Voice and Tone

When reviewing your work, always refer to the Morningstar Style Guide for in-house style choices, such as how to punctuate bulleted lists and which financial terms or team names to capitalize. Use it as a quick reference to ensure you’re following our shared conventions.

In many instances, the guide aligns with Associated Press (AP) Style. Most importantly, be consistent about your style choices across a given page, flow, or document.

The Morningstar Style Guide is housed on a dedicated site and updated regularly. For access, please email the copy desk.

Guidelines for DBRS and Pitchbook can be found on Acquired Brands.

Jasper.ai

This AI writing tool is trained on Morningstar voice and tone guidelines and can generate and check copy. To learn more or to obtain a seat, submit your request via the Marketing Operations request form.

Challenger Voice Rater

Use this Microsoft Teams-based AI support to check your writing against our challenger messaging guidelines and get suggestions on how to align your copy more closely. Access the Rater via Teams.

AI Considerations

Generative AI can support your writing, including brainstorming, editing for tone and grammar, versioning and iterating on copy, or creating templates. Thoroughly check and edit all generated copy for accuracy, appropriate tone, and overall quality. Never use the exact content generated by an AI tool.

If not using any of the aforementioned AI writing supports, use the following tips:

• Use applicable voice and tone guidelines as inputs in your prompts.
• Include any additional constraints in your prompt, such as “keep the paragraph to under 50 words” or “exclude acronyms and industry jargon.”
• Review AI-generated content for buzzwords and come up with distinct alternatives. Our content should differentiate us from our peers and not sound like generic content the AI tool can produce for everyone else.

Always follow Morningstar’s Generative AI Policy regarding responsible use, confidentiality, and proper citations.