Tale of the Law School Professor

I used to teach a writing course to first-semester law students. I’m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. But this brilliant little law school where I worked decided it wanted “real” writers to teach its student how not to write like stereotypical lawyers.

As a professional copywriter and creative writer, I had a blast. I championed the use of contractions, conversational tones, and first person viewpoints. Of course, the problem is that the legal profession has certain standards and expectations. The rules of formal writing prevail when it comes to writing legal briefs and contracts. You can’t use contractions in your wills or contracts, and no one cares about “me” or “you” in legal briefs–you need to write them in third person. Still, I think students got the point we were trying to make: don’t make your writing overly complicated. Read the rest of Professional Does Not Mean Longwinded Gobbledygook!

It may not be the prettiest page of your website, but it’s an essential one. Considered the directory of your online store, a text-based site map provides both users and search engines with a structured list of all of the sub-pages contained within the main domain of your site, along with links to each page.

Benefits of a site map

There’s a reason more than 63% of eCommerce websites include a site map. Read the rest of Why You Need a Site Map

We recently had a client who said, “But the problem with testimonials is that you know they’re only going to say good things. How is that effective?”

It’s an interesting point. When we read customer testimonials, we’re expecting to hear the good–not the good, the bad, and the ugly. Still, testimonials work. Why? Read the rest of Why Testimonials Work