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A Moment of Clarity
Just as in the rest of the web design process (graphics, layout, markup…) less really is more. This is the zeroth law of copy writing. 9 times out of 10 the many problems affecting a troublesome piece of copy stem from over-complication.
So, by concentrating on clarity and brevity you can avoid the hundreds of pitfalls that await you in the tangled jungle that is our fine English language!
Bloat
In coding bloat is undesirable because it takes machines longer to process, is more prone to errors and creates confusion. For copy it’s not just undesirable it's fatal. Humans are much less efficient at processing information, especially on-screen and there's an extra dimension – emotion. Machines (despite our suspicions!) don't just give up processing information and leave.
"entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem"
This is Occam's razor, usually translated from Latin to the more familiar:
Quote
"All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best."
The experienced designers here will tell you that over-complicating a design is an easy pitfall and one that makes your life harder and will compromise your design. I myself suffer from compulsive div-itus (thanks Rob) and have to, with shaking hands, stop myself throwing in every cool trick I can into my design.
Funny thing though. When an inexperienced writer has to write for a commercial environment they get struck down with a strange affliction, the symptoms of which include:
- Marketese – a particularly nasty combination of verbal diarrhea and projectile waffling.
- Sloane Rangerism – the sudden need to talk as one ought to.
- A nasty dose of vagaries – an inability to say anything concrete.
- Borgitus (Star Trek or the Tennis player – you chose!) – all personality goes out the window and writing becomes mechanical and stilted.
- Word blindness – an inability to seeing the funny side in writing something like:
'… in fact western women visiting the country will find it isn't as restrictive as they might think. We just ask you to observe our customs and not to wear anything above the knee.'
… unless you know the following:
- Exactly why you're writing it.
- What you want to get across.
- Who is going to read it.
Why not edit it as you go? Because you'll end-up strangling it and twisting it out of shape – especially if you do it in isolation. First write it 100% naturally and make sure you get across what you wanted to say. Then begins the fun of editing!
Give your visitors a piece of your mind – not the whole thing!
One sentence should have one thing to say – no more no less. One paragraph should be about one very focused subject – no more no less. Why? Because people scan-read site's and if they don't like the first or last points (depending on their reading style) in a paragraph they won't read what else there is. 1 paragraph - 1 point.
In your first draft always start a new paragraph when you change tack and don't start a new paragraph just because you feel it's too lengthy. This way (because you won't edit until you've finished the first draft) you can easily see where you're spending your website's 'real estate' as it were.
If you spot a morbidly obese section your job is to sharpen your editing scalpel slice that puppy open (not a real puppy you understand – not nice) and carve yourself a Kate Moss out of that Katie Brand. Always do that before even daring to arbitrarily split a section – I guarantee there's some flab to be busted first.
Let's clarify
So… that's what you want to achieve, yeah great, but how do you do it? Want me to show you the money, show you the money? No problem.
Clarity is the most important part of copy writing and deserves serious attention so we're going to explore it over the next few parts. We've got the 'theory' out the way, you're warmed-up and thinking about how much you're going to enjoy putting this stuff into practice.
That's why you're going to love the real-world examples and hands-on tutorial that is 'Part 3 – How to write killer headlines'.
