Over the years of our daily writing and research escapades, we’ve witnessed our fair share of bad writing. Trust us, it hurts. As copywriters ourselves we cringe at the habitual nature of these errors. And as community-oriented content creators, we want to offer solutions to this epidemic.
The breadth of the English language is too vast to confine yourself to poor writing habits. So, outlined below are several common writing practices that should cease to exist.
Watch Your Exclamatory Punctuation
Emphasis in writing doesn’t necessitate exclamation. In other words, cool it with the “!!” More than one of these punctuation marks and your writing begins to resemble a teenager’s text message or spammy email. Who wants to read that?
Consider them placeholder punctuations. More often than not this mark replaces the otherwise useful text to support how “Great of a Deal this is for You!!” Take it from us, we’d rather know ‘why’ than ‘what.’
The Charles Dickens Paragraph
Unlike literature, people tend to scan when reading on the web. This involves looking for key phrases, surveying headlines, and images for something eye-catching that addresses a need. Your uber-long paragraph does not fulfill this need. Huge blocks of text intimidate online readers in this day and age. Steer clear of this habit.
And don't be afraid to hit that Enter button.
Empty Buzzwords
These dynamic and cutting-edge solutions help you strategically engage your passionate audience into results-oriented action. Any idea what this meant? Clearly, the use of empty buzzwords in your writing does little to support your argument and plenty to confuse your audience. Try your best to stay clear of this habit. Be direct with your message. Maintain a steady train of thought. And eliminate words that end in ‘ly’ as much as possible.
Quit Rambling
Too often we come across blogs that appear written specifically for a word count. Stop rambling in your copy. This isn’t college. Don’t worry about your 10-page minimum term paper. Stop fading in. Get to the point within the first few sentences in order to get your audience informed.
Feel like an anecdote would help your cause? Fine. But do it quickly and confidently.
Eliminate Vagueness
Here’s a safe bet. Always assume your readers know nothing about your writing topic. From here, write in a way where they can easily absorb this information with little intuition. Otherwise, you might as well be writing lorem ipsum. Use shorter sentences, more nouns, less adjectives and adverbs.
With all the drivel out there in cyberspace, it’s important to produce good content. If your work contains any number of these poor habits, it won’t be good. Let go of these habits and start writing well for the web.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know by commenting below.
