The first post. It's hard to believe I used to write such short entries. (Some of you probably wish I still did!)

Starting this blog was one of the smartest things I've done. To be honest though, it's not something I began on my own, nor did I anticipate how it would evolve over time.

To celebrate the anniversary of this blog (which actually occurs on February 28th), I thought I'd share a bit of its history and reflect on how the blog and I have adapted to changes in the Web and the interests of you, our readers.

A communications need—in search of a solution.

Five years ago Kevin Adams and I were the Web team for the marketing and communications department of Case Western Reserve University. In the second half of 2004 we'd rolled out a new site design as part of a university-wide rebranding effort. Our mission was to maintain the home page, build (and maintain) new sites within the campus Web presence and work with departments across campus to help them do the same with their own sites.

To this end we had periodic meetings with campus Web folk, and answered many an e-mail question or phone call, but this wasn't enough to keep up with the demand for support. Our campus community included hundreds of Web maintainers, of varying skill levels, who had questions ranging from how to edit HTML to how to develop content that would best support their marketing strategies. We needed a more efficient way to serve this audience.

As part of the new site roll-out we had created a Web Toolkit where we shared template files, and various reference materials, but as a static site it seemed an unwieldy place to post announcements or other bits of advice. We needed a system that would let us organize the information more effectively. Thankfully such a system had just been created.

Case launches a campus-wide blogging initiative.

I used the Case blog system to develop a variety of sites ranging from the Community Outreach site to the Case News Center. In July, 2008, I presented Blogs, The many voices of a university at EduWeb 2008 to demonstrate the ways that Case (and other schools) were making use of blogs in the classroom and beyond. You can get a sense of how Case continues to use blogs by visiting Planet Case, a site that aggregates all the most recent posts from the system.

In November 2004, Case's ITS group began alpha testing a campus-wide blogging system using the Movable Type platform. In January 2005 they opened up the system for campus-wide beta-testing, allowing any university students, staff, faculty or alumni to create their own blog(s).

Having previously experimented with blogs on Blogger, I watched the project with interest. Then one day Jeremy Smith, who runs the blog system, called me up to see if I might be able to create a new template design for one of the senior staff. Soon thereafter I had a test account set-up where I could experiment with creating this new theme.

Although I was a regular blog reader I'd not really spent much time thinking about blog construction. As I played with my designs, I found they weren't quite living up to my expectations. I was trying to visually re-style an existing blog structure, when I should have been rethinking the entire interface. Thus the results (such as this example) just didn't feel quite right.

I was learning that the blogs required a different way of thinking in regard to the user experience and navigation system. So I set those first designs aside and focused on learning more about blog structure and the code behind it.

At some point in that process I realized that the blog system was just what Kevin and I had been looking for.

The birth of the Web Development Blog

I don't recall the exact conversation but one way or another Kevin and I agreed to start blogging. Since I'd already been tinkering with the system, I took one of our campus templates and rebuilt it as a blog theme. Once that was ready I wrote our first post. You can view a copy of that post as it appears here on this blog, or the original post on the Case system.

As you will notice the post was surprisingly short. I introduced the reason for the blog, suggested users add contact information to their site footers and listed the hexadecimal colors for the Case Web templates.

Over the next few months Kevin and I continued in that vein, offering basic how-to tips such as setting up password authentication or redirecting pages and posting announcements, book reviews or links to interesting blog posts. As we added more content, the blog began to serve a customer service role. While campus Web maintainers continued to call us, they could now also go to the blog to find answers to many of their more common questions.

Broader mission and the birth of longer posts

When meeting with campus clients to talk about their new Web sites, I often started the conversation by asking about their goals and target audience, much as I do today with current clients. Alas with over 300,000 pages in the Case realm, and just me and Kevin to advise, we weren't able to sit down and have these conversations with everyone. As I was working with the department of pharmacology on their new site it occurred to me that I could write about the Web planning process and post it on the blog. This way users could walk through it themselves if Kevin or I weren't able to meet with them.

On July 1, 2005, I posted So you want to build a Web site, the first chapter of what turned out to be my Planning Your Web site Tutorial. Over the next few months I kept adding chapters while Kevin kept posting smaller articles on various tips and tricks. Kevin spends much of his spare time playing the trumpet in polka bands, while I'm often compelled to write, so it came as no surprise when I turned out to be the more verbose contributor to the blog.

As time went by I found that sharing the Web site tutorial with clients, before we met in person, helped to save us time in the planning process and ensure that we were all on the same page. I also found that people outside of Case, both in academia and beyond, were beginning to read our posts.

As people commented and asked questions we started writing on a wider range of topics. Instead of focusing strictly on issues pertaining to building sites, I also started writing about related topics such as marketing and graphics.

In 2006 we both wrote a combination of how-to articles such as those on editing images but also branched out into more general topics such as discussions on writing styles. By 2007, I'd also begun covering topics related to what we now call social media. In May of that year Kevin left to work on the corporate sector, so I continued the blog on my own.

Between building Web sites and advising clients, we'd never had much time to blog during office hours so I wrote many of these posts in the evening. Writing on my own time also allowed me the freedom to experiment a bit more with what I wrote. By this point I knew my audience extended beyond campus, so while much of my focus was on Web communications as they pertained to higher education I also wanted to include information that would be helpful to other audiences. And, instead of just writing things to help people build better Web sites, I wanted to address related issues such as promoting and marketing those sites. Topics like search engine optimization and social media were a natural addition to this content mix.

Life after Case

Last year after working at Case for almost 10 years I left the university to venture forth on my own. I knew the blog would continue to be an important communications tool, so I brought it with me to this site, while leaving the original files there for archival and reference purposes. I installed WordPress in a directory on this domain, created a theme to match the rest of my site, exported the blog entries from the old site then imported them here.

While I still sometimes find an odd link that goes back to the old site, the process worked surprisingly smoothly—considering that I was not only moving files but changing from Movable Type to WordPress. For a few weeks during the transition I cross-posted to both blogs then on February 23, 2009 I posted The Web Development Blog is moving! as the last post on the old site and began posting here full time.

Starting a new business takes time, so I've not blogged as often this past year as I'd have liked, but for the most part the editorial policy for the blog has remained similar to what it was at Case. Most of my clients are in small or medium sized businesses so I'm writing a bit more with an eye to the corporate sector. I'm still interested in the higher education and non-profit worlds, so I also use examples from those sectors, and read posts from BlogHighEd to keep up with what's happening in academe.

The role of the blog

What began as a simple way to communicate with clients has turned into much more. I think it worked out because Kevin and I started blogging to serve a specific goal, we didn't blog just to blog. As a result, The Web Development Blog has served as a marketing tool, helped me to establish my personal brand and given me the opportunity to connect with bloggers, clients and others with an interest in Web related issues. And of course it gives me a place to wax forth on whatever Web related ideas I may be pondering in a given moment.

But as much as I like to write, none of this would matter if you weren't out there reading. So now, as I near the anniversary date of the blog, I'd like to thank you all for reading, commenting, reTweeting, etc.

And of course if you have any ideas on things I should cover in 2010, please feel free to share them below.

Social Media Marketing Blog

I am now also a co-author of the Social Media Marketing Blog with Wayne Smallman and Emily Cagle. There we'll be focusing on social media marketing tips such as my first post, Listen, learn and leverage your brand via LinkedIn Answers. That site is also home to Wayne's e-book, The Beginner's Guide to Social Media.

Fan me on Facebook - Follow me on Twitter

We all know these blog posts don't get written as frequently as I'd like. But that doesn't mean you need to go weeks without hearing me babble. Over on http://www.facebook.com/heidicool, I'm sharing one tip per day, usually as a short paragraph with a link to something interesting I've found in the blogosphere.

At one tip per week day it won't clog your Facebook stream, but hopefully you'll find something useful. And for more links (and ramblings that may not always be related to the Web) I usually Tweet and reTweet a few (or several) times per day at @hacool. (I also have links to more accounts on My Social Media Profiles page and am now also babbling on Buzz.)

Content is the core of on-site search engine optimization.

• You must provide useful information that people will seek.
• This information should incorporate words and phrases that people will actually use when searching for what you offer.
• Such words or phrases must be specific enough to distinguish your content from others.
• But…these words should also be generally used and understood by your target audience.

Word choice and SEO: striking the right balance

The above guidelines seem rather obvious, but it's often hard to find that sweet spot between a phrase like auto racing—which is so broad it will generate 32,300,000 search results—and a phrase such as "subaqueous auto racing" which generated 0 results at the time I wrote this. (Note: because I've used this phrase repeatedly, this page will probably soon become the 1 result for the term...unless some of you go out and create competing content.)

Here on the Web Development Blog, as you know, I write about topics related to Web development. In an ideal world I'd rank well for the phrase Web development but it's too common. It can also mean different things to different people. I'm a long-time blogger, but I only make a few posts per month so I can't compete with Wikipedia and other major players on such a frequently used term. But if I get more specific, I can do well. Today this blog came in 4th out of 231,000,000 results for web development blog. My old blog (which links to this one) comes in 7th, so for now at least I'm getting two good results for that phrase.

Write first for readers, then for SEO

While robots crawl the Web, they do so to help people.

I didn't get these search results by analyzing my site and stuffing the phrase "Web development blog" every place I could find. I just used the term in the most obvious places: in the section title, the primary menu, and anywhere it naturally fit in the text. If you write for humans (rather than robots) you'll naturally include many of the relevant words and phrases in your text, but you may still need to do a bit of fine-tuning to match your vocabulary to your readers.

When we're writing for the Web, we're usually writing about subjects with which we are very familiar. We may use specialized vocabulary that makes sense to us, but isn't used by our readers. This could include technical terms pertinent to the field, regional terms specific to where we live or even phrases specific to our organization.

In order to make sure that our copy is both easily understood and easily found via search, we need to take a step back and read/edit the content with our readers in mind.

Choosing reader-friendly phrases for SEO—an example from higher education

Colleges, universities and other non-profit organizations all depend on fund-raising to serve their missions. Some organizations call their fundraising departments "Advancement." Others use "Development" or "Philanthropy." Alas those outside the non-profit world, including many potential donors, don't see those terms in the same way as insiders. Someone involved in manufacturing may think of "Development" in terms of product development. A recent graduate may consider "Philanthropy" to be the realm of the rich—and not realize it also includes his/her $25 donation to the annual fund.

Schools that use simpler phrases such as "make a gift for XYZ" or "give to XYZ" make it easier for donors to find their giving pages. For example, if I Google give to Dartmouth, the first result takes me to their Why Give page which also includes a direct link to their online giving page.

Why worry about SEO when we link to Giving (or whatever) from the home page?

If I know that I want to find something on a particular site, I'll just type the address in the url, then use the navigation or on-site search to find what I seek. I'm not everyone. I know many people who will use the Google search bar even when they know a site's address. Dartmouth alumni and friends may very well Google "Give to Dartmouth" rather than going to http://www.dartmouth.edu to look for the Giving link. Thus it's helpful that Dartmouth ranks #1 on that phrase. Organizations that have large sites—common in academia, Dartmouth has more than 300,000 publicly indexed pages—rely heavily on on-site search because they offer so much information.

Taking advantage of long tail search terms

Horses have long tails, so can you.

While a phrase like give to Dartmouth is both specific and direct, we can also get good results from phrases that are more unique. Awhile back, in SEO - keywords do the darndest things I asked if you were getting traffic from unusual words or phrases you didn't expect. My friend Wayne mentioned, via Twitter, that he gets traffic on phrases we might not want to repeat. David commented that he is getting good results for "Long haired guinea pigs."

I just looked at my analytics again and am now getting results on click here, have you tried jargon and rt hacool. These actually appear in my top 10 which surprised me, but these are still logical. I've written posts advising against using click here and against business jargon, and hacool is my Twitter ID. (rt stands for reTweet which means to forward someone's message on Twitter.)

While these and more general phrases such as "Web development blog" or "blog website tutorial" appear among the top 10 phrases bringing traffic to my site, niche-specific phrases make a significant impact. The phrase quantify and visualize twitter search results produced 5 visits from people who spent an average of 16:50 minutes on the site and visited an average of 7.6 pages.

Admittedly, 5 visits isn't many. But when you also get 2 for how to start redesigning your web site, 3 for cool html blog, etc. they start to add up. People visit this site via almost 2,000 keyword combinations (many of which may be variations on a theme). The top phrases may bring hundreds of visits each, but when added together it's the little niche terms that bring in the majority of traffic. The collective success of these individually smaller elements is what is meant by the long tail.

Woohoo! My site has the #1 spot for "subaqueous auto racing"

While niche phrases produce traffic, they still need to be relevant to our content. When Google indexes this page, it may get the #1 spot for "subaqueous auto racing." But placing high in search results is only half the battle. Such results only matter if people are searching on that term AND if I provide useful information on the topic. You and I both know that this article is about word choice and SEO. So if anyone searches that phrase hoping to learn about underwater car racing, they will be sorely disappointed and leave the site. Some marketers like to brag about making the first page of search results, but if the phrase doesn't bring visitors it isn't helping.

When editing copy for SEO it's easy to get wound up worrying about what phrases you should rank for, but if you write for your readers and apply common sense, you'll start to see meaningful results.

SEO Keywords and Phrases Resources

• Fast keyword Research With Google's Wonder Wheel
• Google Adwords Keyword Tool
• Google Webmaster Tools: SEO
• How to Find and Target Long Tail Keywords for More Search Engine Traffic
• Researching Longtail Keywords with Google Adwords
• SEO Advice for Bloggers, Straight from the Horse’s Mouth

heidicool.com is also on Facebook

Need more Web tips? Fan the heidicool.com Facebook page. I'm posting 1 tip/link there per day to offer ongoing advice on Web design, marketing and social media—without overwhelming your Facebook stream.

Postscript: Google works fast!

As of 3:50 p.m. e.d.t today, September 10, 2009, this page did come in at #1 for subaqueous auto racing. Here's the screencapture of the Google results page. I have a Greasemonkey script installed on Firefox that also includes Twitter results. As a result of looking this up I'm now also finding reTweets and links I didn't yet know about.

Writing comes in many forms and styles. When eating, we find it easier to use the right utensil for the food in front of us. In the case of ice cream, most of us would prefer a spoon to a fork. When it comes to the Web, we're given a variety of opinions as to what is the correct form or style.

Web copywriting myths aren't consistent:

• Web readers have short attention spans. Give them short paragraphs with bullet points, so they don't have to read.
• Long form marketing copy sells. Write long descriptive pages emphasizing features and benefits, continuously repeating your call to action while hinting at the wonders that await.

There's a kernel of truth in each of these philosophies. But in the end, a copywriter's job is to communicate, in as many—or as few—words as it takes to convey the message to our readers. In my mind there isn't a style specific to the Web. It's not a matter of choosing the fish fork for a brochure and the snail tongs for Web copy. Instead it's a matter of tailoring your copy to your particular communications goal and your intended reading audience.

While I've written several articles about writing on this blog, this one is meant to be more of a general overview of my writing philosophy. At the end I've also included links to more detailed entries on this subject.

Sales Copy

Whether we're trying to sell handmade jewelry, promote an event, entice students to apply to our degree program or generate sales leads, we're asking our readers to make a decision. My goal in writing sales copy is to help them make that decision (to buy) more easily. A simple—jargon free—product description, coupled with a list of features and benefits lays the foundation.

The description tells them that our offering may be the right solution for their needs. The features and benefits explain how and why it can solve their problem so they can determine if it is the best solution for them. If a product or service is complex, we can then link to additional information such as fact sheets, product specifications, case studies and testimonials that demonstrate both how the product or service works, and how it has worked for others.

An educated consumer is a happy consumer. When we give our customers the facts they need to make an informed purchasing decision, we give them the tools they need to make that decision now—without hemming and hawing while wondering if our wondrous widget is right for them. Naturally your product or service must live up to expectations, but if your copy helps customers buy with confidence, you can reduce the possibility of buyer's remorse while paving the way to customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers are repeat customers. They're the one's who'll keep your business running, from now into the future.

Bill is braising shrimp.

Buy our product. Save time. Eat well.

Just because our copy is informative, doesn't mean we don't have room for creativity. "Bill is braising shrimp" is the headline I used in an ad for a law book. It was part of a series of ads promoting the time-saving features of the product line. Bill had time to cook a nice dinner for his friends because our book gave him the information he needed more quickly, so he didn't have to spend his evening in the law library.

There's a story to tell behind each of our product's features or benefits. We can use such stories to lend a snappy headline and explain, in human terms, how our offering can benefit customers in ways they will easily recognize.

Informational & Educational Copy

Clarity is as key to sharing knowledge as it is to selling products. Many organizations use knowledge sharing content in support of their sales and customer service efforts. Others may use it to provide an educational service. In either scenario, the goal is to educate readers in a way that will let them apply this knowledge to their own lives.

When writing informational copy, I try to think of myself as a teacher whose students may come from a variety of backgrounds and skill levels. If I want to teach them how to do X, or help them understand how Y works, I start with the basics. As with sales copy, there may be an opportunity to tell a story, or use an example that will resonate with readers. But to start, I'll begin with a simple premise, then walk readers through the process step-by-step. I want to provide enough details to be thorough. And I want to use language that is precise but easily understood.

I harp on language, because it can so often befuddle. If I start telling you "how to maximize your ROI using on-site SEO to leverage combinatorial search algorithms", it's going to sound like a bunch of business-speak gibberish. It will make you have to work harder to understand my meaning, while making me look like a pretentious fool who may be using buzzwords as a substitute for real knowledge and experience. If my goal is to share knowledge, then I want to package that knowledge in words and sentences that you will quickly and easily understand.

Whether you're explaining to children that the earth revolves around the sun, or teaching your customers how to install additional RAM on their computer, you want to keep it simple enough to follow, and thorough enough to be complete. If we do this properly our readers may take it for granted that our copy made sense. That's O. K. Our goal is not to impress them with the effort it took to write, our goal is to communicate. If our readers can leave our page, having grasped the knowledge we intended to share, we've done our job.

Writing to connect with readers

If you're reading this, you've probably visited many a Web site over the years. You've encountered sites that compelled you to buy a widget and tell all of your friends about your great experience. And you've visited sites that sent you away—muttering in frustration as you wondered what rabid badger was hired to write such drivel. In either case you know what works and what doesn't. If you have a story about a Web site that either succeeded or failed—in connecting with you as a reader—please feel free to share it in the comments.

Related writing articles

• Beware of your vocabulary
• Copy Writing: Long vs. Short, Does it Matter?
• Building your site: Tertiary pages—When more is more
• Marketing is matchmaking: making introductions through lead generation
• Say what you mean—don’t let jargon drive your visitors away.
• Voice and Tone: Writing to reflect your personality as well as your message (Part 1)
• Voice and Tone: Writing to reflect your personality as well as your message (Part 2)
• Web writers: What are we? Journalists? Marketers? Information Providers? Opinion makers? Scholars?
• Writing to be understood by your audience

Are you impressed by business jargon? Will you go out of your way to hire a firm whose message is conveyed in marketing doublespeak? Do you consider it a fun challenge to dissect Web copy to decipher its hidden meaning? I didn't think so.

As Internet users, we've all come across sites filled with corporate buzzwords and convoluted sentences that make us roll our eyes. But what of our own sites? Is your site clear and easy to read? Or have you tried so hard to make it meaningful that it actually ends up meaning less?

If you bewilder your readers you'll increase your bounce rate

When a visitor first lands on your site, whether they arrive at the home page or an interior page, they'll quickly skim the page to see if it has the potential to solve their problem.

They've searched out your site, or followed a link for a reason. They want to know if they should buy A or B, learn how to maximize their SEO, bake the best chocolate torte, hire your design firm, etc. If your site clearly indicates that it will provide the answers they seek, they'll stay.

If the copy is confusing, and readers can't easily skim the page, they will assume the answers aren't there. Then they'll return to their search results to find a site that makes more sense.

If your site really does provide the information they seek, then make that obvious. Don't risk making them leave before they can discover the valuable resources you offer.

Obfuscation in action: off-putting jargon merely causes confusion

Last week I stumbled upon two Web sites with confusing copy that may help to illustrate this point. The sites are for Web design firms with offices in the United Kingdom. Here are 2 paragraphs from their home pages.

Company A: We take pride in every piece of work we do, and guarantee a visually stunning design to platform your company.

Company B: X a web design company is here for a purpose to make art and design of your imagination alive and real on the web platform. After several months of hunting of the best talent and struggling for the name of their design company they finally reached a vertical which engages their vision of togetherness.

Imagining myself as a potential customer, I knew I would leave—instead of exploring the sites—for two main reasons.

1. They don't convey much in the way of actual information. These paragraphs make vague reference to design without conveying the unique features and benefits of their services. I expect firms to take pride in their work, so Company A doesn't really need to say that on the front page. Instead it might have been helpful to make a specific point about their firm that differentiates them from the competition.
2. The sentences don't make a lot of sense. What does it mean "to platform your company" or "finally reached a vertical?" Jargon also typically sets off a warning bell in my head. It makes me wonder why they are trying so hard. Are they resorting to smoke and mirrors so I won't notice some flaw in their services? They may be wonderful designers, but the word play makes me cautious. If they can't take the time to say what they mean—in a way that I'll understand—then what else won't they do?

The first example seems innocuous at first. But the phrase "platform your company" made me pause. The use of platform as a verb is unusual (perhaps it's an idiom in use outside the U.S.?) and makes me think that they don't actually take pride in their editing. They may do stellar work, but this sentence gave me a different impression. Granted we're all human and easily capable of making editorial errors (I'm sure you'll find some on my site too) but when you only have a few seconds to make a good impression, it often helps to have an editor review the copy.

This sentence was also somewhat vague. I'm guessing they mean to say that they'll produce a stunning design that visually supports your company's brand. If you sell bespoke suits they'll design a tasteful site in navy and charcoal rather than a whimsical site filled with pink fluffy bunnies. If that's the case, why not just say so? "We custom tailor our designs to suit your specific brand and image."

Such a sentence may not sound exciting, but it's descriptive and specific. It shows they will keep your current brand in mind when working on your project and not run off on some creative tangent that doesn't really serve your needs.

In the second example I'm totally lost. Perhaps they have a very creative creative team. But again, what will they do for you? Is your goal to make your imagination alive on the Web? Or do you want to recruit students to your MBA program and would be pleased if the Web site could also look cool in the process?

In trying to sound clever and compelling, these sites risk turning away prospective clients who don't have the time to figure out what was really meant.

Keep your copy simple and direct

Headscape, a well known British Web design firm, knows how to keep it simple. Their slogan is "creating attractive, usable websites." Through four simple words found in the top banner they've made it clear that they:

• build Web sites
• pay attention to visual aesthetics, and
• focus on usability to provide a good visitor experience

Within seconds a visitor is able to figure out what Headscape does. The simplicity continues in the "About section" in which they write,

"The sites we build are accessible to the widest audience, easily updated, and designed to meet your business objectives. We provide design, application development and consultancy. "

This paragraph clearly lets visitors know if Headscape has the potential to serve their needs. If the answer is no, then visitors will leave after having made an informed decision. If the answer is yes, visitors will continue to explore the site, review their portfolio samples, and fill out the contact form.

If you're writing for the Web—or anywhere—wording matters.

We can convey similar messages in many different ways, but if we really want to connect with our audience, it helps to be as clear and precise as possible. With mere seconds available to capture a readers attention we need to keep it simple. "See Spot Run" may be boring, but if your readers will grasp that more quickly than "Envision Spot energizing his quadrupedal potential" then the 1st choice is the obvious choice.

Jargon allows us to camouflage intellectual poverty
with verbal extravagance. — David Pratt

More on copywriting and word choice.

• Beware of Your Vocabulary
• MBA Jargon Watch 2.0
• Ten tips on how to avoid business jargon
• The Worth of Words
• Writing to be understood by your audience

While the medium is different, blogs have much in common with magazines. They're published periodically, can accept subscriptions (via RSS feeds), may (or may not) accept advertising and typically focus on a particular topic or niche. If you blog, you have some notion of your topical area in your head, but have you defined it for your readers? If not, it may be time to take a page from the magazines and define a clear editorial policy for your blog. Just as setting clear goals aids in the development of a regular Web page, defining a clear editorial policy for your blog will aid you in authoring future articles and attracting new readers.

What is an editorial policy?

An editorial policy is simply a short document that defines what subjects will (or will not be) covered in your blog. It may also include information on why you are covering X and not Y as well as some background information on the authors. Magazines typically publish their policies in their advertising media kits and/or their guidelines for writers. For a blog you may wish to include your policy on the "About Us" page and also provide a quick summary in the meta description element in the head of your pages. If you edit a multi-author blog, you may also find it helpful to maintain a more detailed policy for your writers that you do not publish online. This could include style guidelines and other rules that are useful to your staff but not of particular interest to the public.

Here are my top 5 reasons to define your editorial policy.

1. Establishing clear parameters for the scope of your topic helps you determine what to write and lets readers (and search engines) know what to expect.

How much or how little you write about makes a great difference. If your topic is too broad, you may confuse readers who don't know what to expect. If it is too narrow you may run out of things to say. In For ‘bloggers, diversification avoids stagnation, Wayne Smallman addresses how the breadth of your subject area can keep your blog interesting while also supporting your Internet marketing efforts.

For example, imagine you are blogging about baking. This is a huge subject. If your expertise lies more towards bread than pastries you may limit it to that. But what if you don't discuss quick breads but do cover beignets? Perhaps your focus is yeast-leavened baking and not merely bread. Somewhere between recipes for oatmeal bread and anything cooked in an oven you will find, and define, the scope of your subject.

If your scope includes puff pastries and you have a yen to write about Beef Wellington, then feel free. Both you and your readers will know that it fits within your policy and you won't have spent hours wondering whether or not it's on topic.

2. Defining your scope reduces off-topic submissions

Some blogs accept suggestions and/or articles from readers and other writers. While this can be a great way to get new ideas and material, you probably don't have the time to sort through ideas that aren't relevant to the topic. In terms of our baking blog, it may be that our policy includes some desserts but does not include pies and tarts.

If we make this clear up front we can spend more time writing articles and less time writing rejection letters. Doing so also provides a service to your submitters. If Peter Piemaker knows your policy, he'll be able to focus his time more appropriately and find a different blog—one whose editors and readers would love to know more about making a kiwi tart with tamarind crème anglaise.

3. A clear editorial focus matches advertisers with your audience

This blog doesn't accept advertising, but yours might. When magazines sell advertising they create a media kit with information about the topic of the magazine and the demographics of their readership. Advertisers use this information in order to target readers who are most likely to buy their products. If your blog accepts advertising, you also want your ads to be appropriate to your subject matter and audience. Readers of your baking blog will be more likely to click on ads related to bread pans and mixers, than on fishing lures or hair-care products, and will thus generate more revenue for you and your advertisers. Having a clearly defined editorial policy helps advertisers choose between your blog and someone else's.

4. Publishing your editorial policy supports your Search Engine Optimization strategies

As we know from An Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), including topically relevant keywords within your content helps search engines to identify the topics discussed on your site. While individual entries will feature keywords appropriate to those entries, where should you put the keywords that describe the the blog as a whole? Your editorial policy is the perfect place to include these because it defines the topics included in your site overall.

By publishing your policy on an "About Us" or other page, you can draw readers searching for the overall themes of your blog in addition to those searching topics covered in more specific entries.

If you already have an "About " page this is a good time to review it to determine if your editorial policy is clearly defined and if that policy includes the appropriate keywords. As your blog evolves, it is also a good idea to review this once a year. I just re-read mine and found it unsuitably vague so I've now rewritten it to be more specific.

5. Including an editorial policy or content description promotes a professional image and can demonstrate your expertise.

One of the first things I do after discovering a new blog is to look for the "About" page. I want to know more about the blog's overall theme and its author(s). If that information isn't available I'll have to skim through the entries to see if an identifiable theme emerges and if I can learn anything about the writer's expertise. If I've found an interesting entry—and I'm thinking of subscribing to the blog—I need this information to decide if I'll be interested in future entries and if the author should be considered a reliable source. If I don't have time to do this research myself I probably won't subscribe. I'm already subscribed to more blogs than I can keep up with, so if I can't quickly determine a blog's relevance to my life, I probably won't bother.

If you want repeat readers, especially subscribers, take a few minutes to provide this information. They'll respect you for it.

Conclusion: Establishing an editorial policy helps you set the tone of your blog

Whether you want a better way to determine what to write, wish to increase readership or want to fine-tune your advertising, a clearly defined editorial policy can guide the way. Whether you call it "Editorial Policy," "About Us" or something else doesn't matter. If the policy is clear to you and your readers it will enhance the blogging experience for all involved.

Examples of Editorial and Advertising Policies in Magazines and Blogs

The following policies vary from short descriptions to more in-depth policy statements. If your blog accepts advertising you may be interested in The Nation's advertising policy which is very detailed and says, among others things, "Although the relationship of the First Amendment to commercial advertising is complex, we start with strong presumption against banning advertisers because we disapprove of, or even abhor, their political or social views. But we reserve (and exercise) the right to attack them in our editorial columns." I thought that was rather thought-provoking, though such a statement is obviously more necessary to "The Nation" than it would be to many blogs.

• About Ars Technica
• .eduGuru About Page
• The Nation's Advertising Policy
• The Nation's Editorial Profile
• The New Yorker Mission Statement
• Time Magazine
• Science Daily - About this site

When I first broached this topic in October, I wrote about tone. Today, I'll focus on voice, that certain aspect of writing that conveys the personality and/or style of the writer. Unlike tone—which is geared to your goal and audience—voice is about you, the writer. Just as your speaking voice remains recognizable under different circumstances—whether you're reading stories to small children or arguing about the gift return policy at the mall—so, too should your written voice.

What exactly defines my voice or style?

Your voice and style reflect patterns you use in crafting sentences and paragraphs. Just as you recognize your handwriting by the shapes you make in lettering, you'll recognize your written voice by sentence structure, vocabulary, punctuation and other ways you present ideas. My writing often includes examples, metaphors or analogies—especially my fiction. I also have a habit of using em dashes for parenthetical remarks. This is a habit I acquired back when I was writing ad copy. The passive tense is one for which I sometimes have a predilection, as is my frequent use of the word "one" in place of he or she—to avoid those pesky gender issues. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. The English language allows for a great deal of latitude when it comes to developing a voice. Yours can be as unique as your fingerprints.

Why should my voice remain constant? Shouldn't I adapt it to circumstance as I would tone?

Your voice is part of your brand as a writer. As you use your voice it becomes familiar to your readers. This helps them know how to interpret your prose and what to expect from you in the future. The voice you use today can offer clues into how you should be read tomorrow. If you changed the nature of your voice with each blog entry or paper, readers could get confused and misinterpret both subtle nuances and seemingly obvious statements.

Your voice also guides the hands that type. If you've developed a comfortable style, the sentences will pass from brain to keyboard more smoothly. If you are constantly reinventing your style, this won't happen. Instead you'll spend more time reworking your sentences, forcing them to fit into the mold of the moment.

A well-developed voice serves both writer and reader.

What if I get a job that requires me to write in someone else's voice?

There may be times when you have to write for someone else, for example as a speech writer, or to ghostwrite the autobiography of Thomas Pynchon. The latter will obviously never happen, but as you become familiar with the nuances that make up your own voice you can also learn to pick up on the traits of someone else's. This will make it easier to craft that speech or memo for your boss or client. If you ever got caught forging a note from your mother in order to skip school, you'll know this is a skill that takes time to develop.

How do I find my voice? Won't it just come naturally?

One finds one's voice through reading and writing. By reading omnivorously you are exposed to a variety of styles and will learn which you prefer. By writing frequently you can fine-tune how you adapt such styles for yourself. I think much of this does come naturally. Everything you've experienced—from the conversations you heard as a child to the classes you took in school—contributes to the way you arrange words—both orally and on the printed page. But developing constancy requires practice. Just as a chef must both taste and cook a variety of foods to learn how ingredients will interact, so must a writer read a diverse sampling of literature and practice putting words to paper to understand how words flow together.

Writer's must also adapt to the well-intentioned comments of their readers, be they teachers, friends, publishers or others. Our readers all have styles of their own and will usually be happy to give us input when we ask. Sometimes their ideas will bring new light to a murky paragraph; other times they may suggest change for the sake of change. By reading enough to be familiar with many styles—and writing enough to be familiar with your own—you'll be better able to judge which ideas are which.

While researching this I read a variety of conflicting opinions on how to develop one's voice. Some suggest mimicking the styles of others, while others say to focus only on your own voice. You may have to experiment to find what method works best for you, but the following resources may give you some additional ideas.

Voice and Tone Resources

• 5 Tips For Developing Your Writing Voice
• Finding Your Voice
• Individual and Appropriate Voice
• Putting Voice into a Paper
• Ten Steps to Finding Your Writing Voice
• Write Away: Finding your voice

Today's my third day back at work after my vacation in Ireland. I have a number of ideas for upcoming entries, but as I started cleaning up the blog comments that came in while I was gone, I saw an interesting question that had been posted on the Web writers: What are we? entry. Mike asked:

What role does long form copy writing have in writing B2B copy for the internet? I must say I am confused. The 'weight' (if not quality) of opinion from largely self-proclaimed internet guru writers is that long form works. I find it hard to accept that such obviously manipulative tactics snare orders from even the most gullible consumer. Love to hear your views…"

Mike's question speaks to two issues, the length of copy necessary to achieve your goal and the copy writing techniques that may be utilized in the process.

Short copy or long? When it comes to length, I don't think there is one right answer.

Articles such as "When Long Form Sales-Copy Doesn't Outpull Short Copy: An Eye-Opening Inside Secret Finally Revealed!" and Long Copy vs. Short Copy Tested may imply that long copy is more successful, but I think what really matters is that your copy serves your goal. When it comes to marketing copy, whether it be selling widgets to a manufacturing company or recruiting students to your graduate program in Art History, one usually needs to focus on three things:

• Features of the product, service, program, event, Web site or whatever else you are promoting
  • The online calendar makes a distinctive yet pleasant noise alerting you that an event is about to commence.
  • Art History classes are held at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
  • The uber widget comes in 9 sizes and configurations.
• Benefits to the end user of said product, service, etc.
  • You'll never miss another meeting because you lost track of time. Our calendar will alert you when it's time to go.
  • Direct access to the permanent collections and rotating exhibits lets students examine the art in person rather than through secondary sources such as books and slides.
  • Whether your shop is big or small, we have a widget that will fit your space (and budget!) and adapt to your specific needs.
• Instructions on what you would like the reader to do.
  • Order the calendar today!
  • Arrange a visit to tour the campus and meet with members of the department.
  • Request more information from a sales representative who can work with you to find the widget solution most appropriate for your business.

How much information you include should be determined by the amount of information required for the reader to make an informed decision and take action.

If you are selling a certain model of desk stapler, you don't need a 12 page booklet or Web site. You can probably fit everything you need on just one page of your office supply site. But, if you are promoting a 4-year long academic program, you will need to provide more information so the student has a greater sense of where and how he or she might be spending those 4 years. You can introduce the student to the program on the Web, or through a brochure, then follow that up with more options. These could include a more detailed Web site, campus visits and the opportunity to interact with current students and faculty either online or on campus.

As these examples indicate, more complex decisions require more detailed information, but that information need not all come from one place. You can include a product description, features and benefits on a postcard or home page then direct the reader to a Web site that offers more details or to a sales person who can offer a more personalized explanation.

There's really no one-size fits all solution. Instead the best thing to do is to tailor the length of your Web pages or printed matter to the situation, then offer opportunities for more details as necessary. If you've given the reader enough information to make an informed decision you've done your job.

Copy writing techniques: persuasion or manipulation?

There is far more research on the psychology of marketing than I have read so I'll just touch on this briefly. I'd like to think that those of you who read this blog (rather than those who only pop by to leave comment spam) are mostly interested in promoting sites, services or products that fulfill the needs of your target audience. If that is the case you probably don't need to fall back on the type of cheap manipulative tactics that Mike mentioned in his question.

It doesn't take a lot of arm twisting to sell an iPod. But if you are promoting something new or unfamiliar, persuasive tactics may help you to get the attention of your readers long enough to make your case. In that case I would recommend hiring an experienced copywriter and/or doing further research to determine which strategies are most appropriate for your goals.

That said, persuasive marketing is no substitute for quality content, products or services. Whether you are promoting your recipe blog or your bookstore, you'll only generate repeat traffic/business if your audience likes or needs what you provide.

Examples of the manipulative techniques to which Mike refers (Funny how they all start with "How to," eh?)

• How to Get Your Prospects to Do Exactly What You Want by Tormenting Their Brains (If you read this DO NOT click the link for the .exe file. It may be safe, but in general I don't trust executable files unless I know more about their origin. I've just included this for more background information.)
• "How To Ethically CHEAT Your Way To A 'Money Sucking' Web Site... That Practically  FORCES People To Eagerly Fork Over Their Hard-Earned Money By The Truckload!
• How To Get Your Hands On A FREE Copy Of Some “Undercover Information” That Made One Start-Up, Cash-Strapped Company £81,671.12 In It’s First 60-Hours Of Trading!

Additional copy writing and marketing references

• How Advertising Has Changed
• Long Copy Works Better - Or Is It Short Copy?
• Sales Copy: Long or Short?
• The Long and Short of Copy writing
• The Long And Short Of It Is That These Two Sales Techniques Are The Same

Last week someone posted a question to the WordNerds group regarding the importance of voice and tone in writing. In particular she wanted to know how to convey the importance of voice and tone to colleagues who aren't professional writers. Not having covered this topic previously I thought I'd give it a go.

Voice and Tone, is there a difference?

After prowling the Web looking for various references on the subject I've found that opinions differ on this. Some treat the terms interchangeably, while others see key distinctions. For the purpose of this blog, I will define voice to represent the personality and/or style of the writer and tone to reflect the mood or attitude of the writing in relation to its audience and goal. Today I'll focus on tone.

Tone and formality

Writers often think of tone as a measure of formality, striking a more serious mood and style for an academic paper, a not-as-serious mood (the equivalent of business casual clothing) for an informative blog entry and a light mood and casual style for an e-mail to a friend. They do this in regard to their audience and publication as though there were a corresponding scale that shows that serious, matter-of-fact writing is taken more seriously by peer-reviewed journals and professors, while a laid-back tone is more welcomed by friends.

While this makes sense to a degree, I'm not sure that such a scale is accurate. When deciding whether a writer is well-informed and making a good case, I'm more likely to consider how the information is organized, the logic of the arguments made, and any related sources, than I am the seriousness of tone. Where I will consider the tone is when it comes to readability. Is the piece so dry that I'm asleep before I finish? Does it match the subject matter? Is it appropriate to the message or does it make the writer seem disingenuous? Some writers will strike a serious tone to seem more authoritative, when in fact that tone seems false, making us question—rather than trust—the authority.

When matching seriousness of tone to audience it's equally important to match the tone to our goals. Are we writing to inform? To persuade? To warn? To amuse? To console?

If I were writing guidelines for the safe-handling of sodium, my first instinct might be to take a very serious tone. Sodium is dangerous, it shouldn't be touched by human hands, mixed with water, bla bla bla. Yet, if I'm giving these guidelines to students, I want them to pay attention, both to keep them safe and to keep them interested. While I want to make sure they don't hurt themselves, I also don't want to scare them away from the study of chemistry. Rather than just giving them somber warnings about explosions, perhaps it would be appropriate to follow the example of Theodore Gray—who documented his sodium party experiments in text and video. Gray's tone is moderately serious with a hint of humor, clearly demonstrates the dangers of sodium, yet still makes one want to learn more about it. Had he kept his tone too serious or dry no one would have paid much attention, but by striking the right balance, his story was passed along and mentioned in Slashdot and other media.

Tone and attitude

To be serious, or not, is but one measure of tone. Plenty of people stop there, but I think there is much more to it. Humorous writing may be sarcastic, flippant, silly or ironic (among others). Complaints can be angry, bitter, sad, cautious, polite, intense, etc. Tone comes in a wide range of attitudes, some of which may overlap. This is where things get tricky. It's (relatively) easy to write something that sounds serious and professional. That's the tone I've used so far today. But have I struck the right mood? In taking a straightforward approach to the topic, am I sounding condescending or collegial? Pedantic or informative? Have I so bored you that you're now asleep—dreaming that your lobster ice-cream franchise failed because you just couldn't compete with your rival's spicy crab cones?

These are the questions I must ask myself. When I re-read something, I'll question the mood. Is it too dry? Too goofy? Too dark? Does it suit the topic? Will it engage the reader? Today the fight has been to avoid being too dry or condescending. My goal is to offer some friendly advice, not to come off as some authoritarian know-it-all. To capture the right mood, I'll need to keep tweaking things. I'll replace sentences like:

"Writers are often confounded by such nuances." (Man, that sounds pompous.) with "This is where things get tricky."

Then I'll make sure that I've used contractions and added a few quirky ideas—such as the bit about the lobster ice-cream. Perhaps I'll also switch perspective. Notice how the bits I've written in first person seem more friendly than those in third person? Vocabulary, perspective and punctuation can all color the tone of the text. With that in mind I'll keep reading and tweaking until it sounds good enough to post. Good enough depends on your objective—given my time restraints I'll spend less time polishing a blog entry than I might an article for print publication. (That's my disclaimer in case I still didn't get the mood spot on!)

Recommendations

Choosing a tone, writing, then editing to reflect that tone seems to be what works best for me. It also helps to let someone else read your work. They may notice an attitude that you didn't. When they suggest a change to a word or phrase, take it under consideration. As writers we're often protective of our work, but if we're writing to be read, then we need to listen to our readers. They won't always be right, but they won't always be wrong either. Viewing your work through their eyes, will give you a new perspective, and often some very good ideas.

Also remember, you don't always have to sound serious to be taken seriously.

Voice and Tone Resources

• A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone
• At the Sound of Your Tone…Part 1
• Individual and Appropriate Voice
• The difference between tone and voice
• Thinking Rhetorically: Consider Your Voice, Tone, and Persona
• Tone: A Matter of Attitude
• Tone in Business Writing

To learn more, read Part 2: Voice

After more than a decade of Web development, most of us have gotten used to adding links within the context of our text—just as I did in this sentence. Yet despite our good habits, awareness and best intentions, many links are still awkwardly managed. I see them appended to paragraphs as afterthoughts, or worse yet included via the dreaded phrase, "click here".

I think this happens most often when the writer is one who doesn't write primarily for the Web. If he has produced a document originally intended for print, any links mentioned in the document must be fully referenced. Until our friends in macromolecular science and engineering give us the materials to create clickable brochures, print writers will need to include the full address of any links they mention.

As Web writers, producers, designers, etc., we can help to reduce this problem, by rewriting sentences that include links, when converting documents from print to Web. We can also try to lead by example—producing sites that use contextual links*—as a reminder that this should be the norm for online usage. In the following examples I'll show you different types of linking problems and their potential solutions.

The Link Appendage, tacking a link to the end because you know it has to go somewhere.

Imagine the following is an event announcement for the fictitious Great Lakes Owl Watchers Association benefit. Notice how they've included two links at the end of the announcement.

The Great Lakes Owl Watchers Association is having its annual benefit next Tuesday at the Birdhouse. All proceeds go towards preserving habitat for the Great Horned Owl. To register for the event, visit the Great Lakes Owl Watchers Association Web site. Learn more about Great Horned Owls online."

In the first link problem we tell them to register, which is good, but we don't really need to give them the full name of the site. The second link is better in that it doesn't mention a site name, but it could have been linked in context. The paragraph could be rewritten as follows without any decline in usability.

The Great Lakes Owl Watchers Association is having its annual benefit next Tuesday at the Birdhouse. All proceeds go towards preserving habitat for the Great Horned Owl. Register online before Sunday.

In this version we are able to link to the association's site, information about Great Horned Owls and a specific registration page in a manner that is both easy to follow and takes less space.

The dreaded "click here"

I often receive copy for Web sites that includes the phrase "click here." This is used so readily that many people don't realize that it is bad form. There are a variety of reasons not to use "click here" but here are the basics. I've included additional reference sites below.

• "Click here" contains no descriptive information about the link. The text you use in links should carry enough meaning that it can be understood out of context. This is particularly important to users who have difficulty reading or who are visually impaired. Such users will look or listen for links to be associated with descriptive key words. It you have 10 links on a page, all of which say "click here," you will make it more difficult for all users to scan and navigate your site.
• "Click here" isn't helpful to search engines and other agents that index Web sites. Non-human systems have no way to connect the term "click here" with the description you may have used in the sentence before. If you want to include a link about three-toed sloths, do it in context, so that the indexing robots connect your linked words to the link address. This lets them know not only what sites you link to, but what these sites are about.
• "Click here" provides an unnecessary instruction. Users already know that they will click (or sometimes, mouse-over) to follow a link. Why give them instructions on something they're already doing? What if they are using a device that doesn't click at all? Why tell them to do something that doesn't work on their system?

Linking in practice

When faced with a situation that seems to require an appended or "click here" link, look at your existing text. In most cases you will find the words you need to link are already there. If that isn't the case, try adding the appropriate words to an existing sentence—or to a new sentence that offers useful information in addition to the link. With a bit of practive you should find that in most cases it is fairly easy to put your links into context.

* While I use the term "contextual links" in the traditional sense—descriptive words and phrases that link to a page or site about the topic the words describe, the phrase is now often used in a different commercial sense. In this sense the term refers to links or ads for which you pay so that others will link to your site.

Additional Resources

• Accessibility 101: Don't use 'click here'
• Don't 'click here': writing meaningful link text
• W3C: Don't use "click here" as link text
• W3C: Make your (hyper)text readable
• Why "Click here" is bad linking practice
• Wikipedia: Click here

Those who write clearly have readers. Those who write obscurely have commentators. - Albert Camus

One of our campus Web maintainers recently asked if our department advocated writing to a certain reading level. I responded that while "fours years below the level of your audience" is a decent rule of thumb, the most important thing is to write clearly.

What does it mean to write clearly?

Does it mean you have to "dumb it down?" Must you always eschew all technical vocabulary? Should you limit yourself to using short words in short sentences, such as "See Spot run."? No, clear writing doesn't need to be shallow, it just needs to be precise and to the point.

Sometimes writers worry, that if they simplify their writing, they will have to leave out vital information. Others worry that their writing will appear unsophisticated—making them seem less informed. I think we must cast those worries aside and leave our egos at the door. A reader who easily understands the message will have more respect for the writer than a reader who had to read each sentence three times with a dictionary open on his knee.

While sentence structure and word choice contribute to writing clearly, perhaps the most important thing is to have a clear vision of your intended message. With that in mind, the writing will come more easily.

Goal 1: What are you trying to say?

Before you begin typing, try to identify your primary communications goal. Are you:

1. Announcing the time, place and cost of the 3rd Annual Pinniped Symposium?
2. Teaching students how to use the machine that goes "bing"?
3. Demonstrating your intellectual prowess through the use of large vocabulary words and complex sentences?
4. Commenting on the reading assignment for your class?
5. Venting about urban sprawl while soliciting ideas for rebuilding our inner cities?
6. Telling a story about the talking hippopotamus who saved the river queen by sitting on the evil 12-clawed erosion monster?

Identifying your goal should give you a quick sense of how much and what type of writing will be required to convey your message. If the message is complex, this would also be a good time to write an outline to organize your thoughts in a logical progression.

You probably noticed that number 3 doesn't seem like a valid goal. It's not. I mention it as a reminder to leave our egos at the door. Every now and again I stumble upon a writer who just can't push her ego to the side. In such cases, the prose is so convoluted and hard to follow that any other goal is lost in the word play. Berkeley's J. Bradford DeLong gives a good example of this (as well as a lucid translation) in his essay, Communication: Should We Write to Be Understood?

Goal 2: Communicating what you want to say to your intended audience

Your point is to communicate, rather than to confuse, so it is important to write with your audience in mind. If your subject is highly technical and your readers are well-versed in the topic, then of course you should take advantage of your common vocabulary. To do otherwise would cause confusion.

If you are writing to those new to the field then you will want to offer more simple explanations. That said, in neither case do you want to overly challenge your audience by letting your words get in the way of your message. If your readers want to know how to use the copy machine, don't overwhelm them with data on electrostatic charges and photoconductivity. Just tell them to select a quantity on the keypad and push the big green (or other simple descriptive) button. Readers want to follow a story, or learn how to do something—without having to fight through the words to understand. Tailor the text to your readers based on their expertise in both subject matter and reading ability.

Reading ability: Why should we consider Reading Levels?

If you've ever run spell check in Microsoft Word or other popular programs you've probably come across the "Flesch Reading Ease" and "Flesch-Kincaid Reading Level" scores for your document. These—now common place—tools are the result of research done by Rudolph Flesch and other readability experts, who came up with methods to quantify the readability of text based on sentence length, number of words and number of syllables.

During the 1940's and 1950's Flesch, a proponent of clear writing, worked with periodicals and newspapers to improve readability and enhance circulation. According to "What's with the newspapers" published in the May 2, 2005 issue of the Plain Language At Work Newsletter, newspaper readership increased by 45 percent as newspapers dropped their reading levels from the 12th grade to the ninth grade. Sales demonstrated that customers were willing to read more when the writing was easier to understand. While writing clearly seems like good ole common sense, this example shows us—quantifiably—how accessible writing can impact our readers, and in turn, our own goals as writers.

How does this apply to you? Gauge the complexity of your own writing.

You've chosen a goal and you've written your first draft. It makes sense to you, but then again, you already know about the topic. How can you tell if it will make sense to your readers? Should you run it through spellcheck to check the reading ease and levels? While you should always spellcheck, I'm not sure that you need to measure the reading levels of everything you write. These tools can help you determine the approximate difficulty level of your writing, but other factors, such as your writing style, are equally important.

Rather than focusing on particular documents I think it helps to get an overall sense of your writing and your audience. Having run spellcheck many times over the years, I've found that my writing often scores around a 12th grade reading level—I have a penchant for long sentences, the passive tense, and other "rule-breakers." My audience of faculty, staff and students tends to be highly educated, so this shouldn't pose much of a problem. Yet, I also know that I don't want to challenge my readers. I want you to easily read and digest this information while picking the pickles off your sandwich and listening to that new CD you just ordered from Japan. In other words, I want to drop it down a notch, perhaps to a 9th grade reading level that you can follow even if you're half-asleep.

Does that mean I immediately go back to my copy, shorten all the sentences and trade-in every big word for a smaller one? No. While some plain language experts would disagree, I think you can break some rules to retain the flavor of your own style. The tests provide an approximate level, but they can't perfectly judge the clarity of your writing.

Rather than worrying about how I've scored, I prefer to set aside the document and come back to it with fresh eyes the next day. Then I'll read through to see if any parts seem confusing. While doing so I try to imagine that I'm someone less familiar with the topic—asking myself if concept A would make sense if I didn't already know about it. If the situation warrants I'll also share the document with a friend or colleague to see if it seems clear to them.

While this technique works for me, you may find another approach works better for you. Much of this depends on the nature of your writing. The main thing is to keep yourself focused on writing clearly. Your readers will appreciate it.

Writing Resources

• A Plain English Handbook (created by the Securities and Exchange Commission)
• Ask Oxford: Plain English
• Center for Plain Language
• Dictionaries, Thesauruses and Styleguides
• How to Write Plain English - Rudolf Flesch's explanation of his formula
• Plain English Campaign
• PlainLanguage.com
• PlainLanguage.gov
• Write to be understood

How did this score?

In case you are curious, this entry scored 63.9% in "Reading Ease" and 8.5 for "Grade Level". But the real test is whether it makes sense to you.