Say it plainly
Posted by Caitlin Smythe on 20 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Copywriting
It’s true that the Internet uses language to get its myriad meanings across. I don’t need to prove that point. But do old-fashioned tips for writing still apply to today’s web writing?
Steve Jobs, in response to Amazon’s awful e-book, Kindle, says that nobody reads anymore (possibly he meant that nobody reads books anymore, but it’s okay Steve). Internet marketing language is less a decorative art than a skill that takes into account many concealed truths about search and intention. George Orwell, English author of such unforgettables as 1984 and Animal Farm, had a few things to say about spreading ideas through effective writing. And some of them are useful now, in a world that even Orwell, who died in 1950, did not envisage (in print, anyway).
Orwell says to never use a long word where a short one will do. No one has a lot of time when searching online; there is too much to see, and there is fun to be had. Marketing copy needs to be short, incisive and useful. Orwell adds that if it’s possible to cut out a word, do it. Include fewer words by writing in the active voice. Similarly Rand (in Rands in Repose) says, “Create compelling gaps in your thoughts where the reader is allowed to fill in the spaces and create their (sic) own experience. Writing is the art of choosing what not to say.” And delete here, there and everywhere. If you can’t do that, find an editor to do it for you. Take out everything that blusters hot air onto your page.
Orwell believed in simplifying language. So never use a complicated phrase when a simple one will do. There is no exclusivity online, so don’t create any. It’s sensible to be intertextual, or to re-cycle ideas that have come before you. Look at the structure of this blog post: I’ve used other people’s ideas to present my own. Orwell says to break any rule before you say something “barbarous”. This includes grammatical errors, and plagiarism. No one has a monopoly over ideas, but authors have ownership on their words. Don’t steal their careful arrangements.
Social media are very popular, and the writing is generally not sophisticated. But, in opposition to Steve Jobs, the point is that the medium is writing. Sure, with Web 2.0 multimedia and interactivity: images, photographs and videos are also top attention grabbers. But words are the best way to associate things that you see and think with signs that everyone else recognises. Orwell’s tricks to effective writing are underscored by one thing: simplicity. Implement his reasoning into your writing, and although your words are not on actual paper, they will stir similar attention.
