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Gertrude Stein insisted that a rose was a rose was a rose. And Iwill proclaim, right here, that boring is boring is boring.Youve probably heard (ad nauseum) that writing for the web iscompletely different than writing for print. Keep your copy asshort as possible. Dont use italics. Use shorter, simplersentences. However, this relatively sound advice wont help youif your content is a snooze, or just plain confusing.Good writing is good writing. If a user is given the choicebetween long and interesting, or short and dull, they willprobably read half of the interesting piece, and skip the dullcontent altogether. Neither is ideal, my point is that too muchemphasis is placed on length these days, rather than the verynature of the content itself.What keeps people reading?1. Stories. "Story" can mean lots of different things. Itcan be a testimonial. It can be your first-person account asentrepreneur. You can make up a goofy little character and havehim guide users through the site. The fact of the matter is, werespond to stories. The best TV writers know this-and so do thebest ad copywriters. Watch the CLEO awards some year. Everyaward-winning commercial Ive seen has a narrative. It may beovert, it may be subtle, but its still there. Even the mostbuttoned-down business site can use story to good effect-TV adsfor swanky, expensive cars are a great example.2. Content-in its original sense. I actually find the word"content" profoundly irritating, because it gives the impressionthat you can fill your site with anything, as long as it takes upvisual space. I think the original use of that word-that is,table of "content-s"-is much more helpful. No ones going to reada book full of junk text; and they wont read it on a site,either. Avoid filling your pages with "fluff" - that is, cheesysales rhetoric that doesnt really say anything at all. Usedetails. Get specific. Be as accurate as you can. Think ofyourself as a reporter, writing an article. A detailed, objectivedescription is far more compelling that pie-in-the-sky Carnivalbarking.3. Pay attention to language. Word choices make all thedifference in the world. What if Buzz Aldren had said, "Imtaking a small step here, its just a man-sized step, but I canthelp but think that this is a symbol that we, humanity as awhole, were all taking a large step, like this little step, butbigger and more symbolic." The moon landing would not have beenas poignant, not by a long shot. But because he was wise with hisword choices, we have "One small step for man, one giant leap formankind." Much nicer, dont you think?4. Technicalities. Ive said it before, but youre shootingyourself in the foot if you allow spelling and punctuation errorsto float around on your site. If youre not sure if you have any,find someone-anyone-with an English degree, and have them do alight edit. Its a good idea to get another pair of eyeballs onthe site anyway, because if youve been looking at the copy fordays and days, chances are you wont always spot your errors, nomatter how sharp your editorial eye.Well, thats the short version of perking up your copy, no matterwhat the length. Of course, once youve infused it with somesparkle, try to make it as economical as possible.If youre interested in further resources to help you improveyour copy, I suggest contentious.com. Editor Amy Gahran has agreat eye for spotting "fluff," and does a great job keeping tabson current content trends.http://www.contentious.com/Contentious sister site, Content Exchange, is also excellent. Ifyoure getting a little woozy thinking about this writing stuff,Content Exchange features a classified ad system to match upcontent producers with folks in need of copy. If youre doing thecopy yourself, I highly recommend their online writing contentdiscussion list:http://www.content-exchange.com/cx/html/owl.htmAnyone who undertakes writing for any professional purpose shouldpick up a copy of Strunk and Whites Elements of Style, as wellas one of the other excellent writing guides on the market. Oneof the best is Stephen Wilbers "Keys to Great Writing." Wilbersguide includes the five keys to effective writing (economy,precision, action, music, and personality), the five elements ofcomposition (purpose, point of view, organization, support, andcoherence), grammatical terms, a checklist for writing withstyle, a checklist for proofreading, and a list of writingresources.

About the Author

Stefene Russell is a freelance writer living in Salt Lake City,Utah. She has worked as a print journalist and as Senior ContentProducer for citysearch.com.For a free website analysis, email her at stefene@drnunley.com orfor a detailed analysis, visithttp://www.fixmywebsite.com/analysis.htm