Start with a plan. Before you begin writing, take some time to plan exactly what
you want to say and what purpose you want to achieve with your writing. Consider
how you want to present your information – should it be a list, a blog article, a
table or maybe even an image instead of text? Keep your goal in mind as you write.
Keep it simple. Simple writing means short sentences, clear and direct phrasing
and avoiding complex words or jargon. Use as few words as possible to bring your
point across, and avoid padding your writing with unnecessary adjectives.
• Wrong: Our very exciting new service will completely and totally overhaul the
way you understand and think about web design, CSS, CM S and customer subscription solutions.
• Right: Our new service will change the way you look at all aspects of web development.
Be active, not passive. Wherever possible, write your copy using an active voice rather than a passive one.
• Passive: A large range of services is offered by our company to meet your needs.
• Active: We offer a large range of services to meet your needs.
Write for readability. Readability is a word that means “ease of reading”. There
are many ways to make your text easier to understand. Use bolding or italics to
highlight important words, short paragraphs to keep your ideas separate, bullet
points to outline important details and subheadings to give your text structure.
Do not write whole words or paragraphs in capital letters – this is the equivalent of
shouting online and has the same negative reaction. Most web readers scan text,
which means they run their eyes over it quickly without absorbing everything.
Using these tricks will make your text more scannable and will make sure the crucial things stand out.
• Wrong: Our product has many features, like helping you to manage your
digital documents, keep a list of your online contacts, archive your emails and manage your diary.
• Right: Our product features:
o Manage your digital documents
o Store online contacts
o Archive emails
o Manage your calendar
Be consistent. Every aspect of your brand should be consistent, and this is especially
important for your writing. Always make sure that your written communications use
the same terms, vocabulary, spelling, tone and level of complexity, not to mention
the small but vital stylistic elements. Though you will use different techniques for
you website, blog and other channels, all your writing should feel that it comes
from the same source. An excellent way of achieving this is to create a style guide
for your brand. A style guide specifies the standard terms, spelling and so on for
your brand-related writing – for example, do you spell the word “internet” with a
capital or lower case “i”? You can consult an editor to help you construct one, or
you can download this detailed guide: www.techwr-l.com/files/examplestyleguide.
pdf (note that it refers to US conventions). The Yahoo Style Guide is also an
excellent starting resource: styleguide.yahoo.com.
Be creative. It is perfectly acceptable to let your own creative voice come through
in your writing. You don’t want to sound like a carbon copy of every other product
or brand available. A bit of brand personality (discussed in more detail chapter 7)
is a good thing. Also be creative in what content you create – find new angles,
ideas and niches to explore.
Use correct spelling and grammar. You will look extremely unprofessional if you
have dozens of grammatical mistakes and spelling or typing errors in your writing.
If you keep things simple and consistent, you should have no trouble writing
correctly. Don’t hesitate to consult a dictionary or grammar guide if you are stuck
• Wrong: Our web tool have many useful featurs. You can customize your web site easiliy.
• Right: Our web tool has many useful features. You can customise your website easily.
Proofread your writing. One of the easiest ways to check whether your writing is
correct and clear is, quite simply, to read it. Proofreading is the process of reading
a piece of text in detail and fixing any stylistic, grammatical or content mistakes
that you find. Even if you are not a language expert, you will find that you pick up
lots of small errors on your own. You can also consider hiring a freelance editor to
check your writing for you. A helpful hint is to leave the content for a day before
you go back to proofread it – the time refreshes your mind and makes it easier to
pick up any errors
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