Action is eloquence.
--ShakespeareReady, Set, ACTION!
How to Say It in Cyberspace -- Bright Ideas for Communicating
The Net thrives on images. And as a visual medium, the Net is changing the way we write. If you want your writing to work on the Net, make it visual.
The Visual Magic Formula:
Use strong, active verbs. Active verbs act.. By acting, they create your story's (or report's)plot.. By creating plot, they make things happen. When things happen, an image is born. Kind of like the movies.Make Friends with Verbs
Verbs supply the guts of every English sentence. Without them, a sentence goes nowhere: "Mary cake." "I you." No verb, no story. Try adding the words "baked" and "love." Suddenly your words have leaped out of the LazyBoy to tell a story.Active vs. Passive
Most English verbs act: Love, hate, kill, hug, caress, stop. But one verb, the passive verb "To Be," just sits there: am, is, are, were, been.Which would you rather hear?
- I love you. (active)
- I'm fond of you. (passive)
When you have a choice, choose an active verb:
Passive: Bill Gates is rich. (Just how rich is Bill Gates?)
Active: Bill built a house bigger than Windsor Castle.
Active: Bill conquered the largest share of the technology market and earned more money than General Motors.
When your words act, you help your reader see what you see:
Murky: I am interested in learning more about ways in which my consulting firm may be of assistance to your company.
Voila: I want to know how we can help you improve/ succeed/ accelerate / profit . . . . (the possibilities go on!)
If you want to write a winning sales letter, start with actions. Forget what your product is. What does it do?
First: Our product is the best.
Better: Our product outsells all the competition.
Also better: Our product has saved lives on three continents.
Still Stronger Even among active verbs, some act more visually than others.
First: He addressed the problem through a series of talks with leading officials. Active but abstract and weak verb
Stronger: He solved the problem by talking to leading officials.
Still Stronger: He stopped the problem. (Stop really acts -- it's physical.)
Details! We Want Details! The right verb contributes gory and glorious details, helping us visualize even more:
Blah: She experienced human resources issues.
Better: Her employees arrived late every day.
Wow! She fired six secretaries in three months!
One Last Thought:
Perhaps our language has no more powerful sentence than "I love you." It's the perfect English sentence:
- Subject ("I")
- active verb ("love")
- object ("you")
I love you. We can't hear it enough.
Love is a verb. We don't just feel it. We do it. We express it. We live it. Or at least we try. Not every sentence we write can match the power of "I love you." But they can try.
Other articles about communicating well in today's marketplace:
Small Business Tax Center • Idea Cafe Home • Sign Up • Biz Grant Center • CyberSchmooz •Coffee Talk with Experts • People in Biz Profiles • Starting Your Biz • Biz Planning • Running Your Biz • FREE Trade Publications • Marketing • Financing Your Biz • Human Resources • Legal & Biz Forms • Managing Your Biz • eCommerce • You and Your Biz • Gen X • Work@Home • The Fridge • De-Stress • Send an Award • Send an eGreeting • Yoga @ Your Desk • Web Guide • Idea Cafe in the News • About Idea Cafe • Advertise on Idea Cafe • Contact Us • Privacy Policy • Site Map • Small Biz News
Copyright 1995-2024, Idea Cafe Inc. Downloads are for personal use only, not for resale to others, and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from Idea Cafe Inc.
DISCLAIMER: We hope whatever you find on this site is helpful, but be cautioned that it may not apply to your own situation, or be totally current at any given time. Idea Cafe Inc. and all of its current and past experts, sponsors, advertisers, agents, contractors and advisors disclaim all warranties with regard to anything found anywhere on this family of websites, quoted from, or sent from Idea Cafe. and its related sites, publications and companies. We also take no responsibility for comments published by others on these pages.
TRADEMARKS: The following are Registered Trademarks or Servicemarks of DevStart, Inc.: Idea Cafe®, Online Coffee Break®, The Small Business Gathering Place®, Take out Info®, Biz Bar & Grill®, Complaint-O-Meter®, A Fun Approach to Serious Business, CyberSchmooz, and BizCafe.