The web has made us all into writers – status updates, blogs mean that individuals we all write for a wider audience than previous generations. With email, chat, and SMS we communicate individually in writing more than any of the great writers of the past.
Such unfettered access to an audience should mean that we’re better writers than at any time in history. But when you read a poorly structured, rambling blog post or a grammatically nonsensical email it doesn’t feel that way.
In the past, writing was special, it was a privilege to be able to commit words to paper in the knowledge they would be treasured. These days, most of what we write is pretty disposable.
But.
There are times when good writing matters. Sometimes, a carelessly tossed off piece of prose isn’t enough. In business, poor writing undermines the confidence of the reader. It harms sales. In the online arena, where your competitors are no more than a click away, a misspelling or a grocer’s comma might be enough to drive a potential buyer to the next search result.
A well thought out, well written web page or email has a lot of power. If you spend the time to consider the purpose of a page: it’s audience, and objective, then it will be more engaging, interesting, and ultimately successful.
Such unfettered access to an audience should mean that we’re better writers than at any time in history. But when you read a poorly structured, rambling blog post or a grammatically nonsensical email it doesn’t feel that way.
In the past, writing was special, it was a privilege to be able to commit words to paper in the knowledge they would be treasured. These days, most of what we write is pretty disposable.
But.
There are times when good writing matters. Sometimes, a carelessly tossed off piece of prose isn’t enough. In business, poor writing undermines the confidence of the reader. It harms sales. In the online arena, where your competitors are no more than a click away, a misspelling or a grocer’s comma might be enough to drive a potential buyer to the next search result.
A well thought out, well written web page or email has a lot of power. If you spend the time to consider the purpose of a page: it’s audience, and objective, then it will be more engaging, interesting, and ultimately successful.
