Break the rules!

There are two main reasons that I hear why small business owners employ a copywriter like me: they don’t have the time and they don’t like writing. I understand that some people just don’t like writing, but I suspect that some people don’t like it because they remember all the ‘rules’ that they were made to practise, practise, practise when at school. Who remembers exercises such as trying to think of a creative paragraph opener? Or extending ideas using clunky words like ‘furthermore’ and ‘moreover’? I want to liberate you from your school day English lessons, release you from those writing restraints and say that you don’t have to follow those rules and in fact, you can most definitely break them (well, most of them).

One of the keys to being a good writer is to read (and to be a varied reader too). Whether you read fiction or non-fiction, magazine features (online or in print) or technical news articles, you’ll see that writers and journalists break the so-called rules of English language all the time. There are sentences without a verb. Sentences begin with conjunctions (and, but, although etc). They love to split an infinitive (infinitive: to go; split infinitive: to boldly go) and they end sentences with a preposition (in, about). All things that we were told not to do.

The reason why they write freely, disregarding the ‘rules’, is because when we speak, we’re not regimented; when we’re chatting to each other, we speak casually and not as if we’re a BBC announcer from the 1930s. We should write more as we speak, give or take (the written word will always be slightly different): fluidly and importantly, in an engaging way.

Know your audience

Before we go any further, I just want to reiterate about knowing your audience (I say reiterate as I mentioned it in my last blog too). If you’re writing for an audience of English language professors then they may not welcome grammatical ‘errors’! Consider your readers’ expectations when it comes to written content and write accordingly. (If you are writing for English language professors then I feel for you!)

Writing engaging content

In a world where we are inundated with content (that applies to web copy, newsletters and blog writing too), engagement is critical. Engaging content has great subject matter and is easy to read; language is clear and not too taxing (which is not the same as ‘dumbing down’ if you’re worried), it’s informative, relevant and might even be fun (different to funny, which can be really tricky to achieve).

So, if you’re a reluctant writer, the key is to start by writing as you speak. Literally, just type your thoughts or what you want to say to your customers without holding back. It could be a mixture of bullet points and fuller sentences; some headings that you want to come back to. Perhaps you start with your finishing line or end paragraph and work backwards. If you’re using pen and paper, use different coloured inks; annotate your notes with doodles and drawings. Why not try recording your blog and then transcribe it or have an app transcribe it for you? You can’t get more ‘writing as you speak’ than that.

Editing your content

Editing your content is like checking your work when you were at school: it’s essential but not necessarily what you want to do! But it is essential. If you’ve written notes, they need arranging and may need ‘fleshing out’; can you translate your doodles into words and phrases that will connect with the reader or perhaps you can incorporate visual aids? Did the transcription work or does it need correcting?

I have written a blog on some of the key things to think about when proofreading but that doesn’t cover the rules like grammar and punctuation. And guess what? I’m not going to cover them here because there’s just too much, it’s vast! I really want you to throw the ‘rule book’ across your desk anyway.

However, there are some areas of writing that I think stick out like sore thumbs and need addressing before you hit publish.

Before publishing …

Before publishing your written content, I would consider the following:

Spelling

These days, it doesn’t matter if you’re not a great speller as there are so many tools to help you. If you draft your writing in something like Microsoft Word, then it spellchecks as you type, highlighting words in red that it wants you to confirm. Use this! But beware, if you’ve spelt a word correctly but it’s the wrong word, then spellcheck can’t help you. It could be that you’ve used ‘allowed’ instead of ‘aloud’ (you wouldn’t pick up this error with the reading aloud function in Word either as it sounds correct) or it could be that, for whatever reason, you’ve used an incorrect word, let’s say ‘health’ when you wanted to type ‘heart’ (the read aloud check would be useful in this case).

Clarity

Engaging content has clarity. It is concise but with sufficient detail to make the point and the points themselves are identifiable (headings are useful for that too). You explain what you’re going to say; you say it and then you conclude what you said. The piece has shape; it has a beginning, middle and an ending. This comforts the reader, it’s familiar - they know they’re in safe hands and not wasting their time reading what you’ve written.

Avoid repetition of words, phrases and ideas/points (unless you’re building on ideas/points elsewhere). For example, I have a habit of using the word ‘great’ a lot. When I write, I check for ‘great’ to ensure I’m not using it too much or in quick succession. Do you have a common word? Use ‘control F in word to look for it. For this reason, be creative with your language and use different vocab and phrasing, and just to repeat (!), different doesn’t mean complex.

Layout can help with clarity too. People like to see white spacing on the page as it makes what they’re reading, less overwhelming. Headings can provide structure, highlight points that you want to make and help the reader with navigation. All of this contributes to the reading experience and if done well, engages the reader so that they read to the end. (Copywriters like headings as they’re another opportunity to use keywords, perhaps long tail keywords too.)

Slang, jargon and ‘bad’ language

I’m encouraging you to write as you speak but be careful with slang, jargon (abbreviations too) and swearing. This is a key distinction between the way we speak and what we should write, and I’d always err on the side of caution when writing, unless you’re a brand for which being bold like this is part of its culture. Most of us want to build relationships with customers but we don’t want to be too familiar - it’s a fine line. Knowing your audience, as always, is key.

Keywords and calls to action

If you’re writing a blog or website, consider keywords all the time. Which keyword are you writing for and is your writing ‘working’ for that keyword? The content still must be engaging though. Calls to action are important. You’ve drawn them in thanks to your engaging content, now what do you want them to do? Make it clear and consistent - muddying the waters with multiple calls to action confuses the reader and they might disengage.

Go on, break the rules in 2023!

I hope this has given you the confidence to break those rules of English from school days that were drummed into you. Engaging content is achievable even by the most reluctant writers as long as you start by writing as you speak. I dare you to give it a go - send me what you write, I’d love to see it.