089 The Clear-Copy Rule of Writing for the Web

The Transcript

The Clear-Copy Rule of Writing for the Web

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Demian Farnworth: Howdy, and you are listening to Rough Draft, your daily dose of essential web writing advice. I am Demian Farnworth, the Chief Content Writer for Copyblogger Media. I also happen to be the host of this show.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for sharing the next few minutes of your life with me.

Here’s a quote that I got on Twitter:

“So many English teachers shoved complex sentences down my throat that now a simple sentence almost makes my skin crawl.

That’s my friend, Tim Biden, during a Twitter conversation about writing for the web.

He was responding to a tweet where I shared a link to my first Copyblogger post: “The Disgustingly Simple Rule for Web Writing That’s Often Hard to Swallow.”

He retweeted the link and said “I hate that he’s right.”

Clueless as usual about anything not immediately in front of me I asked, “Why do you hate?”

Then he dropped that heavy weight comment above.

I responded with: “I was fortunate to skip most of school as a lad so as not to be brainwashed. But I didn’t learn how to write either.”

In fact, it wasn’t until I went back to college in my late twenties that I learned how to write. My last year in school I even won an essay contest.

THAT is a major achievement for a guy who equated good writing with jungle juice and obscure poetry.

But even college rubs a rigid style of writing into your bones. It wasn’t until I started my career as a direct response copywriter that I got my act together. That I loosened up and wrote to persuade and entertain.

Part of me wishes I was a better student in high school English …

On the other hand, if I had had the brainwashing in high school I would’ve had to learn how to break free of that condition, as Tim had. Possibly. Maybe.

Tim ended our Twitter discussion with “If everybody were as lucky as you we’d have more creatives and fewer lemmings.”

The thing is, I had to learn the rules.

Eventually.

Because I refused to conform (and called it creativity) I retarded my own progress as a writer. I eventually had to go by the book–master the fundamentals–before my creativity made any freaking sense.

And that’s rule number one when it comes to web writing: what you write must be clear.

A Beautiful Stanley Fish Quote About Clarity

So how do you write copy that makes sense? That is clear? Stanley Fish in “How to Write a Sentence” put it this way:

…there is only one error to worry about: the error of being illogical, and only one rule to follow: make sure that every component of your sentences is related to the other components in a way that is clear and unambiguous (unless ambiguity is what you are aiming for).

So, thank you for that Stanley.

In other words, your first sentence should be tied to your next sentence. There should be a logical process. It should be, this happened, therefore this happened. In other words, everything should make sense.

It seems simple but it really is actually hard because often we think in scattered ways, but sitting down and writing will help us perform thoughts that are coherent.

The Single Greatest Reason Most of Us Are Afraid of Writing

Now here’s the other thing that often happens is what we call the curse of knowledge. We know more than our readers and so we assume they know the same, as much as we do.

We over estimate the sophistication of our readers, instead of slowing down and covering the basics and filling any other gaps. This is why having a second reader or a third reader is so important with your content and getting feedback from people. Whether readers or a critique group.

All You Need to Write Clear Sentences

So, just keep one rule in mind and you will write clear copy every time. Each sentence should follow clearly. Should make sense. From one sentence to the next. From one paragraph to the next. From one section to the next. So that you have one seamless, whole article.

Do that and it will probably be clear.

Let me say one more last thing before we close this episode.

Many of us are afraid to write because we fear committing just one of the hundreds of syntactical sins our English teachers warned us about.

Here’s the deal. You are not in high school anymore.

So relax.

Your high school teacher is not your reader. He or she is not sitting over your shoulder and watching what you do.

Relax. Don’t worry about committing any sort of syntactical sin. Just write.

The task is simple: get the first sentence right and everything else will follow.

That’s it for today.

So, until next time, take care.