Let me be perfectly clear: I’m not blaming teachers.

The education system has been struggling to keep up to date with the rapid changes of the online world.

And the biggest change is a double-edged sword:

• App notifications
• Chat messages
• Social media
• Emails
• Ads

The same technology that’s making it easy to broadcast our thoughts is also causing info overload.

If you want to be heard in this noisy world, your writing needs to:

• Grab attention
• Keep that attention
• Persuade people to take action

And that’s why the old school way of writing is horribly inefficient in the online world.

Why it matters (even if you’re not a professional writer)

I used to think writing is only worth pursuing if you’re an author.

I associated it with the academic style of writing that was at thought in school.

Oh, and I also hated classical literature (I love history though).

But when I was exposed to more online writers and their work, I realized that writing could take many forms and serve various purposes:

• Ads
• Emails
• Sales pages
• YouTube scripts
• Direct messages
• Social media posts
• Product descriptions

Here’s why writing is the most powerful skill in the online world:

1. Writing is persuasion at scale

If you look closely, we use persuasion in everything:

• To get a job
• To close a sale
• To ask for a raise
• To get your kids to bed
• To ask someone out on a date

In the real world, you can only persuade a handful of people at a time (unless you’re famous enough to host a press conference).

But the internet can broadcast your message to the entire world on autopilot, 24/7 to get people to:

• Stop scrolling
• Read the post
• Click your link
• Give their email
• Read your emails
• Trust your solution
• Purchase your solution

2. Writing is budget innovation

You can rapidly test new ideas for free by:

1. Simplifying your ideas
2. Writing Tweets to promote them
3. Gathering feedback & data from the audience

Next, iterate on ideas that get the most positive engagement or move on to the next idea.

BTW, this ties nicely to another topic: consistency.

Most people aren’t committed to posting every day because they’re afraid each post will flop.

That’s the wrong mindset.

Instead, you should treat each post as a mini experiment.

Learning from the experiments will increase the odds of creating better content that will resonate with people (and you’ll appease the algorithms while staying hyper visible to your audience).

I do this before investing time in creating longer form content (like this newsletter).

3. Writing makes you smarter (surprisingly)

Bad writing will reflect bad thinking.

Jeff Bezos started to notice some people at Amazon were using their charisma and great slide designs to create the illusion that their bad ideas were good.

To solve this, he insisted that people write long-form memos instead.

You can hide bad ideas in a PowerPoint presentation.

But you can’t hide behind bad writing.

To write clearly, you must think clearly. The reverse is also true: if you want to be a great thinker, you should write more. Writing is a forcing function to think clearly.

What went wrong (and how you can fix it)

At school, you were taught to write in an academic style.

Let’s be honest: when’s the last time you were excited to read an 8000-word thesis?

In fact, the last I checked, there aren’t any theses going viral online.

So it’s time to unlearn what you’ve learned.

Here are the writing principles that you picked up from school that accidentally made your writing bad:

Fancy vocabulary

It’s ironic that you get points for making your writing harder to read.

You were encouraged to use fancy words like:

• “utilize” instead of “use”
• “commence” instead of “start”
• “ascertain” instead of “find out”
• “compendium” instead of “summary”

Sure, your writing will seem more sophisticated, but it’s not practical and less people will understand it.

Research and readability studies have shown that simpler language increases comprehension and engagement.

For example, Warren Buffet is famous for writing easy to read shareholder letters that were suitable even for 10th grade students to understand. You can use Hemmingway app to check on readability levels (the lower the number, the better).

It’s not about dumbing down your ideas; it’s about making them easy to read so people are more willing to share them.

Always remember the golden rule of copywriting: “It’s better to be clear than clever”.

Hit the word count

It’s very common for writing assignments to have a minimum word count requirement.

In the end, students would:

• Add more fluff
• Use double spacing
• Drag out their sentences with filler words

But in the online world, word count only matters for platform specific character limits and cut-off points e.g. social media posts, email subject lines, preview text before “see more”.

Your writing should be as long as it needs to be or as long as you can keep it interesting for the reader (just like this section).

Walls of text

What’s the side effect of using sophisticated words and trying to hit the word count?

Long sentences and long paragraphs.

Having a “text tsunami” is a sure way of drowning the reader with info overload. Most people won’t read every single word or sentence, they would scan first before diving deeper.

Part of making your writing easy to read is to make it easy to skim.

If you noticed throughout this newsletter, I’m using:

• Bullet points
• Numbered lists
• Short sentences
• Headers to break sections

Good formatting is like good packaging. Like it or not, we DO judge a book by its cover.

The reader has given us their precious resource in the form of their time.

It’s our responsibility to respect their time.

Writing like an imposter

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when writing online is not using your own voice.

We’re made to believe we need to sound formal when we write (like some professor at college) or have this other writer persona (like…Shakespear?).

If you want your writing to resonate, you need to speak directly to the reader (just like what I’m doing with you right now).

Just write like you talk. Use a conversational tone.

You can test how conversational your writing is by reading it aloud (WARNING: doing this in public might freak people out but trust me it works!).

Also, academic writing is focused on delivering information.

Online writing is more than that.

If you want to grab attention and build relationships, you need to engage your reader. You need to be inside their heads.

And I know what you’re thinking: “how do I do that?” (see what I did there 😛?).

There. Right there. I just broke the fourth wall by using () a.k.a parentheses a.k.a. round brackets.

Other tips to write like you talk:

• Acknowledging the medium e.g. “If you noticed throughout this newsletter…”
• Use contractions e.g. “don’t” instead of “do not”
• Share personal stories and anecdotes
• Address the reader e.g. “you” or “we”
• Use emojis and exclamations
• Ask questions
• Use humour

Low energy writing

Amongst the many reasons why you don’t enjoy reading academic papers: they use a passive voice.

When writing online, you’re better off using an active voice.

The meaning of the message is usually the same, but the way it’s delivered makes all the difference.

Here’s what I mean:

Clarity and Directness

• Active: “We will process your order promptly.” This sentence clearly communicates that “we” will process the order, instilling confidence in the reader about the action being taken.
• Passive: “Your order will be processed promptly.” This sentence maintains the same meaning but shifts the focus from the subject (e.g. “we”) to the object (e.g. “your order”).

Engagement and Ownership

• Active: “You can improve your writing skills by practicing regularly.” By addressing the reader directly and emphasizing “you” as the subject, this sentence encourages personal involvement and action.
• Passive: “Improvements in writing skills can be achieved through regular practice.” Here, the focus is on the action (“improvements”) rather than the reader (“you”), which reduces the sense of personal involvement.

Psychological Impact

• Active: “Take control of your finances by creating a budget.” By framing the sentence in active voice, it empowers readers to take charge of their financial situation, which can be motivating and empowering.
• Passive: “A budget can be created to take control of finances.” This sentence removes the direct call to action (“Take control”) and presents the idea in a more detached manner.

Reader-Focused Communication:

• Active: “Discover how you can achieve your fitness goals with these simple tips.” By using “you” as the subject, this sentence speaks directly to the reader’s interests and needs, making the content more relevant and compelling.
• Passive: “How fitness goals can be achieved with these simple tips.” In this passive sentence, the focus shifts away from the reader (“you”) and towards the action (“how fitness goals can be achieved”).

Level up your writing

Whew! That’s a lot of stuff we covered.

It’s not easy to unlearn what you’ve learned.

But if you’re looking to improve your writing, you can:

1. Use simple words
2. Ignore word count
3. Make it easy to skim
4. Write like you talk
5. Use an active voice

See you 😁

P.S. Let me know if you enjoy this issue by replying to this newsletter.