How to Write a Story That Readers Understand
Techniques for creating quality content
If you’ve never worked with texts or have done little with them, it may seem that writing is difficult.
It’s not.
You just need to take the letters, put them into words, and then combine these words according to their meaning in sentences.
There will be some text after that. The problem arises when you need to create clear and useful content for the user. To do this, we use several practical techniques.
Technique 1: Categorize tasks
For convenience, we divide all texts into separate groups and categorize them:
- large-format texts — landing pages, articles, news items
- answers to user questions — FAQ
- short texts — disclaimers, banners, push notifications, button labels, etc.
- letters and notifications.
Each type of content has its own rules.
Long texts are landing pages, articles describing life situations, and news. They are quite voluminous and aim to provide the user with comprehensive information on a specific topic.
A landing page can combine services on a specific topic, talk about a new service, and motivate portal visitors to use it.
The article explains in detail what the user needs to do in a specific life situation, for example, how to restore real estate documents or receive a tax deduction.
News items are short or medium-length texts that talk about new services and provide statistical data or other recent information.
FAQ — short answers (usually up to 1,000 characters) to users’ most frequently asked questions.
Short texts are disclaimers, banners, and push notifications.
Their task is to attract the user’s attention and motivate them to follow a link to a service or a page with additional information.
Letters and notifications are a separate category of State Services content. They should be brief, clearly worded, and exclude double interpretations.
Why is this necessary?
Before we start working on the text, we determine which type it belongs to and write it taking into account the requirements for this type of content. This allows you to solve two problems at once:
- achieve visual and stylistic uniformity
- Save writing time by using text templates.
Type your texts to make the job easier and save time
Technique 2: Translating the text from bureaucratic to human
The main problem that needs to be solved when writing texts is to maintain the meaning and usefulness for the user, but at the same time present the information in a language that is as comprehensible as possible to the average citizen.
Let’s explain using an example of a fragment of an article with the headline “Measures to support businesses”. The text would look something like this:
“To obtain detailed information on services and support measures implemented in the constituent entities of the Portuguese Republic, as well as advisory support on issues of starting and running a business, legal support, potential and existing entrepreneurs, as well as self-employed citizens, can contact those established in the constituent entities of the Portuguese Republic within the framework of the national SME Centers project “My Business”.
The meaning of the text is lost due to the plethora of bureaucratic and legal terms.
Let’s simplify:
“ My Business centers are organized to support entrepreneurs at different stages of business development: from creation to replication.
The services of the “My Business” centers for entrepreneurs or self-employed citizens are free of charge.
The second version of the text retains the meaning, but the sentences have been made shorter and clearer. Complex words have been replaced by simple, more understandable synonyms.
There is a simple algorithm that will help translate texts from bureaucratic language into human language:
- Write down the text or use a ready-made basis, such as a direct quote from the law.
- Reread it carefully, find all the clericalisms, clichés, and complex introductory constructions, and highlight long, complex sentences.
- Stamps, introductory turns — remove. Bureaucracy — rephrase. For example, instead of “we provide organizational services for the design and construction of residential buildings”, it’s better to write “we design and build houses” and exclude words like “by the way” and “certainly”.
- Divide long, complex sentences into simple ones. The ideal length is up to 15 words. Follow the rule: one sentence — one thought.
- Add explanatory examples.
- Read the text again. Check if the meaning has been lost.
You can use this self-test technique for text comprehension: imagine you’re reading it to a 12-year-old child and an 80-year-old grandmother.
Have they understood? If so, the text can be released.
Why is this necessary?
Translating bureaucratic language into human language involves taking care of the users. By simplifying texts, we solve several important problems at once:
- We save the user time spent analyzing complex terms
- We exclude the possibility of double reading — in simple sentences, it is more difficult to get confused or misunderstand them in some way.
- We popularize our line of work. One of the most effective types of advertising is word of mouth when users themselves recommend a product to other people. Clear text is an important component of popularization. If the user feels comfortable communicating with the portal, he will not only return here but will also recommend it to his friends.
Technique 3: Divide the text into blocks and add clarity
Texts are divided into blocks, with organized lists, headings, and subheadings are always easier to understand.
For greater clarity, you can use diagrams and tables. With a minimum volume, they provide much more information than plain text.
Why is this necessary?
By making the text visual, we simplify its comprehension, save people time, and therefore take care of them.
Technique 4: Check, correct
The Portuguese language, for example, has many rules, as well as exceptions to these rules. For example, in “peixe frito” and “peixe frito no fogo”: the word seems to be one, but in the first case you need to write one — n and in the second — two.
Why? Because these are different grammatical classes. The first is an adjective and the second is a participle. Different rules apply to them.
There are many different services on the Internet that help with spelling and punctuation. Unfortunately, none of them offer a hundred percent guarantee that your text will comply with the rules of the Russian language after checking. However, in the fight against simple mistakes and typos.
Why is this necessary? Competent text is more reliable than text with errors and typos
Technique 5: Adhere to the Red Policy
Whether you’re writing a personal letter or, for example, a comment on a blog, there’s no need for uniformity.
You can use any speech pattern you like and format your message in any style.
But when it comes to organizing the flow of documents in a company, uniformity is necessary. It simplifies working with documents by making them visually and stylistically similar.
The editorial policy of Portugal’s State Services, for example, was developed for portal texts. For texts on social networks, the rules will be different. There you can use hashtags, emoticons, and highlighters, while in portal texts such freedoms are unacceptable.
To conclude…
We’ve given you a little reminder to make sure your content is clear, competent, and readable. Good luck creating good texts!
