writing

5 Tips for Writing with Persuasion

My bread and butter is writing sales copy or at least promotional copy of some description and that accounts for the vast majority of the demand in the market for scribblers today.

It makes sense to pick up on some techniques for writing in a persusive fashion – it makes no sense to write something that will not help sell or promote the product or service of your commissioning client.

#1 – Repetition

Repeating yourself helps get the point home to your audience. My view is to make your point in several different ways in order to avoid the appearance of treating your audience as if they are brainless. To this end I use quotes extensively both from individuals or from trusted reporting sources e.g. I quoted the “BBC” and “Angelina Jolie” when I wrote about Hoodia, a diet pill.

#2 – Consistency

Keep yourself on-message and on-topic. This will help you maintain a consistent approach to generating copy and advancing your message.

I tend to use this by advancing a position that a reader will find hard to disagree with and then following up with supporting evidence that leads to a hopefully, inescapable conclusion e.g. smokers die younger than non-smokers is a hard to disagree with statement.

#3 – Social Proof – Peer Pressure

I was told once upon a time that “The trend is your friend” and though this was in the context of foreign exchange dealing as traders would look for market trends in order to judge when to make trades, it has direct relevance with our writing as well.

I look for testimonials that can be cited and especially valuable are the rich and famous who use a product or service. You only need look at those companies that bear the Royal “By Appointment” signs to understand the significance of this.

PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES IN TECHNICAL WRITING

It is not always appealing to always write just about technical information, whether it is in parts or in detail, especially when you are writing a technical document. If your thoughts are clearly communicated through your writing, then it is likely to be understood and read by a wider audience. So, as a writer you need to build a bridge to obliterate the gap that often lingers between the writer and the reader of any technical writing material.

For example, to win a bid, a company’s project developers need to write a proposal in order to convince their potential client that they are the best team suited for the job. Their entire presentation is focused around this. Precise development of connection between the presenters and the viewers or the readers will do the trick. It is necessarily to place clearly in your reports the methodology, resources used, final results and the compatibility with legal regulations. Statistics, appropriate data collection, graphs, illustrations and necessary reports also need to be placed along with the main report(s).

To make the report justifiably free to access and easy to connote, appropriate footnotes also need to be placed. At the end of the report a lucid bibliography should be given, indicating all the detailed sources used, otherwise you could be accused of plagiarism! Also, remember that overused sources can tarnish your originality and create unfathomable boredom, so keep your source-details neatly piled.
[Read more…] about PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES IN TECHNICAL WRITING

Aristotle Returns – Brainstorming with Relationships

Aristotle wrote about brainstorming a couple of thousand years ago. He didn’t call it brainstorming, but “Common Topics” as part of his work on rhetoric. These common topics are relevant today and summarise the use of definitions, relationships, comparisons, testimony and circumstances as tools to use to question our topic and approach it from different perspectives giving off new ideas in the process.

Today we’ll take a look at the use of relationships to help us generate ideas with which to attack our topics.

Asking questions about how the topic interacts with the rest of the world leads to a greater appreciation of X or whatever you want to call your subject. Cause and effect, role in the world,what happens with X, what occurred before X and developments or actions after X are all reflections on the relationship that X has with the rest of the world.
[Read more…] about Aristotle Returns – Brainstorming with Relationships

The Five Most Common Errors

Grammatical errors can show you up to be disinterested in your writing. They can detract your credibility and make your work look immature. In cases of blog writing or creating web copy, the case is pretty much the same. People will not read your blog, or subscribe/link to your blog if you make silly mistakes when you write. I believe that copywriting and blogging should be conversational and engaging, and breaking some in the formal convention of spelling and grammar can often be a good thing. Though, I also believe that you have to know the rules in order to break them. Here are some errors that you’ll never convince anyone that you wrote intentionally in the name of style, and even then, there will be people who will doubt your credibility.
So, let us look at some common errors that could diminish the credibility of your writing.

Improper Use of the Apostrophe – It is used generally in two cases. One for contractions (don’t for ‘do not’), and secondly for showing that something belongs to someone (Bobby’s pen would mean this pen belongs to Bobby). If you are ever in doubt, leave the apostrophe out. It generally causes more confusion if you introduce an apostrophe where it does not belong than it does to omit one.

The Internet: Biggest Resource on the Planet?

Today, the Internet stands as the single most useful place for resources. If you are in front of the computer and logged onto the Internet, then you have access to the biggest library, providing you with information about everything. This is the reason why online dictionaries have marched ahead of traditional paper-based ones. Online libraries are predominantly taking the place of libraries in town and city centers, simply because they are easily accessible.

Online books and articles are at par with books and printed texts; in a few years time, these will be more accessible than any paper-based material. Daily newspapers and articles are being produced and published online every day. You can pick up grammar and editing techniques, and can even read your favorite books online – everything is just one click away.

Proofraeding is essential!

The caption above is enough to indicate why proofreading is indispensable! Let me share an interesting piece of information with you. You will notice that though a paragraph is full of errors, you catch the essence of the paragraph, and can still understand it. In order to understand what I am saying more clearly, have a look at the following sentence – “Proofraeding is extreemly essnetial.” Well, I am sure you understood what the sentence said, despite the order of the letters being wrong. This is possible as the first and last letters are in the right place, and that’s all our brain needs to process the letters correctly!