Writing and speaking both use words, but in distinctly different ways. My job is writing for a client in a way that's appropriately formal for the medium while using phrasing and metaphors that the audience recognizes as being consistent with the client's speech. For example, Warren Buffet often uses references to sex to illustrate his points (“You can't produce a baby in a month by getting nine women pregnant”), while many politicians use the language of baseball.

Being an intuitive interviewer helps me guide clients to their authentic voices. If we start with a fairly sizable project, perhaps a website or an article or a series of blog posts, we hit a groove pretty quickly. We might begin by roughing out an outline or defining key messages, but I go into interview mode with the voice recorder (preferably) as soon as possible. It also works to start with something someone else wrote — for example an article in a trade publication or a news item. I draw the client out on the areas of disagreement with the original writer and follow that trail. If they don't disagree, I'll ask the client to tell me about cases where they've applied the article's information and go from there. I can't speak for other professional writers' techniques, but as you see, mine relies on interviewing the client.

As for different voices, a client might use one voice with employees and another with clients and that's fine. If you take that approach, be consistent with each audience. Inconsistency is a dead giveaway that someone besides the attributed writer is actually doing the work.

One thing to ask you: You mentioned that there are questions that you ask a prospective client and even listed them above to help them discover their “voice” or how they want their communications to come across to their targeted audience.

Do you have any ideas or steps that you have used with clients to help them answer these questions? What would they need to think about or how could they determine the benefits of different “voices” (or again, the tone/way in which their communications come across?)

I've always wondered this and didn't know if there are things you've seen or tried.