Writing Basics: Write Tight

Do you write tight or do you flounder along hoping to get your point across? There are times when many of us flounder along; maybe in a blog post or writing a letter to a friend. But is this type of writing conducive to your career? Can it fit in with writing articles for websites?

One of the basic rules in writing is to write tight. Remove all the redundancies and build concise sentences. Unfortunately this rule is rarely followed in web content writing. Why? Because content owners want keyword rich articles to get indexed quickly and gain more traffic.

How do keywords make the reader feel? How do you feel when reading a book from your favorite author and find the same word repeated several times? Do you feel like the writer is insulting you or that you're stupid and can't remember the point? Do you think web readers feel any different?

Readers are smart people. When they feel you've talked down to them in your writing or made them feel stupid, they won't care to read your material.

What does this have to do with writing tight and web content? Well, we all know that content writing is rarely written tight. It's full of redundancy. In the past this has been good for getting indexed and ranking higher with search engines. But that could soon change. People want good information without having to weed through a bunch of garbage or a bunch of words without a point.

Look at this sentence: "Our most memorable trip was unforgettable."

Do you see the redundancy? Simply stating, "Our trip was unforgettable," is enough and the reader will appreciate it. The reader understands it was memorable.

Another rule of writing tight is to avoid empty expressions. Use concise sentences instead. Empty expressions are filler words. Maybe you've used them to get your word count up there. But in trying to achieve a big word count, you've actually hurt your writing.

Look at this sentence: "It seems there were 30 people at the convention."

How can you make that sentence better and easier to read? By simply stating, "Thirty people attended the convention", you've shorten the sentence and got your point across. The reader can also appreciate this.

If you cut all the redundant words and empty expressions how will you make your word count? That's where honing your skills and in depth research will pay off. Give the reader a little more information and a little less filler. Studying the art of fiction writing is good exercise too. In writing fiction, you're taught to write, write, write and then cut, cut, cut. Write your material and let it sit. Then proofread and remove all the words that just fill in the spaces.

Writing for the reader and not the search engine will greatly improve your writing skills. This also gives the reader the quality information they're looking for.

Following the basics of writing can work for web content with practice and patience.

The old adage of "less is more" is especially true in writing and should be adapted for informative, quality web writing.

Ann King runs Main Edition Network, a site dedicated to freelance writers.