Guest Posting: The Seven Deadly Sins of Writing, By Roberta Guise, MBA

Roberta Guise works with experts, small business owners and professionals who want to be extraordinarily visible and sharpen their marketing edge. She also enables successful women to become thought leaders. A marketing consultant and speaker, she is the founder of San Francisco-based Guise Marketing & PR.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Writing

By Roberta Guise, MBA

There’s an epidemic of bad writing. Whether it’s Web sites, print ads, marketing brochures, promotional fliers, e-mail messages or business writing in general, I frequently find myself baffled as to what the writer meant to say.

Some annoying symptoms of bad writing show up in typographical errors, such as an apostrophe before the “s” in a plural word and in the possessive word “its” (which doesn’t use an apostrophe). Or in the word “you’re” — this being a contraction of “you are” — when the writer means “your,” as in belonging to you.

Then there’s the dropped “s” that renders a word singular when it was meant to be plural, and words that are just plain misspelled. These mistakes can — and more often than not will — leave a bad impression on the reader.

Frequently, though, the writing is so bad that you can’t tell what the writer originally meant. Marketers of services have the biggest challenge communicating their message. It’s either loaded with jargon or strange incomprehensible sentence structures that render the piece meaningless.

Or, in an effort to win your business, the writer tells you all about how great they are, rather than letting you know why you’ll be better off doing business with them.

I know people say that nobody reads these days. Wrong! People do read. How else could they navigate the Web? Your Web site or brochure are full of words that you want people to read, as are event fliers, ads and other marketing promotions. Think about it: if a reader can’t decipher your writing, or if it’s riddled with mistakes, you risk losing business.

To maximize your return on investment from your marketing materials, here are my Seven Deadly Sins of Writing, and recommendations for fixing them.

  1. Use industry jargon. It shows how smart you are.
    The fix: use language that anyone outside of your industry will understand.
  2. Don’t use the word “you,” because this is about how great “we” are.
    The fix: Use the word “you.” It engages the reader, and will give them the sense that you’re having a conversation.
  3. Write exclusively about your company, because you’re the most interesting subject you know of.
  4. Use sexist language by always using “he” and “his” as generic terms, because it’s easier and most people don’t care anyway.
    The fix: Use “he or she,” or the plural “they,” and you’ll stop perpetuating stereotypes.
  5. Forget to use a catchy headline. People are smart, they’ll figure it out, and what’s wrong with baffling them? It creates intrigue and they’ll call for more information.
    The fix: Draw readers in with a sharp, snappy headline, letting them quickly scan for the most important information and “get” what you’re offering.
  6. Don’t tell the reader what to do after reading. Readers can figure it out, so why tell them?
    The fix: Tell readers what you want them to do next (such as register for the seminar or call for a free consultation).
  7. Ignore punctuation and typos because no one really reads anything these days, right?
    The fix: Go to the website for National Punctuation Day, where Jeff Rubin, a former print journalist who has published newsletters for more than 25 years, offers punctuation guidelines that will make your writing sparkle and impress your prospects.

As you write your next business, marketing or promotion piece (and even your tweets), use these Seven Deadly Sins and their fixes as a checklist. And to be sure readers understand your message, ask yourself how they’ll benefit from what you offer. Then, carefully describe those benefits in simple, clear language. This will put you well on your way to convincing them that they should do business with you.

Give a little extra thought to the words you choose. Hint: generally, shorter words are better. When you’re done writing, read your document carefully —even show it to a friend or co-worker — before you upload it to your website, send to the commercial printer, lick the envelope or click the e-mail Send button.

5 Comments so far
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I agree with all but #4. “He or she” sounds clumsy, and “they” when used in the context of a single individual’s actions breaks the rule that verb should agree with the noun. I try to alternate sexes when I write — maybe use “he” in one paragraph and “she” in the next (assuming I’m describing different individuals), or at least use “she” and “her” throughout some pieces, rather than using only “he” and “his”.

Pretty good advice, although I’d question #6 only because it presupposes that all writing is supposed to contain an action you want the reader to take. Sometimes we just want to write and hope someone enjoys it.

I review many business plans authored by a diverse (age, education, income, US and non-US born) and agree that the epidemic is widespread. I am convinced many entrepreneurs never get funding because they fail in telling their story in a compelling way.

Working in the educational publishing business, I’m often unable to recommend an otherwise interesting Web site, article, or book because the writing is so careless that it sets a bad example for students, or because that recommendation might reflect poorly on my own employer. People who think editing and proofreading don’t matter may not be aware of how much business they’re actually losing in this way.

Also, I’d like to respond to Tim Dodge’s comment. Most of the time (though not always) a sentence can be reconstructed so “they” is correct. Even in an “each” construction, for example, “Each attendee should bring his own chair” can be recast as “Attendees should each bring their own chair.”

In fact, all of these tips are correct, even numbers 4 and 6. Yes, every bit of writing should include an action IF IT’S FOR MARKETING purposes, which is what this post is primarily about.

And, the same goes for using “they” “them” and such for marketing unless specifying a particular individual as a story for an exemplifying connection.

Lester hit the nail on the head for how professional writing can be worded correctly!

And regarding the post in general, I myself try to implement these strategies, though at times reworking what I’ve written is required simply because writing focused on marketing is a little different than writing out of enjoyment, and I find myself doing both simultaneously!

Good post, I enjoyed it.



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