March 17th, 2014

Pruning your website texts

Not all sites need a total English-language rewrite.  Many will only need a light weeding to polish their texts, often a matter of a few hours’ work.  It is not very sexy work and it perhaps makes for a rather boring blog (!) but here are a few do-it-yourself tips that can make a major difference.

Less is more:

• Break long sentences into shorter ones. 
  

• Eliminate unnecessary details, words. Be brutal.

Avoid basic errors:

• Transfer the text into a word document (or other program with English spell- and grammar-checks). Correct accordingly. 
  

• Be alert for homonyms, which spell-check will accept but wrong is still wrong: “to, too, two;” “their, there, they’re;” but also “choose, chose;” “advice, advise” and “accept, except.” These are the key ones; lists of others can easily be found on the internet. 
  

• Be particularly careful with technical terminology:  when you use specialized jargon, explain it. Do not assume your audience will be experts. 

• Provide a short identification of lesser-known place names, and other proper nouns.

Two final grammatical tips:

• Use active tense rather than passive tense. For instance, "I love puppies" reads better than "Puppies are loved by me." 
• Search the word “have.” Many people overuse the continuous tense (“I have worked; I have had the function”). The simple past tense is stronger: I worked; I had the function/I was. 
  

For non-native writers, I always recommend asking a native speaker to do a final check, preferably one who works with language and who will take the time to read the text in a concentrated way.

Let me know if this helps!
Lee

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