will in fact do so? No sales pitches, please!
SAMPLE OUTLINE
Presenters/Panelists: Heather Ward
Title: Listening to the Research: Making your Business Better by Understanding Current Coffee Market Trends
Description:
The foundation of a successful business is knowledge. What resources are available for the specialty coffee business to enable better decision making and strategy? This presentation explores several different specialty coffee research studies, how they connect with each other, and how they can inform the business manager to increase chances of success.
Introduction: Introduce myself and three main takeaways:
Understand your consumers to design the experience you want to create for them
Understand market statistics to inform your business plan and decide how much risk you want to take.
Understand macro level data: coffee’s impact on the US economy. Use this information to talk to your leaders and city council. Use as a tool to show the importance of your coffee to your local community.
Consumers
Two segments: Adopters and Super specialty drinkers
Coffee consumption figures
Market Sizes
Roasters: Benchmarking Study
Retailers: Retail Sentiment Index, coffee shops
Coffee’s US Economic Impact: NCA Study Statistics
Conclusion: revisit three main takeaways, provide further context
Preparing Handouts
Most attendees like to have a handout. We not not always make presentations available to attendees, so handouts are a great way to connect with your audience.
The handout can be a summary of your presentation, resource, or reference item that people can refer back to for key learning items, tools, or reference materials.
PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint presentations draw people’s attention and keep them focused, however they can also distract and reduce a presentation’s impact
The Golden Rule: Less is more—A single, strong, graphic image or succinct line of text will tell your story better than a crowded collage or packed paragraph.
What goes on my slides?
Images and photos: To help the audience remember a person, place or thing you mention, you might use images or photos. Always cite the source.
Graphs and infographics: Keep graphs visually clear. Each graph should make only one point. Always cite the source.
Use as little text as possible. If your audience is reading, they are not listening.
Avoid using multiple bullet points per slide. Consider putting different points on different slide.
Please limit logos to last page only. For more information on this, please review our House Rules.
Please cite all statistics and data.
Some examples of effective PowerPoint slides (from TED and TEDx):
How to use data and graphs/chart effectively: Hans Rosling: The Best Stats You've Ever Seen. (Please note: there is a LOT of information here but the first part contains good examples of how to present data.)
Very nice use of images: Catherine Mohr: The Tradeoffs of Building Green.