Seven types of bad writing
Everyone can write. But not everyone can write well.
We all learn to write at school but then society makes a distinction between ‘writers’ and ‘the rest of us.’ A writer sits in a garret and writes the great American novel. The rest of us write memos. It’s a false division.
Because everyone can write, people underestimate its importance and overestimate their own ability. Because they think that writers are creative weirdos they rarely think about hiring a specialist when they have something important to say.
I’m not talking about advertising copywriting. This is an artform at its best – business haikus. I’m talking about brochures, websites, case studies, press releases, reports, letters and the humdrum daily word torrent.
What comes out of most companies is bad. In my experience there are seven types of bad writing:
- Thinks too much of itself. The UK satirical magazine, Private Eye runs a regular column lampooning the abuse of the word ‘solution.’ For example, Dow Corning’s “Innovative solutions for wound management,” which means “bandages.” This kind of word inflation devalues meaning and arouses the scepticism of readers.
- Is too clever by half. For some reason, people are afraid to write how they speak. They want to sound big, grown-up and clever. So they use big words and long sentences. For example, I was presented with this beauty at a school board meeting once: “the Governing Body are agreeing this budget as the financial mechanism to support the education priorities of the school as identified in the School Development Plan and will adhere to the best value principles in spending its school funding allocation.” It meant, “We approve the budget.”
- Gets hyped up. Press releases often include frankenquotes. These are made-up quotations that bear no resemblance to normal speech. For example: “Nortel has established a legacy in innovation and will continue to push the envelope…” Try saying that in a pub to your friends. See if they still listen to you afterwards. Or trust you.
- Tells lies. In the UK, journalists score low in public trust. Somewhere near politicians and spin doctors. However, good journalists are obsessive about research, accuracy, good reporting, details and, yes, truth. What works for newspaper stories also works for business communication.
- Ignores the reader. As a writer, the greatest skill is to think about what the reader needs to hear, not what you need to say. It takes an imaginative leap. For example, Google says “Please read this carefully, it’s not the usual yada, yada.” Microsoft says “This software is licensed under the agreement below.” Which one is more likely to be read?
- Needs to go on a diet. Most writing can be improved by liposuction. Consider the Gettysburg Address. Antoine de Saint-Exupery said it best: “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” This is especially true when writing for the web, when you need to cut the word count by about 50 percent.
- Has no direction. My favourite tutor at Oxford told me that I had to take my essays and drive them like Ayrton Senna (a famous racing driver). Good writing has a strong purpose. Bad writing has either no direction or has too many.
Technorati Tags: Writing, problems, frankenquotes
Robert wrote:
I like this post. I should have it as a daily mantra chanted at dawn, elevenses, lunch and at tea-time.
I especialy like the liposuction bit. I can take each point you make and direct you to a salient example of my writings. Maybe not the budget one but I know I have let my brevity slip aside for verbosity.
I cringe when I hear ‘passion’ used in a discussion or point being made by the last person on earth to be passionate about anything except himself!! Used in the wrong context it makes a brilliant fool of the user. So I shall parody it in an Oozetoon. We use a lot of the ’solution’ word too.
Posted on 21-Sep-06 at 8:13 am | Permalink
steve clayton wrote:
Great post matthew - you’ve given me a lot of food for thought on my presentation at next weeks UK Partner Conference now (over use of the word solution) and I love the Senna reference. RIP
Posted on 21-Sep-06 at 11:49 am | Permalink
Simon Wakeman wrote:
As I read on through your post everything you wrote rang true.
I see too many examples of overwriting, and marketers and public relations professionals are often the worst offenders.
Thanks for putting it all so succintly.
Posted on 21-Sep-06 at 6:15 pm | Permalink
Simon Wakeman - Bad writing - an eighth type wrote:
[...] Matthew Stibbe at the Bad Language blog has a great post about seven types of bad writing that many of will see every day. [...]
Posted on 21-Sep-06 at 6:27 pm | Permalink
Owen Lystrup wrote:
Great advice, Matthew.
When is the book coming out?
I mean when are writing it?
I mean when will you write a book about writing for God’s sake?
Posted on 21-Sep-06 at 7:02 pm | Permalink
Sylvia wrote:
The statement is stronger without “not when there is nothing left to add, but”
Posted on 21-Sep-06 at 10:11 pm | Permalink
Strive Notes » September 22nd: this week’s top 5 wrote:
[...] 5. Matthew Stibbe has done one of his famous lists, The seven types of bad writing. Required reading for every amateur. [...]
Posted on 22-Sep-06 at 11:11 am | Permalink
Linda wrote:
I do not write for a living, but I type the words of someone who does and unfortunately he is a laywer. He loves to hear him self talk and he writes the same way. I am printing out Matthew’s list and will just leave it sitting on my desk hoping he will see it. Maybe he will take the hint, but I’m not holding my breath.
Posted on 22-Sep-06 at 4:16 pm | Permalink
What About Clients? wrote:
Finally: “The 7 Habits of Bad Writing”….
There are 7 habits of “Bad Writing”. See Susan McDonald’s post at her Legal Research & Writing blog, as well as Roy Jacobsen’s, both commenting on Matthew Stibbe’s original post setting out the 7 types at Bad Language…….
Posted on 25-Sep-06 at 4:01 pm | Permalink
What About Clients? wrote:
Finally: “The 7 Habits of Bad Writing”….
There are 7 habits of “Bad Writing”. Do see Susan McDonald’s post at Legal Research & Writing blog, as well as Roy Jacobsen’s, both commenting on Matthew Stibbe’s original post setting out the 7 types at Bad Language. “It was……
Posted on 25-Sep-06 at 4:04 pm | Permalink
Vertretbar Weblawg » Blog Archiv » Seven Types Of Bad Writing wrote:
[...] Und gleich noch ein schner Pfund, diesmal aus dem Bad Language Blog: Seven Types Of Bad Writing. Besonders gefallen mir Punkte 6 (Needs to go on a diet) und 7 (Has no direction). Leider ertappe ich mich immer wieder selbst bei dem einen oder anderen “type of bad writing”. [...]
Posted on 29-Sep-06 at 11:31 am | Permalink
Kevin Dugan wrote:
Matthew - Thanks for this. I’ve realized recently a lot of PR writers go through a three-stage evolution.
Stage 1: They use 50 words to say something, but it’s unclear as to what they’re saying.
Stage 2: The 50 words become 100, but they can explain the idea clearly.
Stage 3: They can explain an idea in a tight concise 50 words.
And during this evolution they fight with/through your seven types. Great stuff!
Posted on 01-Oct-06 at 5:38 pm | Permalink
Strategic Public Relations wrote:
Four Links – 10.12.06…
Save the Ta TasThe color pink raises a lot of money for breast cancer research, and this lighthearted approach to breast cancer awareness reminds us that “laughter heals.” The founder of Save Our Ta Tas even has a blog. Seven Types of Bad Writing B…
Posted on 12-Oct-06 at 6:31 am | Permalink
Gino wrote:
If we take a moment to think about who we are about to talk to and what we want to effectively communicate before typing ahead and clicking the send button, our communications would be so much more effective. It’s a difficult habit to stick to. This is true for both personal and business communication.
Posted on 13-Oct-06 at 4:11 pm | Permalink
Golden Practices wrote:
Good Writing. Bad Writing….
A great post on the Bad Language blog by Matthew Stibbe details what Matthew considers Seven Types of Bad Writing. I think his 7 boo-boos nicely recaps what professional service firms sites are particularly guilty of. (I, too, struggle with at least on…
Posted on 02-Feb-07 at 8:50 pm | Permalink
5 ½ exciting tips to persuade visitors to become clients | The Invesp Blog wrote:
[...] And, none of us want to chase away visitors from our websites. [...]
Posted on 07-Jan-08 at 7:56 pm | Permalink
seven types of bad writing « Partha on Legal Research & Writing wrote:
[...] seven types of bad writing Filed under: English Usage — parthaonlrw @ 2:15 pm Tags: Bad Writing I am afraid to write anything after looking at this article of Matthew Stibbe. Mr. Matthew enlightens us the way to think before writing, he critically examines the bad way of writing, I would take a print of it and keep it on my desktop. Read the full article……. [...]
Posted on 25-Jun-08 at 5:02 pm | Permalink