Copywriting

News, Blogs, and Social Media

Even when reporting on complicated subjects, you often have to write for an audience who are non-specialists in that topic. This means breaking the subject down into shorter sentences for better readability, and by using simpler words. No jargon! Unless you specifically explain what that term means and why it is important to use it.

The tone of these types of articles can be more conversational. If it is an opinion piece then it will often be written in the first person perspective – “I think this…” and “I have experience of that…”. Other more factual writing is usually in the third person perspective – “This event happened, due to those events”. Either way, the content of the phrasing needs to be understood by everyone. Simpler is always better!

For marketing, headlines need to be catchy – and obviously correct! The headlines and the articles should also contain any keywords and phrases within the content that are good for SEO and that may be specific to your branding.

Technical and Scientific

Articles aimed at those people who already have a certain level of knowledge of a subject can be written in a more complex way. You can use more technical language and jargon, because the audience should already know these words.

For example, an article which describes the latest scientific breakthrough in (e.g.) treatment of disease, doesn’t have to describe the history of medicine or the history of that particular disease in great detail. BUT it does need to add references to other information, so that the audience can go read more about it, and to show that the facts are true.

References and Attribution

In both cases, if facts are taken from elsewhere, it is best practice to show where the information came from. This lends credibility to the article, the author, and the company represented.