Effective Writing

Bad technical writing. It screams at you from every proprietary page of a comprehensive, network-enabled, specialized technology and advanced application company’s website…

What?

Welcome to the land of techno-babble. Fraught with pitfalls, sinkholes and swamps, it is a land where heavy paragraphs drag you down; sentences trip you up; your eyes glaze over strange words; and service pages provide hazy “solutions.”

Sadly, many people get lost in this land and don’t know where to go or what to do. Give them what they really want and lead them out of confusion; tell them what you do in bold, powerful language that is simple and effective.

Above all else, good technical writing must be accessible. Visitors should leave your site as customers, with a clear understanding of what your product or service does and what it will do for them.

 

A growing phenomenon in the world of words is the use of the suffix -ize. Though it’s acceptable to summarize and harmonize in good taste, there’s rarely, if ever, a reason to utilize or prioritize. Don’t smack -ize onto a noun to create a verb. It sounds worse and a better word always exists.

The word utilize is especially annoying. Use works as well or better, and it doesn’t convey the same coldness and sterility that characterizes the term ‘utilize.’ The same goes for words like prioritize and finalize.

Using the -ize suffix to create a verb immediately separates the viewer from your language. No longer is it intriguing and interestiing, but dull and hollow.  There are some words like harmonize and summarize that can be used sparingly, but please, never, ever containerize!

 

Find Resources at websites like Project Gutenberg and Bartelby’s.com.

Public Domain webisites like Project Gutenberg and Bartleby.com are gold mines if you’re looking for free literature or verse, style and grammar guides, and more.  They provide a plethora of work pre-1920’s, and its all free for you to devour at your pleasure.

Project Gutenberg offers 18,000 books online. These include everything from books by Ovid and Dante to Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and numerous other authors. They are an excellent resource, and all the books can be downloaded as e-books.

Bartleby.com is an open resource, Public Domain site that offers numerous writing and grammar resources, including the American Heritage Dictionary, Strunk & White,  Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, and even Gray’s Anatomy. Their searches are divided into reference, verse, fiction, and non-fiction.

A common disease that plagues most writing, “fluff” refers to using many words to say little or nothing at all. It is also referred to as “filler.”

Fluff is found in a lot of writing, and is especially rampant on the internet. Take a minute and read any random article, piece of copy, or content and you’ll probably notice that half the stuff you’re reading doesn’t actually say anything. Kind of like this post. Annoying, huh?

A three hundred word article packed with good information is better than a five hundred word article that pads the information, or lack thereof, in a bunch of useless rubbish. It is about quality over quantity.

Today’s topic centers on the use of overly complicated language. It is directed, of course towards the archaic musings of academic journals and the elitist drivel of snobbish websites.

Using big words and complicated prose is unnecessary and potentially alienating to your readers. In the same vein, grandiose, mellifluous sentences and excess verbiage expounding on the merits of your indelibly unique product and the synergistic experience of using it are damaging to your writing and to your content.

This doesn’t mean you can’t be creative and descriptive. Look at books like Jesus’ Son or marketing geniuses like Seth Godin. Better yet, read the Clue Train Manifesto.

In short, avoid long words that are hard to read and harder to say. They don’t make you sound more intelligent; on the contrary, they make you sound like you’re trying too hard.

To recap: ensure your writing is clear, strong and concise. Writing that appears lofty, hokey, or over your readers’ heads is sure to drive them away.