Writing website copy: Traps to avoid part 2

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Trackback URL

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 read on websites and corporate capability documents which immediately elicit an incredulous reaction. An example is when a large, hugely profitable, fee-based organisation claims to ‘delight’ customers’ (‘…yeah, right!’).

Long sentences

People tend to scan when they read online, so you need to adapt to this method of reading. You need short, punchy sentences. Long sentences come about when you seek to express too many points. The better approach is to express one main idea and put qualifiers, conditions and explanations into separate sentences. You should also be economical with words. Use only those that are necessary to convey what you mean. If you’ve copied and pasted text from a printed document, you need to edit and adapt it to your website. Never copy text verbatim from another source.

Big blocks of text

Again, as with sentences, try and keep your paragraphs short. Nothing is more daunting than to download a page to see large blocks of unbroken text. Your paragraphs should contain no more than one point. To express your next point or idea, start a new paragraph. Breaking your copy into short paragraphs, each with a compelling subheading, facilitates skimming, which is how most people read online.

Passive voice

The passive voice is favoured by scientists, engineers and bureaucrats, and is often seen in long-winded technical documents. For your website, write in the active voice. This will bring life and vigour to your copy, and encourages your website visitors to read what you have to say.

Archaic words

Thankfully, the use of archaic words and terms is dying out. Words such as ‘hereby’, ‘aforesaid’ and ‘heretofore’ have no place in a website and should be left to the legal profession (and even they should leave them behind).

Using nouns instead of verbs

This is a trap that’s easy to fall into. It’s related to the active voice versus passive voice issue.

Here are sentences using nouns when they should use active verbs:

• Please make your application on this form
• We performed an evaluation of the model
• The data was analysed.

But if you use verbs instead, your sentences then become:

• Please apply on this form
• We evaluated the model
• We analysed the data.

The examples directly above are succinct and punchy. The previous examples sound stuffy and unnecessarily formal. In each of those cases, the active verb has been effectively made into a noun supported by another less active verb (‘make’, ‘was’). In doing so, sentences become longer and less vigorous.

So whenever you are about to write a noun, think again and use the verb instead.

(Image courtesy bmurch on Flickr)