Thursday, July 27, 2006

Clear & Concise Copy

Improving the overall comprehension and appearance of your copy can undoubtedly boost exposure, message recall and overall efficiency of your business endeavors. Here are some quick tips for crafting copy that’s clear and concise:


· Define technical jargon in easy-to-understand language. Google can help by getting you a list of definitions for your term on the Web. Simply type “define:term” into a search. Add a practical image to your definition and you can easily paint a picture in your readers’ mind.


· Your readers would rather read a short, to-the-point piece than a long, drawn-out piece. One good way to reduce the length of your copy is to focus each piece on a single message point. In addition to your main story, you might repackage your piece into:
- Sidebars
- Boxes
- Lists
- Web sidebars
- Freestanding vignettes
- Fun facts or trivia


· Paragraph length is among the most important signals you send to readers about how easy and interesting your copy will be to read. If your paragraphs are too thick, the story looks slow and uninviting. If they’re all the same length, the story can feel boring. Vary their length to create a sound rhythm for your piece.

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