The Wordsworks Guide to Plain English (Part One) – Don’t Bang On
If you want to be understood, use short sentences. Here's the research that shows you why...
Category
Writing tips
They said what?! 7 tips to improve your press release quotes
A quote in a press release is a chance to get your company’s representative in the media. You start with a blank slate and can say anything you want. So why do so many companies mess it up?
Will politicians cut the jargon?
With a general election on the horizon, will politicians finally get the message that clarity trumps jargon every time?
The Wordsworks Guide to Plain English (Part Two) – Get Personal
Personal pronouns are not complicated and not difficult. Which is why it’s even more baffling that so much marketing completely ignores them.
Make your key points first
Readers - like all of us - are busy people. They want to know if and why they should continue reading your text. So in your copywriting, you need to grab their interest quickly, and not make them read through several lines of secondary information before you get to the point.
The Wordsworks Guide to Plain English (Part Three) – Use Lists
How do lists increase the readability of your writing and help your audience understand your message?
Why bullet points make sense for clearer writing
Some of the most effective tools for clearer business writing are so obvious we tend to overlook them. Take bullet points, the unsung heroes of the print world.
Is the web making us lazy writers?
Isn't the web great? There are all sorts of great writing tips out there. I came across this excellent - and funny - article about writing for the web. It cocks a bit of a snoop at some of the web-writing theories about how people read online.
How to write a headline that grabs attention
We were doing one of our writing workshops in London earlier this month. One of the most illuminating exercises we do is headline appraisal. May sound dull, but it's actually good fun. We take a bunch of headlines from local, national and trade press, and discuss what makes some of them work and why some of them just leave us cold.