Writing Basics: Purpose and Audience

Recently there's been a lot of debate over content writing and developing some standards for this genre of writing. There's also been recent speculation and reports that Google will be changing how and why they index websites. Google has opened their eyes to their role in bad website content due to PPC and Adsense campaigns.

Where do we start setting standards for website content and writing?

I began writing fiction. Some of the same principals can be applied to content writing. But we should also apply the basic rules of writing taught in high school English class.

Google is not totally to blame for bad content; although it's possible they set the ball in motion. People got money hungry and let dollar signs take the place of good, quality content. Now Google may be retracting its initial plans and revising its search engine algorithms, as well as having humans check the content of websites to make sure they are up to par. Maybe "old" standards should be the "new" standards.

Let's begin with one basic rule of writing.

This rule is taken from a 12^th grade English book by D.C. Heath and Company, copyright 1992. Old yes, but the basics have withstood the test of time.

Consider Your Purpose and Audience

What is your purpose for writing? Beyond the passion and the need to write, there is a purpose to all writing.

We write to share our feelings, as is common in a lot of blog posts.
We write to persuade people to our way of thinking or to compel them to make a purchase, as is common in sales copy.
We write to describe things, as is common in fiction.
We write to create, as is common in poetry and short stories.
We write to inform others of something, as is common in content writing or educational writing.

Sometimes the purpose for writing can be a mixture of two or more of these reasons, but it still stands that we are writing for a purpose.

Let's look at writing to inform. The Internet used to be full of useful information. Everywhere you went on the net you found things that informed you. Most of the stuff is still there, sitting in an archive, waiting for someone to rediscover it.