Writing website copy: traps to avoid part 1

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Gary Chow | 1 Comment » | Trackback URL

Writing copy is a perilous job. It’s so easy to lapse into corporatespeak and enter the fuzzy world of jargon, buzzwords and clichés.

I’m probably as guilty as anyone. So to ensure you stick to the straight and narrow (see, another cliché!) here are some traps to beware of.

Corporatespeak

Yes, I know, very difficult to avoid. We’ve all been conditioned to corporatespeak having being force-fed this pap ever since we entered the workforce. It’s like a young fast bowler in cricket. They can be meek and mild by nature but after a week in the Aussie test team they suddenly mutate into a snarling, surly beast (and often grow a handle-bar moustache as well). Corporate people are the same. After a month in a corporate tower their speech rapidly degenerates into gibberish.

Here’s an example taken from a current website:

‘Our operating strength is underpinned and guided by our executive and board leaders, who set clear strategic priorities and uphold astute governance standards related to resource allocation, financial accounting and controls, capital and risk management, and internal controls.’

And this:

‘We strive to make XYZ Inc an employer of choice through initiatives that support, inform, develop, and increase the awareness and sensitivity of our current workforce. Through these efforts—which also extend to our surrounding communities—we honour the power of people.’

And this:

‘Our continued success depends upon unswerving adherence to this standard.’

Sir Humphrey Appleby of ‘Yes, Minister’ fame would be proud of all of the above.

Jargon

Jargon may make sense within an industry but it’s usually gibberish to the wider community. Here’s an example:

‘As investors increasingly consider active management to help reach their investment goals, efficient allocation of active risk is a primary concern. We allocate risk where our conviction for alpha-generation is highest and embrace portable alpha strategies to achieve the desired active risk budget.’

This may be straightforward to an investment banker or fund manager (or maybe not), but it’s complete gobbledegook to the rest of us.

All jargon does is create an ‘us’ and ‘them’ barrier. It’s pretentious, convoluted and largely devoid of meaning.

Buzzwords

Buzzwords are just as useless as jargon and corporatespeak. Avoid at all cost. Most buzzwords, trendy expressions and vogue terms are only understood by those in the same situation as the writer, and may be lost on people of different circumstances, age, and those who speak English as a second language. I’ve worked in financial services for a long time and I still haven’t a clue what ‘pushing the envelope’ actually means.

Examples:

• Going forward
• Core values
• Deliverables
• Paradigm shift.

Clichés

Clichés are expressions that have been overused to the point where they’ve lost their meaning and are largely ignored by readers as guff.

In corporate writing you often see clichés in mission statements and capability documents. Examples include ‘striving for excellence’ or ‘commitment to superior customer service…’ or ‘…leading edge technology’. It’s devilishly hard to avoid but each time you recognise one, pause and think carefully how you can write the sentence by saying it in lucid plain English.

Image courtesy of cloudburst on flickr