Lucid Lingo
Communicating... in plain English
Lucid Lingo
Posted on May 24, 11 by Gary Chow | 1 Comment » | Tags: blogging, copywriting, inverted triangle
Get to the point quickly when you write blog posts and online articles. Don’t mess about, get right to the heart of the matter.
Read most newspaper reports and you get the gist of the story by reading the headline and the first paragraph. What happened, who was involved, when, where and perhaps why – all [...]
Posted on April 27, 11 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: advertising copy, copywriter, copywriting function, Freelance copywriter, personal copywriting, writing actively
I’ve been a copywriter for over 15 years, but many of my friends and acquaintances still don’t have a full handle on what I do.
Some even think my work has to do with legal protection of intellectual property, as in ‘copyright’. I must be doing a bad job of explaining it. So what exactly is a [...]
Posted on April 13, 11 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: avoiding gobbledygook, copy, web content, website content, website mistakes
I love the Internet and use it as much as the next person. I hop on the web to research, get direction, be informed, buy stuff, be entertained, check movie schedules, read blogs, find out how to cook beef rendang; in fact, for any number of things.
What appeals to me about a website? It usually [...]
Posted on August 7, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: copywriting, internet articles, inverted pyramid, news, reporting information
On the web, readers are a impatient lot. We want articles to get to the point quickly. This is why you should write like a reporter, using the inverted pyramid method, leading with the primary point right up top and then adding supporting and background information in descending order of importance. The key questions: who, [...]
Posted on May 19, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: plain English writing
I sometimes come across a webpage where the important content is hidden below the ‘fold’.
The fold is an old newspaper term which dictates where the paper is folded. In a broadsheet newspaper, the mast-head, headlines and key news is ‘above the fold’.
On a computer screen, the fold represents the imaginary line that divides what appear [...]
Posted on May 18, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: copywriting, engaging headlines, subheadings, web content, Web copywriting, webpage headings
One of my favourite headlines read ‘Headless body found in topless bar’. Now that’s an attention grabber, wouldn’t you say? Few who read this headline would have ignored the article that followed.
Good headlines are vital in newspapers and magazines. In fact, copy editors spend most of their waking hours pondering clever, witty and meaningful headlines [...]
Posted on April 22, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: branding, Marketing, web content, Web copywriting, web design, website content
The other day I wandered into the new Apple computer store which recently opened in the Brisbane suburb of Chermside.
I’ve got to tell you, the first impression you get is ‘wow!’
There are Apple stores all over the world, at last count 283 including 6 in Australia. So I guess there are many just like this [...]
Posted on April 20, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: copywriting, web content, Web copywriting, web design
Nowadays, most businesses have a website. Some companies may have revamped or built new websites three of more times since the first one.
So the question isn’t ‘do you have a website?’ but ‘how good is your website?’
But what is a ‘good’ website?
One that has flashy visual appearance? One that has high resolution, high-impact images? One with creative [...]
Posted on April 18, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: web design, website content
The other night at the cinema I was forced to sit through a commercial which almost made me throw up.
The lengthy ad depicted a man running, jumping, falling and rolling over – filmed by a very shaky hand-held camera, and edited by someone with an extremely short attention span.
The whole thing made me nauseous. If [...]
Posted on March 21, 10 by Gary Chow | 1 Comment » | Tags: avoiding gobbledygook, buzzwords, cliche, copywriting, plain English writing, using plain words, Web copywriting
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 [...]
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