Copywriting

I received several emails about my recent post on how to improve your copywriting. Rebecca Kalajian sent me a link to the UK-based Plain English Campaign, “an independent pressure group fighting for public information to be written in plain English. We have more than 10,000 registered supporters in 80 countries.”

What a great idea! We’re all extremely busy – why should we have to muddle through tedious, long-winded documents in our personal or professional lives?

Simple, straightforward English is

Faster
Friendlier
Easier to comprehend

Whether you’re writing an email, a product spec, web copy or a proposal, you can accomplish far more if you write in plain English. You’re not dumbing down your ideas – you’re just presenting them more concisely.

“It’s not an amateur’s method of communication,” they say. “Most forward-looking senior managers always write in plain English … Sadly, thanks to the bureaucrats of public service industries, local councils, banks, building societies, insurance companies and government departments, we have learned to accept an official style of writing that is inefficient and often unfriendly.”

So how can you simplify your writing style?

Here are some recommendations from their Guide to Plain English:

Keep your sentences short
Prefer active verbs
Use ‘you’ and ‘we’
Choose words appropriate for the reader
Use positive language
Use lists where appropriate

The guide then looks at the difficult subject of apologizing, then deals with some of the myths that can get in the way of clear communication. It also includes a blacklist of words to avoid.

Thanks for your messages – keep them coming!

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A reader emailed me yesterday to ask for good resources to improve her writing. Excellent request. Here goes!

1. Focus! What’s your point? Stay with it!

2. Show, don’t tell. Provide examples. Your readers want proof.

3. Be ruthless. Cut any word that you don’t need. Your readers are busy, so bring your point to life as succinctly as possible.

This one takes practice. Syntax Training offers a page of tips including a 70-word paragraph that has been slashed to 30. And watch out for these common phrases:

Bland	Better
for the purpose of	for
the majority of	most
in order to	to
provide an introduction	introduce
on a daily basis	daily
on a regular basis	routinely

Here’s another tip from Business Writing Tips: try getting rid of the word “very” and convert the adjective it modifies to a stronger adjective. You’ll also save a word in the process.

Bland	Better
very small	tiny, puny, compact
very hot	torrid, scorching, sultry

Here’s their tip #326 (they have hundreds): Don’t hide the action in your sentences by using nouns and adjectives. Watch words ending in “ion,” “ment,” “ance,” “ence,” and “ing.”

Bland	Better
His presentation produced a disappointed reaction among the clients.	The presentation disappointed clients.
Programmers help from a system implementation perspective.	Programmers help to implement systems.

4. Follow important rules. Please make sure you’re using contractions, punctuation and sentence structure correctly. Grammar mistakes hurt credibility.

Possession: We all see “it’s/its” and “you’re/your” misused every day. Here’s an easy way to check for accuracy.

If you can say	Use	Else use
it is	it’s	its
you are	you’re	your

Here’s another one: Do you know which version is correct?

	A	B
1	ifs, ands or, buts	if’s, and’s, or but’s
2	in’s and out’s	ins and outs
3	dos and donts	dos and don’ts
4	pros and cons	pro’s and con’s

(If you’re not sure, check your answers at Business Writing Tips.)

Passive vs active tense: Here’s another common mistake that dampens impact. There’s an excellent overview at Syntax Training.

Passive	Active	Notes
The surface should be primed	Prime the surface	Readers need precise instructions
Your gift is appreciated	We appreciate your gift	“Is appreciated” sounds impersonal, whereas “We appreciate” feels warm.

Want more? Here are a few good books, blogs and sites:

Writing Copy for Dummies by Jonathon Kranz. He also publishes a popular blog.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss – love it or hate it, you’ll learn a lot.
Lynn Gaertner-Johnston’s Business Writing Blog.
Syntax Training offers classes, online assessments and book recommendations.
Michel Fortin offers “tips, news and thoughts on the world of direct response copywriting and Internet marketing” in his blog.
On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser.
Handbook for Public Relations Writing by Thomas Bivins.