Alright. Let’s get this out in the open. I’m a mass of contradictions. Anyone who knows me understands that I see both sides of every issue and I have some seemingly hypocritical views and personality ‘traits.’
One of these happens to be that I’m a spelling and grammar fanatic. The other, is that I love to break the rules, especially when it comes to writing. I frequently get into super-hot debates over compound-modifiers, question marks, serial commas and prepositions.
It may surprise you to know that despite being a self-proclaimed, armband-wearing literary revolutionary, I also believe in things like starting a sentence with ‘and.’ And, (see!) if you use a preposition at the end of a sentence, I say right on. AND (twice now, are you fellow fanatics cringing yet?) using passive voice.
Why, you ask, do I stretch and break these sacred rules of writing? Because that’s how we talk, y’all.
One of the most brilliant writers I know (Steve Unger, our copywriter), taught me everything I know about writing—so you can blame him for this post. The most important lesson I learned from him is to write conversationally. People like to read copy that’s written the way they talk. And, (third time’s a charm) they understand concepts more clearly when they’re written in a conversational fashion.
Just look at this blog post. Doesn’t it seem like I’m sitting right next to you, chatting you up?
So, what’s this have to do with Business-to-Business marketing, Shakespeare? Well, you see, I believe writing conversationally is critically important in B2B, especially because B2B industries abound with buzzwords, acronyms and jumbled jargon. The more we can break it down into day-to-day language, the better we’ll be able to relay our clients’ important and valuable messages to their target audiences.
So go forth my friends. Use the word ain’t, because it IS a word. Just don’t say ‘comprised of’ or this will ‘insure’ us of success (unless you’re in the insurance business). Otherwise, I’ll have to whip out the dreaded red pen.
What do you think? Want to join the SuperScripters (my non-vandalizing alternative to TEAL)? Are you a grammar hypocrite, too? (Oh, and no comments about how horrible my spelling and grammar are. I meant to make all those so-called mistakes you found)
