Informal Tone Tips: Get everyone to listen to you with your writing!

When writing articles, especially internet articles the key is attaining readers. Sometimes, when the writing is too technical– or, dare I say, boring– readers will be quick to close the tab and read something else. Therefore, it’s important to write in such a way that will grab interest and hold attention.

Here are a few tricks to help you do this:

• One way to do this, is to write in short, concise sentences. As a writer, you never want to make the reader feel unintelligent, so don’t bog them down with long winded paragraphs. Try to say as much as possible, with as little words as possible.

• Next, try to write in the same way that you speak. Strive to use words that you’d use in everyday conversation and have fun with your tone! Be careful not to overuse too many local slang words, since you want to appeal to a global audience, but as long as you are making your point clearly and professionally, you can be creative with the way in which you present your data, so appeal to your audience.

• Bullet points, bolding, italicizing, and underlining, are great tools to get your main points across. Many professionals today lead extremely busy lives and skim articles rather than reading them entirely. Therefore, bolding or drawing attention to your main arguments will help get your point across, even if they don’t read your article word for word.

• Metaphors and analogies- sometimes readers need examples to understand your point. So using metaphors and analogies can help clarify things. They take hard-to-understand concepts and ideas, and make them simpler to grasp. For example, “life is like a box of chocolates,” takes an abstract idea (life) and compares it to something familiar and understandable like a box of chocolates.

• Last, be yourself! Be bubbly, be friendly, be relaxed. Your writing tone and style is yours, and yours alone. No one will ever write exactly the same way that you do, so make it your own. There is immense power in having a strong writing voice.

In conclusion, articles are different from case studies and data reports, in that they aren’t expected to be formal. Draw people in by writing articles that interest others, in a tone that will grab and keep their attention. Remember, you have the power to get people to listen to you with your writing!