Writing Clearly Can Be Challenging ...

One of the keys to writing effective direct response copy is clarity. If the reader has to stop reading and spend time/energy trying to figure out what you are saying, there's a real risk he'll quit reading altogether. If that happens there will be no response.

Writing with clarity can be difficult. Here's why ...

(From Drew Allen Miller's, Board Report for Graphic Artists)

They say "talk is cheap." That's probably because of the old rule of supply and demand. The English language has more words to choose from than any other language in the world -- in all of history, for that matter.

We have over 800,000 words to choose from when communicating. And more than 60,000 words have been added since 1966.

Do we need them all? Hardly.

Journalists use the most to ply their trade -- about 20,000. Doctors, lawyers and the clergy use only about 10,000. And the average skilled worker uses around 5,000.

But when you get down to basics, there are only about 500 words that we all use on a regular basis. But these 500 words have about 14,000 different dictionary definitions.

Are you beginning to see just how easy it is to be misinterpreted?

[Reprinted originally from Drew Allen Miller's, Board Report for Graphic Artists newsletter. You can reach Drew through his boardreport.com web site.]

Copyright 2007 by Galen Stilson