Call me crazy, but I believe there’s now a strong case for adding website copywriting to the curriculum at schools and colleges around the planet.
Who can deny that the web plays an increasingly important role in our world. Whether you work in the public or private sector, whether you hold a junior or senior position, at various points in your career, you will have to communicate through a website or an intranet.
Serious disadvantage
If you haven’t been taught the principles of good internet writing, then you are going to be at a serious disadvantage.
To my mind this is one skill that youngsters now entering the education system need to have mastered before they leave school.
And the sooner governments and education authorities recognise this, the better for all of us.
Website copywriting, vital for young people
Besides giving young people a vital skill they can use for the rest of their working lives, teaching them website copywriting will help in another important way.
When they learn how to write website content, their writing skills in other areas will also improve. They will be much better equipped to write many different kinds of document. This includes: emails and letters, reports and proposals, articles and press releases, corporate newsletters and brochures.
I learned this from personal experience.
When I first got to grips with website copywriting, I found I had to rethink my whole approach to the written word. For example, I had to focus more closely on my readers and think more carefully about how they might react to each sentence I wrote.
Web writer’s mindset
At first it all seemed a bit of a nuisance. But once I got the hang of it, I realised it wasn’t so hard. What’s more I found that my newly acquired web writer’s mindset helped me to write more effectively for other media.
Until that point I’d been treating my readers as if they were a captive audience who would hang on to my every word. It became obvious to me that when you’re writing for modern audiences you rarely have such a tight grip on their attention.
Readers of today are incredibly impatient and if you don’t deliver information that’s immediately helpful to them, there’s every chance they’ll go elsewhere. That insight alone, caused me to change the way I write all kinds of documents.
If the web hadn’t come along, I might never have worked that out.
Changes to the education system
That’s why I believe we need to make radical changes to the education system. Future generations in the 21st century will not thank us if we continue to teach them how to write for 19th or 20th century audiences.
I know I am going to upset some people when I say this, but the arrival of the web means we have to rethink the way we teach people to write. And that process should start right now in a school or college near you.