Lucid Lingo
Communicating... in plain English
Lucid Lingo
Posted on March 21, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: avoiding gobbledygook, buzzwords, cliche, plain English writing, web content, Web copywriting, website content
Following from my previous post on traps to avoid when writing web copy, here are a few more to tip toe around. Like I said, they aren’t easy to avoid because we’ve all grown so accustomed to using them, but we should at least try. ‘Yeah, right’ phrases These are phrases, claims, affirmations, etc that you sometimes [...]
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 [...]
Posted on March 15, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: copywriting, don watson, plain English writing, public language
Don Watson, who was once Paul Keating’s speech writer, has written several very insightful and humourous books on the absurdity of corporatespeak and jargon. I’d recommend these books to anyone who works in the corporate world. Read at least one of them. Start with Death Sentences, the Decay of Public Language. Watson refers to the [...]
Posted on March 15, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: plain English writing
Following on from my post on the importance of writing in the active voice, another associated principle of plain English is that you should address your audience directly. This means using personal pronouns. Using ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘you’ and ‘he/she’ is more personal and ensures you write in the active voice. It’s also more in line with the way we talk to [...]
Posted on March 1, 10 by Gary Chow | 3 Comments » | Tags: active voice, copy, copywriting, passive voice, Plain English
As a copywriter and editor one of the things that drive me nuts when I review a document is the passive style of writing. This is commonplace in many corporate and bureaucratic publications, as well as in engineering and scientific reports. It’s rampant in legal documents. In some cases the passive voice may be required, but [...]
Posted on February 16, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments »
When you find a document difficult to read, you can bet one of the main causes is the prevalence of long sentences. Long sentences are a bore. And they are distracting. They force you to spend more time than you want in order to understand the meaning. They are the antithesis of plain English. The problem [...]
Posted on February 12, 10 by Gary Chow | 2 Comments » | Tags: advertising copy, apostrophe, copywriting, grammar, marketing communications, proper english, signs
What’s the most common punctuation error in marketing communications? At a guess, I’d say the incorrect use of the apostrophe. Have a look at these signs courtesy of the Wordsplosion website. There are three main rules to remember about the apostrophe 1. Use an apostrophe to denote ownership of something. The apostrophe goes immediately after [...]
Posted on February 11, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: buzzwords, cliches, don watson, plain language, weasel words
I’ve been reading Don Watson’s insightful and very funny book on the use of language in Australia, Death Sentence, the Decay of Public Language. Watson has spoken on behalf of many of us who are driven to distraction by the buzzwords, catch phrases, clichés and corporatespeak that constantly assault our eyes and ears. He denounces [...]
Posted on February 8, 10 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Tags: buzzwords, cliche, jargon, plain English writing, product benefits
Why is there so much nonsense written about products and services? I bet you know what I’m referring to. Take a look at any marketing material on just about any product – software, computer hardware, cars, washing machines, shampoo – and what do you see? More often than not, what you will read is pure [...]
Posted on February 7, 10 by Gary Chow | 2 Comments » | Tags: engaging headlines, inverted pyramid, readable fonts, subheadings
No matter how insightful and interesting your blog is, it runs the risk of being ignored if it’s not presented in a way that takes into account how people read online. How you present your copy is just as important as what you write about. When reading webpages, people tend to scan rather than read [...]
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