Writing about writing
Shorter, punchier copy is more readable and more memorable than obese copy. You can test this in your own life. Why do we like top ten lists, for example? The claim is also supported by experimental data; such as Jakob Nielsen’s research. So how do you put your copy on a diet? Zap filler text. [...]
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I’m watching a big box set of DVDs at the moment. I paid for them. I’m an honest, legitimate, fee-paying customer and yet I have to waste about five minutes per viewing session watching a compulsory ‘piracy is theft’ video. It’s the same at the cinema. Even, computer games now come with elaborate copy protection [...]
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WHAT Free half-day seminars with Matthew Stibbe, writer-in-chief at Articulate Marketing. I want to help you get the most from your marketing copy: Print – writing for case studies, press releases and marketing collateral Online – writing for websites, blogs and social media WHY Make your marketing more effective Get better work from your agencies [...]
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Most of my clients are very reluctant to talk about the prices of their products and services. On the other hand, it’s something that readers really want to know. I’m not making this up. Readers expect price information. This is why journalists and reviewers always give prices. Look at any magazine. (Wired, for example.) If [...]
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Want to be laconic? Easy. Don’t say much and keep to the point. I’m reading a book about Sparta at the moment (Plutarch’s On Sparta ) after I listened to the In Our Time broadcast about it. I know I’m quite chatty and so I’m always impressed by laconic people. I remember asking a taciturn [...]
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Back when I used to be a programmer, I quickly learned that you could get a much bigger performance boost by changing the algorithm – the underlying structure of the code and data – than by optimising the code. For example, you could rewrite an inner loop in assembler rather than C and get a [...]
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Interruptions kill productivity. But background noise can slow you down in less obvious ways: Fatigue. Noise makes you tired. Just as shouting over loud music in a bar strains your voice, your brain has to work harder to filter out unwanted information. Poor concentration. It’s more likely that your brain will latch onto some background [...]
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I used to make computer games and back then we had a saying about project management: ‘you can have any two of fast, cheap or good.’ It’s a choice that most people don’t want to make. Fast Most clients have a schedule: a campaign deadline, a business plan commitment, a product launch. Usually this is [...]
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Ambitious journalism student, Alex Cooper, introduces us to Teeline Shorthand with his debut guest post for Bad Language. In this article I will go through the basic structure of Teeline Shorthand, a brief history and some tips for learning it along the way. Teeline was invented by James Hill in 1970. It is aimed at [...]
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Matthew Stibbe is Writer in chief at Articulate Marketing and editor of Golf Hotel Whiskey, the free online magazine for pilots.
Check out my new, free eBook, 30 Days to Better Business Writing, 116 pages of expert tips, advice and help to make you a better writer.
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