Bad copy is hard to detect, but it makes a big difference in the clarity of an interface or the success of a sell.

Most of the copy in my apps is written once, found sufficient, then ignored. The hard part comes when I decide to rewrite. Since I can’t unit test writing, the options of different verbs or phrases to type gets overwhelming.

Jason Fried wrote an article yesterday on this w/r/t writing copy for highrise that I want to elaborate on.

He says:

Think about what you really need to say, write it in place, remove what’s non-essential, pare it down, make sure you’re getting to the point without using terms that require additional explanation, rewrite, compare with the original, see if you’re missing anything important, and wrap it up.

I have a few writing tricks of my own.

Trick: Don’t clear your throat before verbs

Consider this:

Facebook is an application to help you improve your ability to make connections and to make it easier to share with the people in your life.

versus this:

Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.

The second sentence is clearly better. Instead of prefacing its verbs with tons of throat clearing, it gets straight to the point. By switching “help improve your ability to make connections” with “connect” we avoid the momentum killer of having to use ‘to’ as well as the dust that settles on your potential customers while they read through all those words.

As a simpler example, consider:

Rocks for Jocks is an application to simplify astronomy for athletes.

versus

Rocks for Jocks simplifies astronomy for athletes.

or, a less weird example,

Use Netflix to rent movies

versus

Rent movies with Netflix

The second sentence avoids having to use “to,” by cutting unnecessary words and quickly getting to the point.

This stuff may seem pretty irrelevent. However, I spend a good amount of time watching analytics for the newspaper site that I code, and small changes like these, when made in news headlines, make a big impact.