I love written communication. Whether it’s a news article
with my morning coffee, a cute 140-character tweet, emails at work, the latest
edition of Cosmo or a simple thinking-of-you text message, written communication
is everywhere. There’s no escaping it.
But unfortunately, not all writing is pretty. Maybe it’s
because of my journalism degree, but I get frustrated when I come across bad
writing. I understand not everyone is a New
York Times best-selling author, but that’s no excuse for bad writing. Writing
needs to be clear, correct and intriguing. Let’s be real, no one is happy to
receive a “wat u doin 2nite” text, or read a 900-word babbling article that
could easily be said in 100.
So, here are some of my writing pet peeves:
Misleading Headlines
and Subject Lines. There’s nothing more annoying than clicking on a
headline that reads something like, “Best Colleges in the Country,” only to
read that Baylor University is not on the list. OK, that was a joke, kind of.
But misleading headlines are a huge pet peeve. We’ve all seen them, clicked on
them and usually ended up disappointed. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing for
a newspaper, sending an email or simply sharing a link on Facebook, headlines
need to be a clear summary of your content. If you want to grab readers’
attention by being cute and witty, that’s great, just make sure it’s still
directly related to the story. Writing headlines is an art and takes practice!
Check out these annual
headline contest winners from the American Copy Editors
Society for a look at some of the best headline writers in the business!
Too many little dots…
The over use of them hurts my head. As a reader, you don’t want to be
interrupted by multiple and meaningless stops. I understand using them once or
twice for emphasis after a joke or fun fact. Like the funny Saturday morning text
message: “I just woke up on a half-eaten lean pocket…” or “I saw the most
attractive person today… in the mirror.” You get the idea. But when those three
little dots are used multiple times… throughout texts… or emails… or comments…
for no apparent reason… I… loose… my mind… so think wisely before you use
them…
Those super-complex, look-how-smart-I-am
words. OK, so you know the definition of unscrupulous, good for you. But no
one cares. I used to see this all the time in school when we had to peer-review
classmates’ essays; you could tell the ones who were just right-clicking the
thesaurus option, praying to look smarter. Well it didn’t work then, and it’s
not working now. The best message is written in the clearest, simplest form.
Again, this is probably my news writing, journalism background talking, but the
best writing is easy-to-read and precise (all while being informative and
interesting).
My secret exception
to writing rules: Personality. I love reading an article, tweet, blog,
email or Facebook status that has a real voice. People shouldn’t be afraid to
show their self in their writing. Show enthusiasm. Reveal emotions. Sometimes,
that perfectly placed exclamation mark, caring tone or wonderfully worded
sentence can make all the difference!
