Stuck for things to write about?

Blogging and writing in general can (should) be fun, when you've got something to write about. Reading Dave Taylor's article about finding topics to blog about, the basic message is 'write what people want to read, not what you want to say'. Dave's good example is the photographer with a blog writing about 'why I'm a great photographer' - how boring would that be...?

Dave writes The Intuitive Life Business Blog and the extremely helpful tech support and business questions blog Ask Dave Taylor

Case studies....so what's in a good one?

A good case study - you might ask 'Is there such a thing'? In my opinion yes, (here he goes again) if they're well written...

Case studies suffer from a bad reputation. They can be long, bloated documents, churned out to make up the numbers for some government funded project. They can be poorly structured, with logic or no flow of ideas in the language, appalling obscure section titles and leave the reader thinking, 'well, that taught me nothing I didn't already know'.

A frequent complaint I've heard is 'Well, no one reads our case studies anyway, so why bother...'. Yes, and there's a reason no one reads them - they're really really badly written, they may as well be written in Klingon!

When put together well, they can be informative insights into a business, a project, whatever the subject. In my humble opinion, empathy, logic and remembering who you're writing for are the key issues. The point of a case study is to describe someone else's experiences and communicate a message, eg 'This could be you'.

A case study can also be the only time when both the good and the bad things that happen are set out in writing. Case studies I have dealt with succeed when I know the intended audience is going to read something and imagine themselves in that position, because the content is written in language they understand, the 'story' has a logical flow and there's an overriding message running through the document. Write from the outside-in perspective, not the inside-out.

The Web Content (not so?) Accessible Guidelines 2.0

You wait 5 years for them to come along, and the WCAG, guidelines on making your Web site accessible, aren't that accessible themselves, at least in terms of language!

As pointed out by Trenton Moss of Webcredible:

"Another major criticism of the WCAG 1.0 guidelines was how difficult it is to find specific guidance and answers. It doesn't take too long to discover that the WCAG 2.0 guidelines quite clearly offer the same low level of usability.

Reasons for this poor usability include:

• The level of jargon and complexity of language is truly phenomenal (as outlined above)
• The text is littered with links making it very difficult to read"

And my favourite bit of Trenton's article:

"Ironically, there's even a definition provided for the word 'jargon'!"

The full article is linked in the post title above.

The joy of a well-chosen description

This article I dug up from Elisabeth Dahl at EEI makes some good points about the delicate process of writing a good description. The thought process that goes into choosing the 'right' words for something is what I probably enjoy most about writing. Fitting it all together is what brings about that tremendous sense of satisfaction when a piece of writing is finished.

Elisabeth describes the process very well:

'Hand-picking words, turning them over carefully, uncovers the connotations behind their dictionary definitions. This work can't be done mechanically; it's labor intensive. But it offers generous rewards. It's a pleasure not to be missed.'

Be upfront

Annoyance time again. I received my weekly Proofreading newsletter in my inbox on Friday; one of the articles was about an errant comma in a contract which cost the company concerned $2.1 million! Sounded interesting so I went to read on, only to discover after a few clicks that I'd have to register with the Canadian online newspaper in which the story appeared. Frustrating.

Point being, if you're writing something with an end in mind, a purpose, a task, then be upfront about what your audience will need to do to achieve this. I probably wouldn't have bothered clicking any links at all if I'd known I would need to register before reading the story.

A simple - 'before you go and do this, be aware that...' or 'note, registration required' would suffice.

Some useful resources

Practice makes perfect they say. Occasionally I like to polish up on the many rules and nuances of the English language and I find these very useful for the odd 'remember what this rule is/what this type of word is called' situations:

Proofread Now's Grammar Tips archive
(Their newsletter is useful as well, is focused on American English)

Cambridge Dictionaries Online
My most visited site by quite a long way (Isn't all this supposed to be in my head?!)

Advanced English lessons
For those times when you just can't remember what a modal verb is or where to stick your interjections!

Online conversations

I'm breaking my silence briefly to respond to an interesting question from Amy Gahran, who asks 'Starting conversations online, what's different?'

For me, as with Amy, it's the element of control you have. You decide when, where and how to start a conversation, you hold the cards. You might take part in a conversation you wouldn't normally go for in a face-to-face situation. You might not cover a wide range of topics, as you might in person - rapidly moving from one topic to another.

You can also choose when to stop, when things are going beyond your level of knowledge or when you think an argument might be just round the corner! However, of course, if you're discussing something and need evidence to back your argument up, its all there at your fingertips. I've had chats with people on line a few times and admit to having felt slightly smug at being able to whip a set of statistics or an article up straight away to back up my line of attack!

Staleness apology

If anyone's out there, sorry for the long break. I am in UK at the moment working on lots of things with my main customer business, so I haven't had much time to blog about the nuances of writing! I will be back at the start of August.

Empathy again, hitting the nail on the head

I've recently been reading a blog titled Captain Picard's journal. Don't run away, I am no Star Trek geek (no offence intended to the writer of this blog). I have watched Star Trek, however, and the reason I like this blog so much is that if you know what these characters are like on television, you'll see how perfectly the writing gets inside their heads. It is a brilliant example of empathy being used to bring a character to life, to speak to the reader and to guide the tone and flow of the text.

The point of my rambling here is that if you really know who you are writing for and about, everything seems to just fall into place: 'oh, they wouldn't say that in this way, they'd use this word here and it would sound like this'. It makes things so much easier, and has been the cure for a few nasty bouts of editing/writing block which I have experienced. Think like your audience and you can experience some very enlightening 'oh yeah!' moments.

Don't miss the wood for the trees

I get stuck writing all the time. If I didn't I'd figure something was wrong. Somtimes it is easy to get lost in the detail and suddenly start worrying about tenses, verbs, minor points of grammar, headings, paragraph size, all sorts of stuff. I occasionally have panic attacks and start reading my Penguin guide to grammar, thinking I have suddenly forgotten how to write properly.

Sit back, think big. I get through these 'blocks' by always keeping the big picture in mind: what am I writing this for? WHO am I writing this for? What's the overall message I am trying to communicate? These important issues help you stay focused and you can craft your piece of writing (whether it be a web page, email, newsletter, whatever) around them, tidying up the bits and pieces later.

If you don't have your reader and the message you want to communicate at the forefront of your thinking all the time, instead getting lost in the detail, you'll be off the beaten track and will lose focus, resulting in an unfocused piece which doesn't do its job.

Talk to your reader, even especially when you make a mistake

How many times have you seen an error message and actually understood what is going on?

'Error 6214, server supercalifragilisticexpialidocious database restart, please report this 6214 error to rumplestiltskin immediately'

Was that my fault, did I click on something I shouldn't have? Is it their fault, what is going on, I feel scared, I'm off to the BBC site where I feel much happier because they TELL me what is going on, and what's more I understand what they are saying to me!'.

Game over, they've gone. The article linked in the title of this post is from Jakob Nielsen's Useit.com site. It is 5 years old but still totally relevant. He also links to another article of his, Improving the Dreaded 404 Error Message, which is great advice because if something does go wrong then you really need to avoid losing people by telling them:

• What happened (in plain language)
• Constructive steps to take to correct the problem.
  

Golden Rules of Copywriting

Amrit Hallan has a great article about the elements of good copy on his site amrithallan.com . The first rule he mentions, Keep It Simple, is one I whole-heartedly agree with for all forms of writing. Overblown language and complicated constructions stick out like a sore thumb and simply turn people off, and this rule is particularly relevant on the Web. If you're not talking your readers' language there's always another site that is...and it's just a few clicks away.

His rules are as follows:

• Keep it simple
• Cut to the chase (don't waste your reader's time)
  
• Indulge in conversation (talk to your reader!)
• Study your market (know who you are talking to)
• Make your message customer-centric ('I, me, you' instead of 'we and us')
• Be perceptive
• Sincerity gives you strength
  
• Avoid superlatives (If you write like a pompous ass, your readers will probably think you are one!)
  

Web writing mistakes: 'We'll leave that bit to the IT guys'

A frequent error in web writing, as pointed out by this excellent (again) article from Webcredible, written by one of my favourite experts, Nick Usborne.

Every bit of 'written' content on your site is important and this includes the page title and meta description. Here, you're putting up your hand and showing the searcher/reader/potential customer that you are there, and that your site content is relevant to what they are looking for. I have been misled countless times by poor titles and descriptions appearing in search engine results. Indeed, sometimes they don't appear at all, because the webmaster/web team have left that bit to the programmer, who forgot to add it or figured it was not important, or added something that just won't do.


These elements are important and the point made by the article highlights one of my favourite topics: page title and meta descriptions help BOTH of your main content targets. They help your readers/customers AND they help the search engines - too many websites concentrate on one or the other of these; very few consider both human and 'non-human' users when writing content.

Rain not falling in Spain

I´m on a Spanish break at the moment, hence the lack of posts. It isn´t raining on the plain, or indeed anywhere near Barcelona at the moment. Normal service, if indeed anyone is reading this, will be resumed on my return next week.

The writing food chain...who is top dog?

It's rare in my experience that the proof reader gets much thanks for working on a text. How does the food chain work out? Writer -> top plaudits, and deservedly so. Editor -> Normally an honourable mention? Proof reader -> If you're lucky, and we remember who you are...!

Anyway, recently my work volume has upped a few notches and it really puts a smile on my face when I get feedback from clients, remembering that a lot of work comes client - agency - me, end of the line. So when a client specifically says thanks to the proof reader for getting that text just right, it really made a difference to the final presentation, I go to bed a happy man and with more drive and determination to keep going on this one man business route.

Free rein

Once in a while I get to work on an editing assignment or 'proofreading plus' where I get more of a free rein with the text. Most of my work is tinkering here and there with texts, correcting errors and tidying things up. When you get to work on a job where you are allowed to flourish a little, play with the text, rewrite to how you as a writer think something could come across better, it is very liberating.

Proofreading and certainly editing demand a certain restraint and some caution; eliminating the author's voice is not what you want to do, and alot of the time you are working within someone else's house style. The 'free rein' type of assignment once in a while is a bit like having had a Ferrari for a few months, but only first and second gear were working, and then suddenly you manage to fix the gearbox...

The battle against jargon

The Plain English Campaign people have been taking the fight to purveyors of confusing writing and ridiculous jargon for years; I'm with them all the way. I particularly like the fact that a lot of what they talk about nowadays involves the Web. They give a Web Award every year and its great to see that this year and in the recent past, plenty of public sector organisations have been getting in on the act.

Having previously worked for a county council, its easy to see the problem from both sides. The people whose services you are administering (and they're major services remember: education, environment, roads) are sometimes at the end of their tether, being force fed huge long forms and booklets with complicated terms, full of jargon and unusable to the point of frustration. The people inside the council/public sector organisation are battling with a huge number of departments, long-established (often outdated) ways of doing things and, most tellingly, people producing material for public consumption who have never actually been taught how to write clearly and concisely.

Before you start getting on your local council's back, I stand up for them in that the majority are really trying to do something about their image as stuffy, jargon-heavy organisations; indeed, many councils, at least in the UK, have better organised and accountable Web and publication teams than many private sector organisations.

When is proof reading not proof reading

...when it is editing. It seems people have different ideas about which is which. If you're in this line of work it's important to draw the line somewhere so that you can charge accordingly. I won't take on work without seeing a sample, generally. The only exception is if it's familiar material from a regular client and if I trust the project manager involved.

I learnt this after my first assignment here, touted as proof reading but ended up being (quite a few hours) editing to get the language in line. This was no proof reading assignment. Words, whole sentences, meanings, punctuation...the list goes on. I prefer editing, it is more interesting, but proof reading sometimes does give you a geeky sense of satisfaction; perhaps that's just me?

Back off the wagon...words are everywhere

I'm taking on a job for what I think is the Finnish equivalent of Trading Standards. It has made me realise how varied this work can be. I would never have thought I would be looking at documents about wine labelling regulations, but it has given me a new lift and got me thinking about all sorts of areas where translators might need text proof read. Time to get that Yellow Pages out again and look for some more prospects.

Empathy is my best friend

I've been editing and proofing a lot of instructional material recently: manuals, software help files, among other things. Pretending that you are the person using the software/product/Web site to which the instructions relate is the best way to sort out any glitches in the text.

It has long been accepted that good Web writing follows the same principle. Sit and think: what would my customer/reader/user/subscriber do here? What are they thinking? In what environment are they accessing this page? What do they really want to read?

I found myself thinking back to my school history lessons, where my crazy Welsh teacher would talk at great length about empathy being the best way to appreciate what people really went through during some historical event. It works: you try and use that software and be that person; you try and fill out that application form online as if you've never seen a computer before; you try and set up your new DVD player not knowing what an S-video cable is and where the SCART connection on your TV plugs in and out.

Then you really appreciate the kind of hell that badly written, badly organised, jargon-heavy text puts people through.