This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Posts tagged web-copy
Webcopy – Write in PLAIN English
1653 days
Webcopy carefully crafted in plain English can improve a readers comprehension. You want your customers to understand what you are telling them don’t you?
Here are a few guidelines to plain English:
1. Make the average sentence length 15 to 20 words.
2. Use words your customers are likely to understand. Try not to abbreviate or use extensive jargon.
3. Use only as many words as you need.
4. Prefer the active voice, unless there is a good reason for using the passive.
5. Use the clearest verbs to express your thoughts.
6. Use vertical lists to break up complicated text.
7. Reduce cross-references to the minimum.
8. Avoid sexist usage.
9. Put your points positively when you can.
10. Put accurate punctuation at the heart of your writing.
11. Plan before you write.
12. Organise your content in a way that helps readers to grasp the important information early and to navigate though the document easily.
In the case of terms and conditions, which most on-line sellers draft their own…..
Where there is doubt about the meaning of a term, the interpretation most favourable to the consumer shall prevail.
We envision to enthusiastically facilitate error-free paradigms…Writing web copy!
1695 days
‘We envision to enthusiastically facilitate error-free paradigms while continuing to authoritatively revolutionize economically sound opportunities to meet our customer’s needs’
This snippet of text was generated by the Mission Statement Generator from the Dilbert comic strip website, but this kind of web copy rings close to the truth for some organisations.
When you are writing content in blogs and also for websites you need to consider your target audience and speak to them in their language. Avoid hype that sounds like advertising jargon. They are already AT your site, so give them an excuse to stay. Organise the content and structure your writing for easy readability.
Always proofreed…. This is my biggest sin. All posts on this blog are edited around 3 times once posted!
A useful post when you are thinking about your web content is Web Writing for Many Interest Levels
