Writing is a skill that’s fairly easy to learn: the trick is to keep things simple. Inexperienced writers will often over-complicate things in a bid to sound impressive. In fact, the more skilled the writer, the cleaner and clearer the copy will be.
Here are five simple writing hacks for better communication:
- Use simple, everyday language
If you’re writing in a professional context, your intent is to communicate. Therefore, you need to use words and phrases that are known and used by your readers. Your audience wants to move through your content quickly and efficiently.
Certainly, there’s nothing more disengaging than not understanding what you’re reading. In your readership you will certainly have individuals with different reading abilities, as well as those who have English as a second language. By making things easy, you’ll communicate more effectively.
Choosing commonly used words will also help with your search engine optimisation. You want your keywords and synonyms to reflect what users type into search engines as this will make your content more likely to rank well.
2. Delete filler words
Often if writers are struggling to get their words down, others advise them to write what they would say. This is a good strategy to get started, but follow-on editing is required. Speech is full of grammatical errors, empty words and redundant clauses – and this doesn’t matter; communication also comes through body language, pauses and what’s left unsaid.
However, when writing you don’t have the same luxury; it’s all about the words and they need to be precise and articulate. Most readers have little tolerance for filler words. Verbose phrases should be pared back to allow for quick reading. For example:
- In conjunction with (‘with’)
- At this point in time (‘now’)
- In order to (‘to’)
3. Write in active tense
Whenever possible and sensible, write in the active tense. This means being clear about who is doing what. So rather than, ‘You will be contacted within three business days’, write ‘One of our sales consultants will contact you within three business days.’
If a business uses the passive tense too much, the writing becomes vague. This lack of transparency makes the company’s processes and practices look woolly, undermining credibility.
4. Link ideas
Each sentence should flow neatly and logically from its predecessor. Sometimes this happens naturally, other times the writer may need to create a ‘bridge’ between one idea and the next. This linkage could be a simple word or phrase, such as: furthermore, likewise, this means, as a result. Similarly, it could be a clause that builds on the previous idea, such as: ‘Another marketing tactic that we’re using is…’
These ‘signposts’ at the start of a sentence help the reader navigate the text, aiding effective communication and understanding. A good writer guides the reader through the text, ensuring they don’t get lost along the way.
5. Avoid long sentences
Long sentences have plenty of room for error: they tend to include multiple clauses and can lose sense completely if they have less than perfect grammar. Often the subject of the sentence (the agent of the action) can get buried in complicated language constructions, so it becomes unclear what the clause is referring to at all!
Generally, it’s best to keep things simple. This means strive for one idea per sentence, have the subject and verb of the sentence upfront, and put the most important information first. Make the statement and then substantiate it with another sentence. For example: ‘Sales are down 25% in Q3. This is because of XYZ’.
Written as one sentence, ‘Because of XYZ, sales are down 25% in Q3’, there’s a risk of losing the reader in the detail of XYZ before you even get to your key message that sales are down.
To find out more and for copywriting and copy editing support, contact Caroline Roberts on 0404 960 908 or caroline@luminous-copy.com
Luminous Copy 