Write the way you speak — with directness, warmth, and authenticity

As a PR consultant, I spend time writing or revising the writing of others on a daily basis. I love writing content and narrative that readers can enjoy and care about –communication that shows the human side of business and reveals the extraordinary strengths and talents of people. I want my writing to be clear, appealing, and significant to my audience.

One of the fundamentals of good writing is to write similarly to the way you would speak to another human being. Casual speech is more spontaneous and requires less organization than written content, of course. But good writing borrows the directness, simplicity, warmth, authenticity, and cadence of human speech.

Remember your audience

When you speak, you’re naturally aware of who it is you’re speaking to. Remain aware of your audience when writing, as well. If your writing is not targeted and framed in a way that will engage your audience, you may as well not write at all.  

Use appealing sentence structure

When you speak, you employ understandable phrases and sentences, some longer and some shorter. The effect of that rhythm and cadence is communication that is animated and interesting. In your writing, overly long, formal sentences and awkward, complicated phrasing can make your communication cumbersome and impersonal.

Choose language that’s meaningful, not pretentious

“Use simple words” is a tip I notice fairly often in blog posts discussing effective writing. When it comes to language and specifically word choice, I’m not one to advise always using the smallest common denominator. As in speech, we should avoid big words, industry jargon, and UAs (undecipherable acronyms) just for the sake of sounding superior or mysterious. But shades of meaning and nuance are a priority over simplicity any day, because they are integral to the richness and unique appeal of your writing and the thought leadership your writing represents.

To exclaim or not to exclaim

As in speech, there’s no need to yell. Banish gimmicks like excessive use of exclamation points, all caps, and other forms of extreme demand for attention, because it doesn’t take much to become off-putting or reveal a lack of professionalism. Using bold or underlined copy is a strength if it makes the organization more clear or helps the reader scan through the copy. Because, after all, your reader has many demands on his or her time and is paying you a huge compliment just by taking the time to read the words you’ve lovingly strung together.