Free Writing Tips from a professional business and website writer

Free Writing Tips

I've been asked "why do you have writing tips on a website where you sell your writing service?"

The answer is pretty simple, really. I have my writing tips here to help people recognize some of the characteristics of good writing and, perhaps in a small way, help people communicate via the written word a little better.

It's like if a music website had a few tips on the basics of piano playing - I'm not turning into an pianist no matter how many tips you give me, but a few pointers might help me play "Mary had a Little Lamb" for my own enjoyment (clearly, I am easily amused.)

Ok, onto the tips:

Tip#1 - What's in it for me?

In most cases, your reader cares about one thing - themselves. The general focus should be on them and their needs, not yours. When writing something - anything - continually ask yourself "what's in it for the reader?"

You should also address your reader by using the second person (you) as much as possible. I'm simply stunned how many businesses don't do this. Million dollar car brochures say things like "our advanced suspension means passengers experience a more comfortable ride."

Think about that for a second - aren't they trying to sell the reader on the car? Or are they somehow hoping the reader goes out and finds a "passenger" and gives them the brochure? How about simply saying "our advanced suspension means you will experience a more comfortable ride."?

This seemingly small thing makes a big difference. "You" is easily the most important word in business writing.

Tip#2 - Short, Sweet, and Easy to Read.

Remember when you were in school, and you got assigned some colossally boring 500-page novel to read? And you thought "ugh, I'm going to have to read ALL THAT?"

Well, your readers feel the same way when you hit them with long paragraphs and huge sentences. Shorten it up - reading is so much easier in bite-sized chunks.

Also, things like subheadings, bullet points, etc - they go a long way in making your writing easy to read and understand. But don't go too nuts with them, either.

Tip#3 - It must be interesting.

Unless you're the Grand Poobah and everyone *must* read what you write or they will be fired (or worse), your writing has to be interesting your reader. I don't know about you, but I stopped reading things I didn't want to read the second I graduated school.

Either you interest me, or I will crumple up your paper and attempt a three-point wastebasket shot.

Now, admittedly, this isn't very helpful. After all, I can't tell you how to be interesting. But I point this out simply because if you feel it's boring, yet you really want it read, well, you'd best do something to liven it up.

Tip#4 - Leave the ten dollar words home.

Many people are under the impression that bigger, more obscure words are more important sounding - this is not necessarily so. While a broad vocabulary is indeed impressive, it does little good if your reader says "huh"?

Write in the lingo your reader understands. If your audience is general and broad-based (like my website's audience is), write in easy to understand language. My point on this website is to let you know I can help you with whatever you need written, and I think I do a good job of telling you that. This brings us to tip #5, which is...

Tip#5- Get rid of corporate gobblygook.

"At Boil Enterprises, we strive to differentiate and streamline a client's proactive branding processes by effusing the....."

Well, nobody will know what the heck they effuse because there isn't a person alive who will finish that sentence.

Tip#6- Change it up a little.

This is useful in letters and "statement" type writing. Open with something odd or start an interesting story. Years ago, I'd send resume cover letters that opened with "I've had an interesting work history - would you believe that one time, I got fired for killing a rat?"....

Then I'd introduce myself and why I was writing, and then quickly told the brief (and true) story of how I was fired for being a rat killer. Ok, it's not conventional, but I got more calls from that letter than any "This letter is in response to your advertisement...." cover letter I ever wrote.

So sometimes, doing something unconventional is good. Think about this - arguably the most important document in US history starts with the words:

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another..."

Thomas Jefferson was a heck of a writer.

Last tip - Don't worry too much about completely correct English.

I got an e-mail from an editor telling me my use of "sales orientated" is incorrect, that "orientated" isn't a word.

Technically, she was right. (it should be "oriented")

But so what?

You certainly know what it means when a business says it is "service-orientated", right? It's one of those words that is just accepted and used (over sixteen million, four hundred thousand hits in Google). I make no apology in using it, and happen to like it quite a bit.

Your spelling needs to be correct, however. And glaring word errors are unacceptable as well (you can't use "loose" when you mean "lose", and you can't use "your" when you mean "you're".) And your basic sentence structure should be correct as well (although English teachers the world over are cringing at my starting this sentence with "and".)

But other than that, don't worry too much about obscure rules of English. If you want to follow rules, follow what I told you on this page.


Professional writing services for all of your important business writing needs.