Honing

Get the message?

28 Oct 2009 by Ant Standring in Honing

What are you trying to say?

What are you trying to say?

Ever wonder why your wonderful writing fails to retain its readership?  Ensuring your message is communicable can directly impact and transform your sites statistics.

Concise and easily conveyed; that’s what your message should remain throughout any piece of work, otherwise, you might as well say nothing at all.

So, just what is a writer’s most common downfall when it comes to producing high-impact work?  The majority could perhaps argue that it lies within the striving for word count compatibility; and rightly so perhaps.  If you’re 200 words through an already explanatory article and you’ve 200 more words to find, the danger you face is that of falling into the trap of cramming ‘filler’ content into your work, of depreciating any true value your article holds.

Along with common issues such as grammar, punctuation, mundane content or estrangement (baffling readers with the overuse of ‘big’ words like estrangement), another thing to try and avoid are complicated sentences like the one I’ve used to create this entire paragraph, or worse.

I like to work every word of every sentence, sometimes needlessly or impractically, but I always keep one thing in mind… engage the reader throughout.  If the content and its construct engage the reader, then you’re halfway there.   Get the message across just as effectively and by the end of your article, your readers will feel a sense of obligation unto themselves, to return to your work and the sense of gratification they’ve attained from it.

Remember, even factual pieces can be well presented without being lacklustre or conventionally restrained.  So, stand out from the crowd, express yourself and your message, to attract a greater readership and to project a more influential image of yourself and your work.

Words like wordsmith, writer, journalist, author and other such proper sounding titles, exude grand images of literary professionalism, authority and ultimately, superiority, but anyone who loves language could be, fairly or otherwise, categorised as such.  Clearly conveying your message in as concise a manner as possible is crucial, especially if your readers are going to get the message.

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One Response to “Get the message?”

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