Why how you say something is just as important as what you say.
Ah, the power of words. Some people love them, some people hate them. And we’ve all been in those situations where we’ve said or written exactly what we’re thinking or feeling, and it just comes out all wrong. Yeah, you know those times. Well, we can’t promise to help you right your personal word wrongs, but we can make sure your business and marketing communications are clear, concise, and compelling.
Say It Ain’t So.
You may or may not consciously know this, but you love reading good writing. Writing comes in many forms: taglines, emails, advertisements, marketing, short and long form journalism, novels, magazines - even a naming structure or title requires the right words. Words are everywhere! A phrase can be grammatically correct and void of typos, but that doesn’t always mean that it’s accurately or effectively conveying a message.
Consider these examples:
”Find Your New Home” vs. “Helping You Make The Right Move”
”Amazing New Home For Sale” vs. “Contemporary Concordia Bungalow For Sale”
Both of these phrases are essentially saying the same thing, but which ones are more descriptive and interesting?
The right words have the power to make or break your message. Compelling statements capture your client, are memorable and can even help generate new business.
Show, Don’t Tell (sometimes).
The goal of most writing is to give the reader an experience. Let the reader decide for him or herself what kind of journey they wish to go on by setting a scene or a tone. Instead of telling your audience what to see, hear, and feel, use words to convey actions, thoughts, a setting. This isn’t to say there isn’t a time or a place for telling - sometimes it’s necessary to move a story along, or to convey factual, brief information in an efficient way; being able to strike a balance is the key to great writing.
Here are two examples of showing vs. telling (excerpted from JerichoWriters.com)
1. Telling: The night was cold and moonlit. The sleigh moved fast through the forest.
Showing: Ekaterina was shocked by the cold. She’d known winters before, but never this far north and never this deep. Burrowed under furs as she was, she still felt her eyelashes freeze. There were crystals of ice on her face where her own breath had frozen solid. It was a clear night, and they raced through the whispering pines, like a feather drawn over a sheet of silver. It seemed magical. Impossible. Temporary. Forbidden.
2. Telling: The parties were dazzling and opulent. They spilled out of the house, into the garden and even the beach.
Showing: In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. The last swimmers have come in from the beach now and are dressing up-stairs; the cars from New York are parked five deep in the drive… floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside… the lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun, and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail music, and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.
10 Tips For Worthy Writing.
As you’re working on your next piece of writing, be it a marketing piece, bio for your website, your latest blog post, or any other text, keep the following tips in mind to help guide you:
Have a plan
Know your audience
Use the right style (ie., conversational versus informational)
Be wary of lists
Use adjectives sparingly
Be specific
Vary sentence structure
Less is (usually) more; don’t ramble
Avoid redundancy
Edit, edit, edit! (or ask someone else to)
Ready to write that novel? We thought so! Or, if you’re like many people and want to avoid crafting written material like the plague, you can always rely on the wordsmiths at GDisain for a little assistance. Write on!
