2 builders who never spoke to each other

Write the sentence the way you would say it

Drop the corporate register and the sales megaphone, put the thesaurus away, and prefer the two-word version to the padded construction. Model the tone on the emails you send friends, right down to a lowercase offhand subject line, and stop straining for effect because readers detect the performance. In a crowded field the way you sound is the part competitors cannot copy, so borrowing another writer's phrasing costs you the only asset that was yours.

The method

1. 01

   Write the way you speak: drop the sales megaphone and the corporate register.

2. 02

   Write the way you would say it out loud: casual, colloquial and full of pronouns.

3. 03

   Stop straining for effect; readers detect the performance.

4. 04

   Put the thesaurus away; the elevated synonym impresses nobody.

5. 05

   Do not copy another writer's voice; the more stock phrases fill your writing, the deader it reads.

What it returned

• Paraphrases a line from Nassim Taleb on cliche density

• Welsh says his most popular posts read like a conversation over a beer rather than a lecture.

• Contrasts a capitalised how-to headline with a plain few-tips phrasing

• Why We Buy avoids marketing jargon and dry technical phrasing in favour of plain conversational language, and The Hustle did the same by putting humour into a dry subject.

Sources

• Nobody knows you exist. Now what?Justin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · #3 Create content that educates, authentically · 2024-04-27
• My guide to conversational copywritingHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · undated
• 17 tips for great copywritingHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · 8) Write how you talk · undated
• How to write marketing emails that don’t suckNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · How I write emails · 2013-04-12
• Friday Feature: Why We BuyKatelyn Bourgoin · sparkloop.app · ✏️Steal this for your newsletter · undated
• Clarity is UnderratedGreg Kogan · gkogan.co · How to Be More Clear · 2017-12-03