In his memoir “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” Stephen King tells us “to write is human, to edit is divine”. That is something that all content writers understand. Editing is an indispensable part of a writer’s job, but many writers often miss the mark when applying this practice to content writing — but when it is done properly, nobody even notices there were copy-killing mistakes in the article in the first place. Fillers and fluff are two major examples of writing practices that can result in low engagement of your content. Fillers Fillers are words that can be removed without the sentence losing its meaning. Fillers result in unnecessarily long sentences and complex structures that can make it hard for readers to follow your ideas. Worse, these words do not add any value to your content. Because of the fact that most readers leave your website in the first 30 seconds if they don’t like find it engaging, fillers are bad news for your business. Sentences can become wordy by: · Excessive use of passive voice, instead of an active voice: Passive voice introduces unnecessary words into your writing. For example, “I ate an apple,” seems to be a nice, simple and succinct phrase. When you change it to a passive voice, it becomes, “an apple was eaten by me.” Four words turned into six words and also the phrasing was also impaired. · Adding unnecessary prepositions: Even though prepositions are small, they can build up quickly and add a lot of words to your content. For example, “the head of the sales department helped the trainee from Australia” doesn’t seem that long; however, it can be made better by changing it to “the sales head helped the Australian trainee. · Placing redundant words: There are entire classes of words that can be eliminated to make your sentences more concise and understandable. These include introductory phrases, like “basically,” qualifiers like “very” and “extremely,” function words like “that,” and linking phrases like “in order to.” There are also unnecessary phrases like “person who.” For example, “he is a person who tailors hats” can be easily changed to “he is a hatmaker.” Here are some examples of wordy sentences: Example 1 Wordy: She switched her job on account of the fact that the department manager continuously bullied her. Concise: She switched her job because the department manager bullied her Example 2 Wordy: He drove a car that was red in color and beat-up. Concise: He drove a beat-up red car. Example 3 Wordy: Maria made sure to speak to her sister in order to address the fact of how messy her side of the room was every single day. Concise: Maria spoke with her sister about how messy her side of the room was every day. As aprofessional content writer, if you use big words and long sentences to make yourself look smart, it can actually have the opposite effect. When your writing feels overworked, people will not enjoy reading it. Your writing should feel effortless as if the words flowed freely from your mind. Fluff Fluff is superfluous detail that adds words to your content but often makes the reader feel bored. A person who has to browse through paragraph after paragraph of useless, irrelevant writing will leave your website in just a few seconds. These days, readers prefer getting relevant information in snack-sized bits, which they can sift through in a few seconds. If you fail to grab their attention within the first few sentences, you can bid them adieu. Here is some content that readers particularly hate: · Your opinions: Unless it is an op-ed, most readers are concerned with facts and figures, not what you think about the situation. · Stating the obvious: Saying things like “Christmas is enjoyed by many people in the world,” is something all readers know and don’t add any beauty or value to your content. Readers would much rather have you come straight to the point. · Going off-tangent: Going off-topic is the worst thing you can do for your content. Readers don’t have time to peruse pointless drivel so keep it to the minimum. · Jargons, complex terms, slangs or “cute” language: Using technical terms or pop-culture references can be quite irritating, especially when most readers are not familiar with them. You need to keep in mind your entire reader base when you are creating content, not just a random few. · Cliches: Get rid of overused lines like “this is the first day of the rest of your life” or “think outside the box.” Example 1 Fluff: The holiday season is the best time of the year. There are plenty of beautiful white and snowy days which offer you many opportunities to participate in various holiday activities. One thing that is of particular importance is giving out charity and helping those in need. Concise: Now that the holidays are here, you may want to help those in need. Even though the first paragraph may initially seem entertaining, this type of meaningless, pointless content can quickly tire the readers, who will move on to the next website. Fillers And Fluff Are A Waste Of Time When content writers write more than what is necessary, they waste their time and energy. Worse, they waste their readers’ time and energy. This means higher bounce rates, low engagement, and fewer clickthroughs, all of which translate into a low search engine page rank. Your main objective should be to convey your message in a clear, simple and concise way that your readers can understand. Whatever the underlying issues may be, content writing is harder than meets the eye. Every piece of content writing needs to be approached differently, and that is not everyone’s piece of cake. If you think you are not up to it, it is a good idea to considerprofessional content writing services which can help you create the kind of content you need for your business.
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