Producing Good Copy

The effect of good writing is making the flow of information as easy as possible. It is more than using abstract symbols to transfer information from one mind to another, it's arranging those language symbols in a manner that allows the thoughts to move effortlessly off the medium and into the mind of the consumer. There are many aspects that go into this process. Some of these are editorial, artistic, logical, presentational, emotional, sensory and compatible, naming but a few.

Editorial: It is easy to think that writing copy full of grammatical errors is fine as long as the message gets across. This is a bad assumption. Just as readers assess a person by their actions and appearance, so do readers assess a writer's skill, competence and credibility by the quality of their manuscript. Sure, a consumer can and will decipher intent but the more glitches the more effort it takes and the more it impedes the flow of data. It takes extra work and detracts energy from an understanding of the material.

Artistic: Reading something well written is like seeing an object in a museum, artfully rendered. It creates a sense of wonder, even awe and the lens of the mind opens wide to take it in.

Logical: The arrangement of the information the writer wants to impart is also important. The human mind tends to process data with an eye to a
beginning, middle and end. We like to see problems identified, facts provided, possibilities considered, analysis, conclusions and recommendations. There is an optimal sequence to this information flow and the closer a writer comes to achieving it the better the copy.

Presentational: If one can imagine a cave man telling a story or providing a verbal history, try visualizing her as animated, hopping about and making gestures. It isn't just the information being imparted that's important, but how that information is being presented. These early story tellers, relied on creating the most vivid imagery they possibly could, in ways that made the listeners receptive to what they were seeing. It 's not only the substance, which provides the core, but also the manner in which it cries out to be received and processed by the mind.

Emotional: An appeal to the emotions is as important as an appeal to the intellect. Before humans learned the formal processes of reason and logic our ancestors used their emotions as a default in processing data. Love and hate, joy and sorrow, lust and desire, are examples of how our emotions compel us to act in ways that are both productive and counter productive

Sensory: If it looks good, sounds good, smells good, feels good, and tastes good, then it must be good. However there is that elusive Sixth sense, intuition that derives from the gut that is a force to be given its due. Evoking the senses in our written work lies at the core of a readers acceptance and understanding of what you write. It provides authenticity and allows the reader to slip vicariously into the world of imagination and think they are walking down the pathway of a character's experience.

Compatible: It is important that the data resonate with what a person has learned earlier. Humans like patterns and order to guide their thinking and the development of their characters.

No doubt there are many more I've overlooked. Good writing is an appeal to all of these and the more skilled a writer becomes the easier it is for the consumer's mind to soak up and understand what's being fed into their bio-processors.