Journal
Writing Good Copy
19 December 2005 › 12 comments
It Ain’t Easy
Communication is a difficult task. This is something that pops up periodically, and is a topic that is constantly on my mind when I am writing about myself, particularly in résumés. We as designers are committed to having clean, semantic structural markup, but are we as concerned about writing intelligibly? We communicate visually, but often neglect grammatical focus.
I dare say this is an area that is commonly overlooked among website crafters. Far too often, I see designers or programmers, award-winning even, writing up tutorials which barely make sense. This is not to imply their code is flawed, rather it is their mastery of English that is lacking. It does not matter how much you know, if you cannot effectively share that with others.
This is something I saw quite a bit at seminary: students or faculty that had amassed much book knowledge, but were not able to effectively communicate it in an understandable or interesting manner. Suffice it to say, I have heard more than my fair share of dry, informational sermons. In those cases, it was not their grammar that was lacking, but their preaching.
Clearly, there needs to be a balance between being informative and engaging. So, what exactly am I talking about? Allow me to elaborate. When sitting down to write copy, particularly for a website, there are several things that need to be taken into consideration. First and most obviously, who is your audience? Secondly, what is the point? Thirdly, what is the time frame?
Consider Thy Hearers
When I say that we need to write intellectually, I do not mean write superfluously. You should never make anything more complicated than it has to be. This a complaint about some churches. They are not conducted in today’s vernacular. In so doing, a timeless message becomes irrelevant.
When writing for the web, it is difficult to anticipate your potential audience, because if the site is publicly accessible, this could be anyone. Depending on how broad of an audience you are shooting for, you should write at an easily understandable common denominator. Consider this staggering statistic:
The average reading level of American parents of young children is 7th or 8th grade, but 80% of pediatric materials for parents are written at the 10th grade level or above. – Source
Those are the parents who are reading at a 7th or 8th grade comprehension level. It is ironic, because they are attempting to buy curriculum to help their children learn to read, but these books are over their own heads. I shudder to think that I might actually be dumber now than I was in middle school.
Get to the Point
Aside from to whom you are communicating, another important thing to consider is what you are trying to say. No doubt you have heard the joke about the Panda who “Eats, shoots, and leaves.” Written that way, this large Asian mammal should be feared, for after it eats, it will fire a gun and quickly flee the scene! By removing the commas, we have the expected description of an animal that eats both bamboo shoots and its leafy foliage.
I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people write You’re when they really meant Your, or Are’s when they should have said Ours. Another common mistake is typing It’s to mean something that belongs to It. With the apostrophe, you are really saying “It is.” Thus, this sentence: “The dog went into it’s house,” really means “The dog went into it is house.”
Future-Proof Yourself
I always find it humorous to read designers’ online résumés that are written like this: “I have been in this profession since 1990, and have a solid 10 years of experience.” What, did this person take a break for five years? If so, at what point did he or she resume working in this field? If I am reading that in 2005, it appears the person has a gap in work history. More likely though, the résumé was written in 2000, and has not been updated since.
The same is true of software version numbers. Sure, it might sound cool to have the latest rendition of Adobe graphic products touted in your skill listing. Yet, how long will “Photoshop 7” continue to impress, when businesses are looking for people proficient with Photoshop CS2, or beyond?
I suggest simply listing Photoshop amongst your software repertoire, and let the potential reader infer that as a dedicated professional, you continue to keep up with all the latest version changes and feature enhancements. Likewise, if you want to divulge the length of time spent at your job, just put the date at which you started, and let them do the math for themselves.
Practice Makes Perfect
I will be the first to admit that I fall prey (not pray) to any and all of the above blunders. I am not writing this article to point my finger at all the rest of you, but to remind myself to take greater care with my own writing. If you benefit from reading this, then all the better. There are two key things you can do to become a better writer: read regularly, and practice your own writing.
This is one of the benefits of reading programming books rather than simply relying on blogs. While blogs can be even more important than books in the sharing of information, they do not go through an editorial process. So, while a book on DOM Scripting might not be more informative than joining a JavaScript forum, I can guarantee it will be better written.
If you really want to hone your writing skills, make a habit of using best practices. Web standards are becoming second nature to most designers, because that is the best way to do things. Likewise, you should consistently force yourself to write complete sentences with proper grammar and capitalization. My friends make fun of me for typing instant messages this way. Yet, when it comes time to write something that must be perceived professionally, I do not have to “switch” over because I am already there.
Think of quality writing from the standpoint of marketability. CSS usage is becoming more prevalent, and standards savvy web developers are increasing in number. There may come a day when the only significant difference between you and the next guy is: He can write better than you.
Discussion + Dissension
Comments closed after 2 weeks.
#1 J Richmond
Great article! I’ve got to go change some things on my resume now…
#2 Nathan Smith
Jeff: Thanks. I noticed it on a few of the sites I had done. I changed a bit of the copy a site I’m currently working on, so that it won’t need to be changed in a few years. Hopefully the client won’t notice or mind. By the way, I sent you the icon pack you had asked for on your blog: Manhattan Night Life.
#3 Elliot Swan
Good points.
Especially when often times you’ll never personally meet the people to whom you’re writing, what you write and the way you write it is (whether you like it or not) defining how people think of you. If you write professionally, people are more likely to believe you’re professional. If you’re clear, people are more likely to trust you with their business – nobody wants to work with somebody they can’t understand. but iff u right liek this, nobody’s going to really take you seriously as a professional.
#4 J Richmond
Thanks for the icons, nathan!
#5 Carlos
Nathan,
Great post. I couldn’t agree with you more.
I do the same thing with my IM conversations. I try to use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation at all times.
It’s really easy (and tempting) to use shortcuts but I think it’s a mistake. I can go from writing an IM message to my friend to writing an email to the CEO without having to think twice.
With all that being said, no one is perfect and everyone could use a little help with the English language in its written form.
I wonder if there is a book out there for folks that isn’t too wordy that gets right to the point; sort of like an O’Reilly cook book for the English language. It would be a great reference book.
Anyone have any suggestions?
#6 Nathan Smith
Jeff: You’re welcome, let me know if you get Shanghai Tech Vector.
Elliot: Good point, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Perceptions are so key in today’s society. There are so many other distractions out there that the ability to hold someone’s attention through clear communication has never been as crucial as it is now. In previous centuries, you would listen to a politician speak, even if you didn’t particularly care for him, simply because that is where the whole town was gathered, and it was the only thing to do.
Nowadays though, we are so distracted and scattered that those who can speak or write well are highly sought after. I have heard of a few people who aren’t famous aside from the fact that they are motivational public speakers, and they make really good money.
Carlos: I don’t know of any straightforward books to improve writing. I’m sure there are a slew of them out there, but I have not heard of any one in particular that stands above the rest. The only books that I have seen touted were by professors, who usually adhere to ALA, APA or MLA formats.
If you are just looking for general writing guidelines, try the MLA Handbook or the APA Publication Manual. I would have linked directly to the ALA guidelines, but their site looks like it just switched to ColdFusion, and all their links are broken. The MLA site certainly looks the nicest. Based on that, I would buy their handbook. Yet, I suppose you can’t judge a
bookwebsite by it’s cover!#7 David
I think this article serves as a good reminder to us all, especially since it’s so easy to become complacent with our own use of language. I find myself slipping sometimes, finding it easier to convey a particular message with the use of improper grammar.
However, there are two things that changed my writing life profoundly. First, I took a class (required) in college entitled “English 101.” The professor was an interesting guy who hammered proper grammar and punctuation into our brains for the entire semester.
Also, I found that learning Spanish changed my outlook on English. Firstly, learning Spanish gave me a better understanding of the English language than any English class I had taken previously.
Secondly, it forced me to go back and communicate as a child. It was humbling to communicate with less efficiency than the four year old sitting next to me. In the end it also helped me communicate without the use of larger words, since with my newly acquired second grade communication skills I didn’t know any of those words and typically couldn’t pronounce them.
Those are the two things that helped me with my writing and communication in general. It’s good to be reminded again that grammar is important as well as knowing our audience. Because, you know, if I’m writing the president he’s going to expect formality. If I write my parents or girlfriend with the same level of formal language they’re probably going to question my loyalties.
#8 Nathan Smith
That’s true, learning another language is a humbling experience, and forces you to start from square one, so to speak. As far as talking to would-be in-laws, try doing it in Russian! Whenever my wife is talking to her parents on Skype, I try to chime in here and there with what I know, but my limited vocabularly makes me look a little silly. We all have a good laugh about it though, with her dad trying out English words, and she doing translation.
#9 Tim OBrien
Good article.
In the British English world we have a book called “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” by Lynne Truss, all about the common misuse of punctuation and grammar. It’s a great read.
By the way, I just can’t resist pointing out the typo:
“I shudder to think that I might actually be dumber now that I was in middle school.”
#10 Nathan Smith
Tim: Oh the irony! The typo has been fixed, thanks. That sounds like a good book, Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Although, what is British English really? It’s not like you guys can take credit for inventing it. Oh wait, nevermind.
I think that’s what gave me the idea for the analogy, though I’ve not yet read the book. I saw it on the shelf in Barnes & Noble the other day, but bought Foundations of AJAX instead. It also made for good reading.
#11 Andrew Smith
Fo’ sure, bretheren! I ain’t lovin’ it when I be readin’ one of them web-doo-hickies that ain’t be usein’ no proper edu-ma-kay-ded lingo!
#12 Nathan Smith
Andrew: Nice, way to illustrate my point. I guess you’re at home already then, or else you’d not have time to comment on my blog. We’ll see you this evening once we drive up! We’ll be packin’ – presents that is! Hardy har har.
^ This is my little brother, for those of you who may not know. He’s really actually quite intelligent, and is president of his class at the University of Washington. He’s currently working on a Doctorate of Physical Therapy, and is the brains of the family. Our sister is also very smart, and is student body president at her school. Come to think of it, I’m the dumbest in the family.