After knowing how important the digital writing is, the next question you might have is, "How do I start writing in digital platform?"
Beside these principles below, you must note that writing in digital platforms means you will publish it through internet. We know that unlike a print writer who can focus on communication skills with written words, internet means interactive multimedia plays big role.
In my previous writing, I mentioned that we can easily incorporate many types of media in single production of writing, such as audio and visual. Since that, the digital writer must be expert in variety of techniques (Garrant, 2006):
- Writing to be read (copywriting, poetry, journalism)
- Writing to be seen (presentations, video, film)
- Writing to be heard (narration, radio)
I summarize some tips you can use to make digital writing, so here you go!
First, make sure you write the main point. Keep it clear and concise and thus your writing is going to be brief. Readers have short time; they can easily swipe up your writing. Since that, "Prune your prose"---Caroll (2010). Perhaps, you can try with re-write the sentence in the same meaning but with fewer words.
Open your sentences with main idea and let the weaker elements be written below (Clark, 2008). Besides, place strong words at the beginning and at the end. The emphatic word which appears at the end helps to strengthen the point you want to deliver.
Next, tell the people your idea earlier, be accurate and be sure you understand what you are writing (Garrant, 2006). It is important because writing means you gonna tell something, even if you are going to amuse the readers. Checking your facts is very important, especially for you who work and write to inform or narrate things based on reality.
There are few common points you have to avoid of when writing (Caroll, 2010):
- Using the terms of all, nobody, always, everything, none (overuse of articles and pronouns);
- Stereotyping;
- Plagiarism;
- Oversimplifying;
- Generalizing because it will be affecting your conclusion.
Third, appropriate words determine the usability of your texts.
Use precise word, "When I use a word it means exactly what I say, no more and no less."-- Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking-Glass (Caroll, 2010). It means you know exactly the right word to deliver message, not one that sounds close.
How often you are trapped into misunderstanding after thinking you deliver the precise word and imagine if you don't. Dictionary and thesaurus should be closed to you.
And then, choose words that make the text sounds personal. It is important to write as if you are talking to an individual than a collective group of anonymous web surfers (Garrant, 2006).
The choice of using active or passive voice is important to make a proper writing. It is more than just an aesthetic tool because it could contain moral and political value.
You can use active voice to shorter the sentences and make it easier to be understood (Garrant, 2006) but in order to show the "victim" of action, it is appropriate for the sentences to be passive-aggressive. Here are tools you can take (Clark, 2008):
- Active verbs show the action and reveal the actor
- Passive verbs call attention to the receiver of action and show the victim.
- The verb to be links word and ideas.
After that, use descriptive verbs and nouns. Your strong verbs save words, create action, and reveal the players at the same time (Clark, 2008). It such kills two birds with one stone.
Now you gonna ask me, how about the adverbs? Sure, you can use them to change the meaning of verbs. As an example, "he smiled mischievously" The word 'mischievously' spices up the verb.
Fourth, be imaginative. It is associated with previous point which talked about describing through words. You can be a quack who uses similes, metaphors, analogies like scalpels and sutures (Garant, 2006). We know that world inspires us more than we think, so you can visualize metaphors and analogies when writing.
These tools above can be effective if you comprehend the complexity of combining them all. To me, digital writing is an elaboration of art and theory. That is why I learn to write more and more and I hope so do you.
So, would you like to write a nice poem for me?
