Unit 3

Marketing Communication (F010501T(B))

Class Notes
Creativity is defined as “The tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or
possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and
entertaining ourselves and others.”

Creativity in advertising has two aspects of special import: first, the originality evident in the
message communicated and, in its presentation, and "second, the improvements made in the
life of the consumer or, as often stated, the effects on the consumer's standard of living'.

Creativity in advertising is supposed to generate communicability, excitement, and surprise

from within the advertisement of a product.

Advertising stimulates people to utilise more fully the productive facilities available in market.
During the period of open competitive market economy, creativity in advertising becomes basic
requirement to meet the challenge for marketing of a particular product.

Importance of Creativity in Advertising

1. Creative equals personalization

Think about walking into a coffee shop, approaching the counter about to order your drink.
Now, instead of proceeding to order, the person at the counter says “same as usual?”. That
is personalization. Not only do you save time and energy, but you were remembered and a
connection was made. The same can be said about creative in advertising; if the message
comes across in a personalized and creative way, consumers engage more. And just like
your coffee shop experience, online shopping becomes a lot more convenient.

2. Creative equals brand recognition

Providing value to your customers by creating meaningful connections through creative in

advertising is one way to create brand recognition. Consumers are more likely to resonate
with an ad if it is something they can relate to or if it is relevant to their interests. Companies
can create an established brand this way; by providing meaningful, relevant and consistent
ad creative to their target audience.

3. Creative equals storytelling

 When creating a story for your brand, your main focus should be on emotional impact.
Emotional impact is crucial in order to create human connection. People are more likely to
resonate with your brand if they can relate to it in some way. Not only is storytelling a way
to connect with your customers, it also paints a clear picture of your brand by guiding the
reader along through your journey, leaving fewer unanswered questions. Creating a story
for your brand also enables the ability to retain customers. After people recognize your
brand and can create a connection with it, they are more likely to keep your brand on top
of mind. This becomes a strategic framework in your marketing plan.

4. Creative equals engagement

Ad effectiveness is optimal when great creative is matched with great targeting, enabled by
the latest technology and data tools. It may seem obvious, but reaching a large number of
consumers with advertising is critical to the success of a campaign: only consumers
exposed to an ad can be influenced. If creativity in an ad can spark excitement and relevance
to the consumer, they are more likely to be engaged.

5. Creativity makes that distinction

There is no recipe to creativity. No beginning, middle or end. No grammar, no language.

Yet its effects are anything between dust and magic. Creativity creates the distinction
between two products under the same category. Some may be of an opinion that by
encroaching upon the media space a difference can be made. Stalwarts in advertising
always say that nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the
impression you make. In fact Impression is the differentiator in advertising business. Only
creativity can create both impression and distinction. Visibility is secondary to it. In a way
creativity may well be the legal unfair competitive advantage a product or service can take
to run over the competition.

The 5 Stages of the Creative Process

1. Preparation stage: As you begin the creative journey, the first stage involves prep work and
idea generation. This is when you gather materials and conduct research that could spark an
interesting idea. Brainstorm and let your mind wander, or write in a journal to foster divergent
thinking; this will help you consider all possible approaches to building out your idea. In this
first part of the process, your brain is using its memory bank to draw on knowledge and past
experiences to generate original ideas.
2. Incubation stage: When you have finished actively thinking about your idea, the second stage
is where you let it go. Part of creative thinking is taking a step away from your idea before you
sit down to flesh it out. You might work on another project or take a break from the creative
process altogether regardless; you are not consciously trying to work on your idea. Walking
away from your idea might seem counterproductive, but it’s an important stage of the process.
During this time, your story or song or problem is incubating in the back of your mind.

3. Illumination stage: Sometimes called the insight stage, illumination is when the “aha”
moment happens. The light bulb clicks on as spontaneous new connections are formed and all
of that material you’ve gathered comes together to present the solution to your problem. In this
third stage, the answer to your creative quest strikes you. For example, you overcome writer’s
block by figuring out the ending to your story. It can take you by surprise but after the
incubation stage, an idea has emerged.

4. Evaluation stage: During this stage, you consider the validity of your idea and weigh it
against alternatives. This is also a time of reflection when you look back at your initial concept
or problem to see if your solution aligns with your initial vision. Business professionals might
do market research to test the viability of the idea. During this phase, you might go back to the
drawing board or you might forge on, confident in what you’ve come up with.

5. Verification stage: This is the final stage of the creative process. It’s when the hard work
happens. Your creative product might be a physical object, an advertising campaign, a song, a
novel, an architectural design any item or object that you set out to create, propelled by that
initial idea that popped into your head. Now, you finalize your design, bring your idea to life,
and share it with the world.

CREATIVE STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

The creative process of advertising is guided by specific goals and objectives and requires the
development of a creative strategy or plan of action for achieving the goal. Creative strategy
development actually begins with a thorough assessment of the marketing and promotional
situation and a determination of what needs to be communicated to the marketer’s target
audience. Creative strategy should, however, also be based on a number of other factors that
are stated in the creative brief or copy platform.

A. Advertising Campaigns—Most advertisements are part of a series of messages that

make up an IMC or advertising campaign, which consists of a set of interrelated and
 coordinated marketing communication activities that center on a single theme or idea
that appears in different media across a specified time period. The determination of a
strong idea for the campaign theme is very important as it is the central message that
will be communicated in all of the advertising and other promotional activities and thus
sets the tone or direction for the development of the individual ads that make up the
campaign. The theme or idea for the campaign is usually expressed through a slogan or
tagline that reduces the key idea into a few words or a brief statement.
B. Creative Brief – The creative brief (which some agencies refer to as a creative platform
or work plan or creative contract) is a written document that provides a plan or checklist
that is useful in guiding the development of an advertising message or campaign. This
document is prepared by the agency team or group assigned to the account and may
include creative personnel as well as the account coordinator and representatives from
media and research. The advertising manager and/or the marketing and product
manager from the client side will also be involved in the process and must approve the
copy platform.
C. The Search for the Major Selling Idea—an important part of creative strategy
development is determining the central theme that will become the major selling idea
or big idea for the ad campaign. There are several different approaches that can be used
for developing major selling ideas and as the basis of creative strategy. Some of the best
known and most discussed approaches include:
1. The unique selling proposition—this concept was popularized by the famous
copywriter Rosser Reeve’s in his book Reality in Advertising. It’s three
characteristics include:
• each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer
• the proposition must be one that the competition either cannot or does not offer
• the proposition must be strong enough to pull over new customers to your brand

2. Creating a brand image—some competing brands are so similar it is difficult to

find or create a unique attribute or benefit so the creative strategy is based on the
development of a strong, memorable identity for the brand through image advertising.
3. Finding the inherent drama—the famous ad man Leo Burnett, founder of the Leo
Burnett agency in Chicago, believed that advertising should be based on a foundation
of consumer benefits with an emphasis on the dramatic element in expressing these
benefits. This type of advertising bases the creative strategy on presenting the message
 in a warm and realistic way.4. Positioning—the basic idea is that advertising is used to
establish or “position” the product or service in a particular place in the consumer’s
mind.

Advertising Appeals are the persuasive pressures that stimulate a person to buy a product or
service by speaking to an individual's needs, interests, or wants. The goal of an ad is to persuade
customers, and advertising appeals provide just the right hook to allow persuasion to occur.

Advertising Appeal is an igniting force which stimulates the customer mindset towards the
product or services. It not the only factor in the marketing mix which initiates a consumer for
buying the product but it is certainly one of the advertisers' most important creative strategy
decisions involves the choice of an appropriate appeal.
Advertising appeals are designed in a way so as to create a positive image of the individuals
who use certain products. Advertising agencies and companies use different types of
advertising appeals to influence the purchasing decisions of people. There are three types of
appeals:

1. Rational or Informational Appeal

2. Emotional Appeal
3. Moral Appeal

Rational or Informational Appeals

This is generally product-oriented appeal, highlights the functional benefits like- quality,
economy, value, or performance of a product. Following are different types of rational appeals:

• Feature Appeal - Advertisements based on such appeal are highly informative,

provides information of product attributes or features that can be used as the basis for
rational purchase decision. Technical and high involvement product often uses this
appeal.
• Competitive Advantage Appeal - Such appeal is used to compare the product with the
competitor's product directly or indirectly and advertiser try to present his product
superior then competitor's product on one or more attributes.
• Favourable Price Appeal - Here price offer is considered as the dominant point of the
message.
• News Appeal - Some type of news or announcements about product or company
dominates the advertisement.
 • Product Popularity Appeal - Product popularity is considered as the dominant point
of advertisement by highlighting the increasing number of users of brand or the number
who have switched to it.
• High Quality - Some products are preferred for their quality not merely because of
their taste or style, such products are advertised by highlighting the quality attribute in
advertisement.
• Low price - Many people prefer low priced goods. To target such audience products
are advertised by highlighting the low price tag of the product.
• Long Life - Many consumers want product of durable nature that can be used for a long
period, in advertisement of such product durability is the dominant point of the
message.
• Performance - Many advertisements exhibit good performance of product.
• Economy - Many customers consider savings in operation and use of product, for
example in case of automobile the mileage is considered while selecting the brand or
model.
• Scarcity - Another appeal that is occasionally used is scarcity. When there is a limited
supply of a product, the value of that product increases. Scarcity appeals urge
consumers to buy a particular product because of a limitation.
• Other Rational Appeals - Other rational appeals include purity, more profits, time
saving, multifunction, more production, regular supply and availability of parts, limited
space required, artistic form, etc. that can make advertising effective.

Emotional Appeals
An emotional appeal is related to an individual’s psychological and social needs for purchasing
certain products and services. Emotions affects all type of purchase decisions. Types of
emotional appeals are as follows:

• Positive Emotional Appeal - Positive emotions like- humour, love, care, pride, or joy
are shown in advertisements to appeal audience to buy that product. For example-
Jonson and Jonson baby products.
• Negative Emotional Appeal - This includes fear, guilt, and shame to get people to do
things they should or stop.
 • Fear - Fear is an emotional response to a threat that expresses some sort of danger. Ads
sometimes use fear appeals to evoke this emotional response and arouse consumers to
take steps to remove the threat. For example- Life Insurance
• Anxiety - Most people try to avoid feeling anxious. To relieve anxiety, consumers
might buy mouthwash, deodorant, a safer car, get retirement pension plan.
• Humour - Humour causes consumer to watch advertisement, laugh on it, and most
important is to remember advertisement and also the product connected with humour.
For example- Happydent, and Mentos.

Moral Appeals
Moral appeals are directed to the consumes’ sense of what is right and proper. These are often
used to exhort people to support social and ethical causes. Types of Moral Appeal are as
follows:

• Social awakening and justice

• Cleaner and safe environment
• Equal rights for women
• Prohibition of drugs and intoxication
• Adult literacy
• Anti-smuggling and hoarding
• Protection of consumer rights and awakening

Other Type of Appeals

• Reminder Appeal - Advertising using reminder appeal has the objective of building
brand awareness. For example- IPO
• Teaser Advertising - Advertisers introducing a new product often use this appeal. It is
designed to build curiosity, interest and excitement about a product or brand. For
example- Ponds ad of Saif & Priyanka
• Musical Appeals - Music is an extremely important component in advertising. It
captures the attention of listeners. For example- Docomo, Airtel
• Transformational Appeal - The idea behind this appeal is that it can actually make
the consumption experience better. For example- Ambay products
 • Comparison Appeal - In this appeal a brand’s ability to satisfy consumers is
demonstrated by comparing its features to those of competitive brands. For example-
Tide & Surf
• Direct Appeals - Direct appeals clearly communicate with the consumers about a given
need. These extol the advertised brand as a product which satisfies that need.
• Indirect Appeals - Indirect appeals do not emphasize a human need, but allude to a
need.

A Unique Selling Proposition, more commonly referred to as a USP, is the one thing that
makes your business better than the competition. It’s a specific benefit that makes your business
stand out when compared to other businesses in your market.

“What makes you different from the competition?”

The phrase unique selling proposition (USP) has been coined by Rosser Reeves (1961).

Rosser defined his industry-changing concept of USP in three parts:

1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer. Not just words, not just
product puffery, not just show-window advertising. Each advertisement must say to each
reader: “Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.”

2. The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer. It must be
unique—either a uniqueness of the brand or a claim not otherwise made in that particular field
of advertising.

3. The proposition must be so strong that it can move the mass millions, i.e., pull over new
customers to your product.

Best Unique Selling Proposition Examples

1. Canva "Empowering the world to design"

Its service primarily focuses on streamlining the graphic design process to let anyone design
beautifully without getting stuck at the limitation bar of high-price and difficult design software
programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
• The simplicity of the product; drag and drop feature, ready-made templates, etc.
• Low prices more people can afford
• Competitive advantage in the market
 2. Domino’s Pizza "You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less—
or it's free."

Differentiating a pizza company from others might be a challenging task. However, years
ago, Domino’s came up with the famous USP that made them known to many people.
Typically, pizza deliveries take long, but Domino’s made a bold promise of free pizza if the
delivery exceeds 30 minutes.

Copywriting involves creating compelling text that effectively markets a product, service,
or concept to a target audience. It aims to persuade readers to take desired actions, like
buying a product, attending an event, or subscribing to a mailing list.

The word "copywriting" comes from the Latin word copiae, which means "an abundance
of writing"

Copywriting is the process of writing persuasive marketing and promotional

materials that motivate people to take some form of action, such as make a purchase, click
on a link, donate to a cause, or schedule a consultation.

Some examples of copywriting:

• When you open a magazine and there's a full-page advertisement selling perfume,
the words on that page are the result of copywriting.
• When you go to a website that prompts you to buy something, the words on that
page are the result of copywriting.

Copywriting vs. Content writing

Copywriting refers to writing marketing and promotional materials. Content writing, on

the other hand, refers to writing informational or editorial pages on websites, such as blog
posts, article pages, or product pages.

Benefits of Copywriting:

1. First, it makes an emotional impact on potential clients with words.

2. This emotional impact makes them feel like they can relate to your brand.
3. When they relate, they will feel like your brand can solve their problem or pain point.
4. The call-to-action helps motivate them to make a purchase.
5. This leads to increased sales and conversions for your business.
Elements of Copywriting

Copywriting has some essential elements required to develop a convincing ad. Following are
the significant elements −

Heading − Headline gives the first impression and lasts on readers’ mind, therefore, it should
be eye-catching. Heading should tell – what it is all about your ad in a very few words, ranging
from 3 to 30 words.

Body copy − Write body copy in such a way that it seems as the continuity of the heading.
Provide details of all the features and benefits that you are claiming for. The language should
be promising and trustworthy.

Slogans − Think of "The ultimate driving machine" (BMW); “Just do it” (Nike); "Because I'm
worth it" (L'Oréal), what comes to your mind? The moment, you hear the slogans, you link it
with the respective brand not only because you have heard it many times, but rather it works.
A well-written and effective slogan is a trustworthy brand representative. However, your slogan
should be small and crispy giving meaning to your brand.

Taglines − Taglines are usually used for literary products to reinforce and strengthen the
audience's memory of a literary product. For example, “she went in search of answers, and
discovered a love she never expected,’ Book Name “Faithful” and Writer - Janet Fox. Thus,
tagline tells the gist of the products for marketing purpose. Like, a slogan, it should be small
and eye-catching.

Jingle Lyrics − More often accompanied with background music, iingle lyric is a short slogan,
tune, or verse written to be easily remembered (especially used in advertising). For example,
Fanta: "Wanna Fanta, Don’t You Wanna?" It should be small, crisp, and rhythmic (like a song)
so that it registers with people at once and they remember it.

Scripts (for audio and video ad) − Scripts are the descriptions of an ad that narrates the
dialogues, actions, expression, and movements of characters. Since, script is a complete
guideline of an ad; therefore, it should be written meaningfully, orderly, and nicely.

Others − (White Paper, Press Release, & other written material such as emails, articles, and
blog (for the internet)): These are all promotional write-ups written purposefully to promote a
particular product/service. So, while writing white paper, press release, articles, blog, or even
an email you need to focus or emphasize ONLY on one product that you want to promote. You
need to describe all features and offers of the respective product in simple and plain language.

A Copywriter is a professional writer who creates text for advertising and marketing materials.
Copywriters are responsible for creating persuasive, engaging, and informative copy. They can
create many types of copy, including:

• Headlines
• Slogans
• Product descriptions
• Website copy
• Social media posts
• Landing pages
• Emails
• Promotional ads
• Billboards
• Brochures
• Catalogs
• Jingle lyrics
• Magazine and newspaper advertisements
• Sales letters and other direct mail
• Scripts for television or radio commercials
• Taglines
• White papers

Copywriters create informative content for businesses that is designed to guide the reader's
own research. They must be compelling and effective to reach the intended audience.

Copywriting for Print

a. Identify who your print ad is aimed at

The first thing you need to do when you approach writing copy for your print advertising
is to identify your target audience. This may seem more difficult for print adverts than for
other channels, as it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what kind of reader will see your print
adverts, whereas for channels such as email, you know exactly who your email is going to
be delivered to. But it is still definitely worth spending some time identifying who you’re
trying to write your print advert for.

Think about where your print ad is going to appear and what audience is likely to see it.
What kind of people are most likely to be reading this publication? Do you know what kind
of age and demographic range they tend to fit into? Are these people likely to know about
your business already or are they more likely to be brand new customers? All of this
information will help you to think more clearly about the audience your print advert needs
to reach, and will help you tailor the kind of messaging and copy to write for it.

b. Write an engaging Headline

When it comes to print advertising, your headline has an important job to do. It needs to
make a reader pause while reading the magazine or newspaper, and it needs to be interesting
enough to make them stop reading the original content and move their attention to your
advert instead. This means that you need to write a headline that is all of the following
things: eye-catching, succinct, and engaging.

A short and snappy headline is more likely to stand out on the page and grab attention, and
it’s also more likely to be interesting enough to encourage your audience to read the print
ad rather than flick past it.

Experiment with your headlines and see what happens, you could also try out a few and let
your colleagues vote on the best option. And remember, if you decide to go very creative
with your headline to draw attention, you can always add in a succinct subheading to
expand on or clarify your message if you need to.

c. Keep it concise

You have limited space with a print advert and you need to make sure you’re not
overloading a reader with paragraphs and paragraphs of lengthy copy. If the copy is too
long, your readers will turn off and not read on, and it’s likely to make the design of your
print advert look messy and unappealing, which will only deter readers even more. Less is
more. Say what you need to, but no more than that.

Similarly, try not to write long, wordy sentences or chunky paragraphs. Instead, work
towards making your copy short and digestible, with more manageable sentences.
Depending on the size of your advert and if you have space, you could also use subheadings
or bullet points to help break the text up.

d. Focus on one message

As you have limited space, you also need to communicate your message clearly and
effectively. By this, we don’t just mean the amount of copy that is on your ad, but the overall
message that you’re trying to convey to your audience. In other words – what are you telling
them, what product or service are you trying to sell, and what do you want them to take
away from your copy?

Don’t try to cram in too many messages as it will be overwhelming for a reader and
probably overwhelming from a design perspective too as the reader’s journey through your
advert is likely to be muddled and unclear. Focus your copy down to what you really need
and want to communicate with your audience. Identify the main goal and then write concise
copy that really highlights that one goal specifically; everything you write should explain
exactly what it is you’re selling and why the customer should care and choose you.

e. Write in a personable and conversational style

Even if your business has a more serious tone of voice or is aimed at a B2B audience, you
still want to write in a way that is relatable to the reader.

Think about where your ad is appearing, if someone is reading a newspaper or a magazine

they’re there for entertainment and interest, not to read a scholarly essay. So, try to be
conversational. If you write in conversational tones, then people are more likely to relate
to your print ad and read on, hopefully even taking the action you want them to.

Even though you can’t be as personal with print as you can with other channels like email
where you know exactly what kind of person will be reading it, sounding human and
personable still goes a long way.

f. Make sure your copy works in harmony with the visuals of your print ad

Visuals are very important in print advertising; the design of your advert really matters.
Think about it, when reading a newspaper or magazine, you’d probably be very unlikely to
pause and look at an advert that didn’t look nice and engaging. So, you need to make sure
your design and your copy work in unison.
Consider how you can tie your copy and your image together. Could your copy reference
the imagery or vice versa? Does your copy match your imagery in tone and style? Can your
imagery play off your headline and body copy?

g. Call to action

The final element of any successful print advert is a call to action. In other words, what you
want your reader to do next, and how they go about doing it.

With digital marketing channels, such as email or digital display advertising, you can
include a button in your artwork which allows you to be more creative and a little more
vague with your call to action copy. However, for print advertising there isn’t a button for
someone to click, they need to proactively go away and take an action. So, your call to
action copy needs to convince that person to take the action and make it feel like an easy
task by providing all of the right instructions.

Make sure your call to action is clear and concise, but that it still contains all of the relevant
information a reader will need without making the copy look too long or overwhelming.
Try and get your call to action message across in as few words as possible, whilst
highlighting the benefit to the reader and including direct and active language that
encourages action. For example, ‘Book today’, ‘Get in touch’, ‘Start your free trial’ etc.

Copywriting Guidelines

✓ Use relatable, conversational, everyday language (read it aloud – if someone

wouldn’t say it, don’t write it)
✓ Keep sentences short and to the point, while also varying the length of sentences
for contrast
✓ Talk to the reader directly, using “you” to address them
✓ Cut overly academic speak and anything that could be read as patronizing or
pretentious
✓ Break up long blocks of text into shorter, digestible paragraphs
✓ Use graphic elements like subheadings, pull quotes, strategically chosen bold text
and captions to make your content more compelling and easier to skim
✓ Rather than tell your audience what you want them to know, show them through
stories and specific examples that bring your key points to life
✓ Use facts, figures, quotes and other concrete examples to back up claims
 ✓ Write with empathy to ensure that your audience and their goals are driving your
message and delivery (what might they be thinking, feeling or wondering as they
approach your marketing piece?)
✓ Move from features to benefits (ie: don’t stop with what your unit or program offers,
include why it matters to your audience – why they should care and how they will
benefit)

Radio Copywriting

Radio copywriting is the process of writing text for radio commercials. Copywriters write the
words that announcers read out loud on the radio.

Here are some tips for writing radio copy:

• Write for the ear, not the eye.

• Use simple, clear, and conversational language.
• Avoid long sentences, complex words, and jargon.
• Include a strong call-to-action.
• Add an incentive.
• Show empathy.
• Thoroughly understand the product or service.
• Get a clear idea of whom you're writing for.
• Use the language of the audience.

How to make Radio Copywriting Effective:

✓ Use straightforward language that is written exactly how people talk.

✓ Write to the pace people talk, not to the pace at which they read.
✓ Include pauses. People need time to think, and the announcer needs time to breathe.
✓ Cut extra verbiage. You wouldn’t say indeed, thus, moreover, or therefore if you were
explaining something exciting to a friend, so don’t do it in your radio script, either.
✓ Rewrite elaborately constructed sentences. Don’t expect listeners to track through
phrases linked together with who, which, and Instead of the new fashions, which just
came off the Paris runways where they made international news, are due to arrive in
Chicago tomorrow at noon try the newest Paris runway fashions arrive in Chicago
tomorrow at noon. You’re invited to a premiere of the world’s leading looks.
 ✓ Tell listeners what to do next. Prepare them to take down your phone number (Have a
pencil handy?), or at least repeat your number for them. Most important, help them
remember your name so they can find you in the phone book or online. (Warning: Don’t
waste radio time telling people to look us up in the Yellow Pages, especially if your
competitors overshadow your presence there.)

TV Copywriting

TV copywriting is the process of writing scripts for television commercials. Copywriters are
responsible for the linguistic content of adverts. They work across a range of media and
formats, including:

• Slogans
• Catchphrases
• Tweets
• Scripts for TV and/or radio adverts

Television copywriters write messages that are accompanied by moving visuals. Like radio,
television commercials have a start, a middle and an end. Writing effective television
commercials (commercials that generate sales, that is) is a rare skill.

Writing for the Web

“88.5% of web users believe they’re served poor quality content on the web.”

Why good web writing matters?

• Helps users find what they need

• Helps you get better response
• Improves compliance with policies & regulations
• Helps you give better customer service
• Reduces errors on forms & applications
• Makes lawsuits less likely
• Saves everyone money, time & headaches
Tips for Writing Good Web Content

There are five areas that an effective web writer should look at in approaching any web-based
assignment: audience and purpose; research and referencing; information structure; clear
writing; and, proofreading and editing.

1. Audience and Purpose

In web-based writing (or any writing really) you need to consider audience and purpose
carefully. There are different levels of formality in written language and this can be especially
confusing in web-based writing because the range is very wide.

Some social media writing is almost like speech that has just been ‘written down’. Other web-
writing, however, requires you to use objective, impersonal and formal language. Familiarise
yourself with the expectations of your specific web-based assignment and only write when you
are sure of your audience and purpose.

2. Research and Referencing

Sometimes the online/web environment, and all the different technical features of this
environment, can cloud the area of research and referencing.

When writing at university, it is always important to tell your reader/end-user the source of any
external information. You will still need to use an appropriate referencing system and to use
this system consistently. Check your Subject Outline.

3. Structure

Just as research and referencing is still important in web-based writing, so is the careful
consideration of structure. Paragraphs, for example, should still address one main idea.
Sentences should still be structured effectively and your information, overall, should still be
logically organised.

In an online environment, users are said to ‘scan’ rather than ‘read’ information so the use of
headings, sub-headings, graphics and links is usually encouraged. Some general advice on
structure:

• Accessibility is an important issue to consider – is your writing ‘easy on the eyes’? what web
features can you use to make your writing accessible to as many users as possible?
• Heading, sub-headings and links should have descriptive headings/labels (not just ‘click
here’).

• Don’t just throw in a u-tube clip or image – or anything really – without explanation!

• Make good use of short paragraphs, lists and bullet points.

• An ‘inverted pyramid’ structure – putting the most important information first – is a common
web-writing technique.

4. Clear Writing

In web-based writing, sentences are often shorter than on paper, the active voice is common,
and plain English is generally encouraged.

• Short Sentences

(don’t over-do it with short sentences though or your writing will be too ‘choppy’ and actually
harder to read)

• Active Voice (subject-verb-object)

(“The dog ate my homework”. Not “My homework was eaten by the dog”)

• Plain English (easy to understand)

(eg. use familiar words where possible, active voice, short sections/sentences, make verbs clear,
leave out unnecessary words)

5. Proofread and Edit

Correct spelling, grammar and referencing are all still important in web-based writing. Some
additional elements can be used (such as the abbreviations used when texting/tweeting) but
make sure language is still inclusive and appropriate for your audience and purpose.