Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

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. Rather, it's also arranging those language symbols in a manner that allows the thoughts to move effortlessly off the medium and into the consumer's brain. There are many aspects that go into this process. Some of these are editorial, artistic, logical, presentational, emotional, 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 dangerous assumption. Just as someone assess others 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 which impedes the flow of data. It takes extra work and this detracts from an easy 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 wider to take it in.

Logical: The arrangement of the information the writer imparts 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 informational flow and the closer a writer comes to achieving it the better.

Presentational: If one can imagine a cave man telling a story or providing a verbal history, it's not just the information being imparted but how that information is being presented. Those 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 and hearing. They danced around, shook rattles, brandished spears and made the most delightful and horrible facial expressions. It's not only the substance, which lies at 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. If it looked good, smelled good, felt good, tasted good or sent a telltale sensation, it was emotion that caused humans to act the way they did.

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 character development.

No doubt there are many more of these aspects that I've overlooked. Those above got only a lick and a kiss. 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.