Rubber Ducky Copywriter

Better writing takes practicing better habits. Nothing is perfect. Typos happen. And we all have bad habits we can’t quite kick.

But as with sports, crafts and life in general, the more you practice what works, the better your results. Here are a few good ones that will rarely steer you wrong.

1. Use more active voice, less passive voice.

Active voice puts the focus is the subject performing the action. Deleting the subject makes the sentence incomplete and hard to understand.

Mary dropped the cup. 
(Delete “Mary” and readers will think you made a mistake.)

Active voice is direct, concise and faster to read. For copywriters (like me), active voice also uses fewer words and characters, and is more effective in short-form copy such as web content and brochures.

Passive voice makes the subject secondary or doesn’t include it. Deleting the subject still leaves a complete, understandable sentence.

The cup was dropped by Mary.
(Delete “by Mary” and readers won’t know the difference.)

Passive voice has its place such as when you want the subject to be secondary. The subject was arrested. Or pizza was dropped. For copywriters, passive voice waters down your messaging and takes up more space than it adds value.

2. Eliminate filler words.

Filler words add no value but take up too much space. Avoid these filler words to start, and keep learning ways to cut extra words.

I think most of us use filler words because early in our eduction, filler words helped us reach the minimum writing counts for our homework. No one expected preteens to be excellent writers, but our book reports had to be at least fives pages. Now that we’re adults, filler words are distracting and messy.

Thanks, Mrs. Jordan. You taught me a bad writing habit I’ve probably sprinkled into this post but don’t have time to edit.

3. Use the right word.

Using “your” instead of “you’re” or “their” instead of “they’re” or “there” diminishes your work’s quality. Mistakes like those are also easy for people to recognize, which makes those types of mistakes distracting.

• Affect vs. effect
• Ensure, insure and assure
• Because vs. since
• Then vs than
• To, too and two
• You, your and you’re
• There, their and they’re
• All intents and purposes (not “all intensive purposes”)

Favorite resource to look this stuff up: The AP Stylebook

Think people don’t read anymore? Use the wrong word. You’ll hear about it for years.

4. Embrace sentence fragments.

Fragments are not automatically incomplete or wrong. People don’t speak the way we’re taught to write when we’re learning basic mechanics. We now have room to expand our proverbial toolkit for writing in our own voice. And that includes occasional, well-placed fragments to make your messaging richer and more personable.

Write like humans speak. Start sentences with “and” and “but.” Let the reader assume the subject or noun.

Don’t overdo it. But embrace it.

5. Proofread the next morning.

Proofing the moment you’re done is tempting. Get it written, get it done. Proofing as you go is always recommended, but things happen when you draft that you won’t catch. When you finish drafting for the day, click Save and let your work rest. Come back to it the next morning.

Put some distance between you and your work so you brain can stop filling in the blanks for words you missed, added or misspelled.

Check out 10 crackerjack proofreading tips, and then some for more tips.

What about you? What are some of your writing tips? Share in the comments.