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Site picks
- Once we hated business jargon… Back in the day, Plain Text railed against corporatese like everyone else…
- …but now we've changed our minds. It’s quite useful really, in its proper place. Why resist?
Great writing picks
- Gizmodo Flip, punchy copy that makes gadget freaks salivate.
- Tim Harford Not scared of full stops.
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Monthly Archives: November 2009
O – OBJECTIVITY
“This is a unique opportunity to purchase a superb property in a sought-after location.”
Any estate agent
We should have sympathy with anyone (even estate agents) faced with the task of perpetually having to say the same things in different ways, or dress up dull information. After all, no-one [...]
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N – NETIQUETTE
The early internet — Usenet newsgroups, in particular — spawned standards for polite written behaviour online. Now we all write online, using email. Not all the rules of netiquette apply to email, and some companies have standards for composing emails. But all businesses could benefit from consistent online [...]
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L – LETTERS
In the age of instantaneous, digital communications, it may seem irrelevant to talk about the art of letter-writing. However, letters remain important. They are the only acceptable accompaniment to an enclosure such as a brochure. And they are the most civilised way of introducing yourself, your company or [...]
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K – KNOCKING COPY
A contentious area of business writing, knocking copy is defined as ‘advertising copy that attacks a rival’s product’.
Some advertisers suggest that knocking copy is a necessary way of getting a forceful point into potential customer’s minds: ‘JunkAir is cheaper than TrashFlights’, for example. And it’s fair to say that [...]
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J – JARGON
Jargon is defined by Chambers dictionary as ‘the terminology of a profession’ but also as ‘unintelligible talk, gibberish; chatter, twittering’.
Jargon has an important place as a ‘dialect’, so that people with common interests or expertise can communicate quickly and efficiently. As with any dialect, the problem comes when there [...]
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I – INTRODUCTIONS
We promise to double your salary — guaranteed.
If you received a letter or saw an advertisement so claiming, would you read further?
This example may be hype (see Hype) – deliberately evocative, almost certainly excessive, but it’s undoubtedly captivating.
Powerful introductions improve the chances of your copy being read. If the [...]
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H – HYPE
Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration used for effect. Much relied upon by advertisers, its short form — hype — means much the same thing. And whilst audiences expect a degree of puffery in advertisements, they demand honesty in business writing.
Most dictionaries also define hype as ‘a deception or racket’ as [...]
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G – GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION
“…of no importance as long as we make our meaning plain”
George Orwell
You could achieve grammatical perfection and produce a piece of work of dubious clarity. Churchill concurred with Orwell. Commenting on a cabinet paper in which the author had tortuously avoided ending a sentence with a preposition, he noted [...]
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P – PUNCTUATION