What constitutes good writing is a very subjective question. There are so many types of writing, from advertising copy to best selling novels and award-winning journalism. But whatever and whoever you are writing for, if you want your audience to read what you write, the key is to make it easy for them.
Write in a way that is a pleasure to read.
Ever notice how some of the biggest brands have the most casual, conversation writing style?
Check out the likes of Dropbox or Apple. Their styles are clear but chatty.
They explain what they do – or what they want you to do – in the simplest terms possible. They don’t use technological language, industry jargon or complex descriptions.
Their tone and language feels friendly and approachable, and is easily understood by a broad audience.
So if that’s the aim, how to you get there?
These are my top tips.
Write for your Audience
Think about who you want to read your piece, and imagine it’s an open letter you are writing to them. Or imagine you are speaking directly to them.
Be direct and don’t be afraid to use ‘you’ within the text – you are directing this to them, after all.
Remember to use the language your audience uses, too.
Say you’re writing for an airline and your reader is the traveller: are they likely to talk about ‘discount airfares’, or ‘cheap flights’? If you’re writing about health for consumers, use terms like ‘painkiller’ rather than ‘analgesic’ and ‘bruise’ rather than ‘hematoma’.
Get to the Point
You have about three seconds to grab your readers’ attention online. Internet users are savvy. If they don’t find the answers they seek in that time frame, they’ll click to a different page.
Before you start writing, make sure you are clear on what you want to say. Pare it down to one aspect or argument per article. Don’t go off on tangents about related points – save those for a separate blog, article or paper.
Write short sentences
Reading online is different from reading on paper. Long sentences with multiple clauses are harder to follow on a screen. If you want your audience to keep reading, make it easy for them to do so. Keep sentences short and concise.
>> Notice how the above could have been expressed as:
“Long sentences with multiple clauses are harder to follow on a screen, so if you want your audience to keep reading, make it easy for them to do so by keeping sentences short and concise”.
It’s hard work to read such a long sentence.
Avoid big words
Remember in high school how you tried to insert big words into essays to sound smarter?
Don’t do that!
It doesn’t make you sound clever, and it can alienate your audience. They don’t want to struggle to understand. And they don’t want to be made to feel stupid because they’re not familiar with those words.
Get rid of all unnecessary ‘big’ words like utilise, deliverables, and competencies, and replace them with use, results and skills.
If you have a tendency to use long sentences, there are tools to help with that. The Hemingway App identifies long sentences and words that can be shortened for clarity and precision.
Tighten up
Some writing is what I think of as loose, or baggy. There are superfluous adjectives, adverbs and clauses that pad out the word count but add nothing to the overall message. The effect is that the writing doesn’t feel crisp and concise.
Go through your writing and get rid of every bit that isn’t essential. Go on, be ruthless. Your copy will be so much better for it.
Stephen King famously said, ‘The road to hell is paved with adverbs’. Adverbs are words that describe a verb and usually end in -ly, such as happily, sadly, quickly, cleverly. Some adverbs have their place, but there is often a better way to express something than with an adverb.
Choosing a verb that does away with the adverb makes your writing tighter. Rather than saying ‘she walked quickly to the bus stop’ say ‘she hurried to the bus stop’. Instead of ‘carefully chosen content’ use ‘curated content’.
Give it rhythm and cadence
Good writing carries you along, like you’re riding a wave. It’s no effort to keep reading. And that’s because it has a kind of energy or rhythm of its own. That’s something you can achieve with your sentence structure and punctuation.
Vary your sentence length. Short sentences are good. They’re easy to read. Especially on a screen. But it gets boring.
So occasionally, change things up a bit. Mix some short, punchy sentences in with some longer ones. Like this. That way, you get some rhythm going. How about throwing in some questions? That can change the flow and get your readers thinking.
Similarly, punctuation offers endless ways to create rhythm, and a more conversational style. Commas, semicolons and full stops keep the meaning clear; they tell you when to pause or breathe. You can create an aside (brackets are good for that) and dashes – not hyphens – to add emphasis.
Edit
Before you publish, edit – and edit ruthlessly.
Leave it a few hours before you do so. If you’re not in a huge hurry, set it aside for a day or two. When you come back to it with fresh eyes you’ll be able to see your typos and clumsy or confusing phrases more easily.
Do one round of editing where you look critically at the structure of the whole, the clarity of argument, and the flow. You may choose to rearrange sections, or even delete unnecessary or redundant parts. Does the introduction provide a good hook to draw readers in? Does the conclusion tie things up neatly, so that readers feel satisfied when they reach the end?
It’s always a good idea to read your writing out loud. You’ll be able to hear how it sounds to your readers. And you’ll notice if sentences are too long, if your punctuation needs adjusting, or if you’ve missed a word.
When you’re happy with that, do a second round to proofread, looking out for typos, missed words, or repeated words. Use your spellcheck of course, but don’t rely on it – it doesn’t catch every error.
Your copy may well end up somewhat shorter after a thorough edit. That’s a good thing. It means it’s tight and concise, rather than waffly and meandering.
But if you feel you’re ‘too close’ to the subject to be able to edit it objectively, ask an editor to review it for you. They will be reading it with fresh eyes and will be able to see more easily any weaknesses or inconsistencies.
And if you really dislike writing and editing, hire a professional to do it for you.