How can you create great content without being too wordy?
Digital MarketingMany people sit down to write and suddenly seem to think they need to add extra words. You may have found yourself doing that at some point, too: using words you know aren’t natural to you and just adding fluff to your writing.
The truth is, the best writing (especially online writing) is writing that makes the reader feel like you’re speaking directly to them. To do this you can’t use irrelevant words, but you can’t leave out what’s important either.
Create a job title
Starting with a headline is a great way to narrow down what you’ll be telling your readers. You can always refine it later. Crafting a headline involves understanding the reason for your message.
Make a scheme
After you’ve written your job title, it’s time to make an outline. He just writes a few bullet points on the topics he wants to tell his audience about.
Avoid redundant words
Common redundancies like “absolutely perfect” and “true facts” can add to or detract from the meaning of your words. Most of the time you want to avoid unnecessary redundancies like “last and final” because it doesn’t add anything to the meaning of your words. There may be an argument for certain types of irreverent writing to include these redundancies, but for concise writing, avoid them as much as possible and edit for meaning.
combine sentences
You were probably taught in school to write short, direct sentences. But sometimes it’s appropriate to combine sentences to get a more concise copy. Combining short sentences helps you avoid boring your listening. When you can easily combine two sentences, without creating a continuous sentence, you should do so. It will improve the comprehension of the copy and improve the flow.
that, who, which
Sometimes these words are necessary, but when you’re editing your work, pay special attention to when that is used, who, and which. Test the sentence without these words to see if the meaning changes or the emphasis of the words changes.
use active voice
It is very easy to fall into the use of the passive voice when writing. But, most of the time, using the active voice is more appropriate. A key to knowing when the passive voice sneaks in are the words, “is, was, and for“. If you notice those words while editing, try to order the sentence by changing the passive voice to the active voice.
See nominalizations
When an action word becomes a noun, it becomes a nominalization. (for example, “illustrated” vs. “illustrated”). These are to be avoided. They have a negative effect on your copy by making the reading monotonous and easy to misinterpret. Instead, focus on making active sentences and using nouns as nouns and action words as action words.
Edit with care
No one can write good copy in a rough draft. In fact, you may need several drafts to perfect your copy. Take the time to refine each sentence for each type of text you write. Start with a fluent copy, put it down for a while, then come back to it and improve it.