#1 spot on, be authentic, your voice is what others want to hear.
Want to become a better writer? As someone who spends a lot of their day writing and editing, I find myself making the same fixes again and again. It’s taken me a lot of practice to become more confident, plus editors I’ve worked with across at least 5 newsrooms who’ve ripped my copy to shreds. Here’s a few tips for better prose: 1) Never, ever use AI for a first draft (sorry!). I can tell within seconds when I’m reading AI-generated text, and so can everyone else. I do, however, support using it for research or for editing. 2) Quote less! I usually remove 9 quotes for every 10 in first drafts. Quotes are very difficult to read in text, so it is almost always better to paraphrase what the person said instead. Quotes should be reserved for those pithy, snappy phrases where you want to capture someone’s essence, not for restating facts or for summarizing research. If you use quotes instead of stating it as fact, it also makes that fact look like one person’s opinion. That undermines the information. 3) Avoid passive voice. This is hard to do in practice, so one trick is to never use words like “enable” or “empower” because it lends itself to passive voice. Passive voice is pervasive in B2B content because no one has agency or seems to want to take responsibility for anything. 4) Dense summaries of information are boring. What do you think? Don’t forget the all important paragraph at the end that summarizing your learnings and perspective. 5) Show, don’t tell: Avoid decribing something as brilliant or groundbreaking; instead lead with tangible descriptions and practical examples so readers can decide for themselves. 6) Paragraphs and short, staccato sentences are your friend. What to avoid? Jargon, acronyms and run on sentences. Bottom line: Simplicity is king. If you don’t use a word in your everyday conversation, don’t use it in your writing.