{"id":1776,"date":"2013-12-09T07:30:15","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T07:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/websitecopywritingservices.com\/blog\/?p=1776"},"modified":"2026-04-05T12:04:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T11:04:37","slug":"dangerously-destructive-copywriting-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writeonline.io\/blog\/dangerously-destructive-copywriting-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Dangerously Destructive Writing Habits Every Copywriter Should Avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Beware<\/span>Doctors do it. Trendy marketing agencies do it. Lawyers are the worst culprits of all. And it annoys us to the point of exasperation.<\/p>\n

\u2013 You’re told the patient has had a cerebrovascular accident but you’re not sure whether they’ve broken their arm or had a stroke.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Your creative consultant wants to ‘articulate your message across several marketing touch points’ but you just want to shoot them.<\/p>\n

\u2013 You’re given an important legal document to sign but need a translator to make any sense of it.<\/p>\n

They, and many other professions like them, use their own special language. And because you don’t understand it, you don’t want to read or hear it. Because it just makes you feel stupid.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now for these people it rarely seems to matter. After all, their living doesn’t depend on it. But if you’re a copywriter, blogger or online retailer it does<\/i>.
\n
\nPeople are free to choose whether they read your content or not. And if they can make neither head nor tail of it then they’ll click away from your web page, product sales page or blog post in an instant.<\/p>\n

So ask yourself this:<\/p>\n

Do people read, share and comment<\/a> on my blog posts?
Is my website converting traffic into sales?<\/div>\n

Because if the answer’s NO then maybe you’ve got exactly the same problem.<\/p>\n

The Three Deadly Sins<\/h2>\n

Basically your content isn’t working because you’re NOT<\/span> thinking about your target audience. And you can put this down to three fundamentally dangerous habits or deadly sins:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You confuse readers with excessive JARGON<\/b> \u00ad\u2013 specialist words and expressions that only people in the know<\/i> can understand.<\/li>\n
  2. You use PAROCHIALISMS<\/b> \u00ad\u2013 things that mean something to you but nothing\u00a0the reader.<\/li>\n
  3. You assume readers already know particular ACRONYMS<\/b> and INITIALISMS<\/b> \u2013 abbreviations formed from the initial letters of other words.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But you can set yourself free of sin just by recognising when you’re doing it and knowing how to deal with it.<\/p>\n

    Here’s how:<\/p>\n

    \"Circled  Go easy on the jargon<\/h2>\n

    In my previous post, I said short and simple was nearly always best. But I also explained that longer words are often more specific<\/a> and could capture what you\u2019re trying to say far better than a shorter, more general one.<\/p>\n

    Well, much the same applies to jargon.<\/p>\n

    Sometimes you’re talking to a very clear and specific audience. Sometimes you need to target specialist terminology in search. Sometimes no other word will do.<\/p>\n

    But excessive jargon is often too much for even the most technically minded people.<\/p>\n

    And it can also be bad for your SEO.<\/p>\n

    A web page awash with jargon is a bit like targeting too many different keywords at the same time. This makes it difficult for search engines to work out what your content is specifically about.<\/p>\n

    Also the more technical the product or subject matter the harder it is to avoid it.<\/p>\n

    But don’t let that be a problem:<\/strong> Instead, take the opportunity to help visitors make sense of any unfamiliar language. For example, you can:<\/p>\n