Evergreen Times

Starting a portfolio website as a writer is easy enough. Knowing what to post there is another matter! The problem we’re faced with is that everybody’s looking for something, and we don’t know what that “something” is, even though we may be adaptable as commercial writers. Here are some of the options, each written in the style that would apply.

Let Your Hair Down

I’m struggling to be myself. After years of writing in a neutral way, it can be really hard to chill out, kick back and just chat.

Have you experienced this?

You’ve been spanking yourself out of using slang. You’ve avoided the dreaded first person. Your paragraphs are a sensible length. Your sentences would make your high-school English teacher ecstatic.

Now you’re cropping them to hell and back, throwing in slang whenever you feel like it, and your paragraphs are one sentence or even one word long.

Brutal.

And what’s this? First person? I don’t even know who that is anymore! Who is this “I” and why should anyone care?

Opinionated? You’re going in with no holds barred.

It’s time to get into character. There are three options: pour yourself a stiff drink, read a few thousand words of informal copy to get in the mood, or go the whole hog and do both!

Too bad I didn’t do any of these things today.

Forgive me.

It’s 9AM and I’m still chugging my third morning coffee.

Caffeine rush. I swear this stuff can turn me into a werewolf or something. Maybe it makes me write better. Heck, maybe it’s what I need to write at all!

Anyway.

Some clients like this style. “Neutrality? Pffffff! Who is this characterless purveyor of boredom?” they ask while chucking my portfolio out of the metaphorical window.

Epic fail.

Cries.

Keep it Neutral (Business Informal)

When writing in a neutral way, representing facts in an easily readable manner is key. The first person is excluded, and the writer addresses the reader directly using short sentences and paragraphs punctuated with subheadings. “Fluff” and chit-chat are out, and the content is carefully structured to lead to the desired conclusion.

Most of the work freelance content writers do requires this approach. It may lack personality. It may limit creativity. But it eliminates, to a certain extent, the reader’s stylistic preference as a means of gauging credibility. Instead of trying hard to charm or impress, it conveys information with perhaps just a dash of sales talk, usually at the very end.

Academic or Business Formal

On occasion, obfuscating and convoluted language is preferred by individuals seeking the services of freelance writers. If the completed work requires extensive study for the purpose of gaining an understanding of its contents, and both paragraphs and sentences are extended to the limits of grammatical exactitude, customer satisfaction ensues.

However, it remains unclear whether readers will be motivated to exercise the necessary diligence required to decode the communication effectively, or whether it will create the desired impression, since disengagement from the text may not necessarily equate to admiration for the advanced level of professionalism, specialist knowledge, and intellect it is intended to reflect.

It is arguably more desirable to select the business informal approach to language use since most individuals prefer to scan, rather than study, texts and there is a high probability that presenting information in a manner that renders it challenging to comprehend will result in readers transferring their attention to potentially competing offerings that are written with the intention of facilitating understanding without the need for concentrated attention. This has been confirmed in research, and is encapsulated in an article by Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group, an organisation which strives to present research-based conclusions on user experience.

A Writer’s View

I’ll go out on a limb with this one, and context could modify my point of view. My personal preference is for neutrality. Casual writing has its place, but if you choose it, you should be sure that it’s what your targeted group of readers wants. Surfers and skateboarders? Cowabunga! Go bananas! Businesspeople? It might put a fairly large chunk of them off. Sticking to the facts is probably a better idea.

As for using a style that makes people’s eyes slide off the page because just understanding it is hard work, it seems to defeat the object of writing. Surely, the point is to be understood, and if that means boiling complex concepts down into fairly simple language, that’s a good thing.

If your reader has a hard time just understanding what you do and what you’re talking about, he or she is very likely to move onto something that’s been crafted for easy comprehension. Odds are you’d do the same thing.

I could reference various sources to back up this opinion, but you’ll have to take my word for it. Remember, I’m not just a writer. I’m a reader too. I don’t think there are many people in the world who visit as many websites and read as many articles and blogs as I do every single day.

I’ve been doing this for ten or twelve years, and I have to tell you that while fluff occasionally entertains, it can also irritate. As for opaque texts that seem to have been crafted to show me how clever the writer is because I don’t even understand what he or she is saying, well, I bounce. Someone else has probably said the same thing more clearly.

What’s your point of view? Let’s hear from you! Oh! And if you’re looking for a writer, drop me a line. I’d be awfully excited if you did! (Laughs at CTA. That one wasn’t very good, was it?)