subject: Find Out The 7 Top Copyrighting Tips [print this page] Most government or legal writing is passive, such as "enclosed in this envelope is a contract." Something more active would be: "you'll find in this envelope a contract I've included." Passive writing is usually without a person doing something in the sentence. Active writing is when you have somebody doing something in the sentence.
Active writing is when you have somebody doing something in the sentence. "The door was open" is passive. "Joe opened the door" is active. "Joe kicked open the door" is even more active.
Treat it like a game. Go through your writing, and determine whether each sentence is passive or active. If it's passive, do your best to make it as active as possible. If you're not sure, look for verbs like finding, reading, doing, claiming. Try adding an adverb, like in the example above. "Joe kicked in the door" is much more powerful than just the word "opened".
Use Emotions: You can create emotions in your writing using a story or a direct narrative. One letter began with the sentence, "I was nearly in tears." This put the reader in the position of having to read the rest of the letter to find out why the writer was in tears. Emotion moves people. We are logical beings, but our emotions can override that logic. People buy for emotional reasons, and they justify their purchase with logical reasons. So you need to use both in your writing. Tell a story that people can relate to that they can also feel. In the "I was nearly in tears" email, the author was playing on curiosity, but he was also prompting people to feel something.
Be Commanding: Command the reader to do something. By embedding the command, a reader might not realize that you're instructing them to perform certain tasks. According to traditional copyrighting, you should always ask for the order. Asking for the order is a command. At the end of your sales letter, you'll say "click here to buy." You're giving a command. This command needs to appear multiple times in your copy.
An embedded command is something like "imagine how many more sales you'll get when you start using hypnotic writing on your website. "That's an embedded command. You're asking the reader to imagine that particular command. Instead of saying, "you'll get double the impact of sales on your website." Rather, say, "imagine doubling the impact of sales on your website." That hides the command a bit. That's one level of embedding.
Whenever you're about to start writing, have in your mind the command you want people to take. Have in your mind the action you want them to take at the end of your sales letter or at the end of the website. When you go into your copyrighting with this command in your mind, it will show up as embedded commands throughout your copy.
Use Curiosity: Questions bind people to your writing and arouse their curiosity. They make the reader wait for you to answer the question. It opens their minds. It causes them to stop on the spot, be riveted to your words and to await your next command. The simplest way to use curiosity is to turn any statement you have into a question. Make sure the question cannot be answered until the reader buys the product or service. So make sure the questions are open ended, not yes or no.
