From our earliest lessons, we're taught there's one way to speak and another way to write.
When we write, we're supposed to use more formal words, technical terms and abstract nouns, often longer words that may sound more impressive.
I was told never to write get.
An article I wrote 30 years ago for a magazine was rejected because I wrote most of it in the first person "I", because the piece arose from a personal story.
But in sales and marketing materials, especially websites and direct mail pieces, we can forget those rules most of the time and write informally.
The main exception is pieces we write for corporate clients, who may require us to use a more formal style, although they won't always.
The reason we use informal language in sales copy and formal language for, say, an instruction manual is the role of emotions in each kind of writing.
There's no role for emotion in an instruction manual, whether in print or on the web, because instructions are objective and unchanging.
What we have to do when we follow the instructions to use our new iPhone doesn't depend on how we feel about it but on following the instructions correctly.
Sales materials work in just the opposite way.
As well as giving the buyer enough information about the product and the payment, a sales letter has to do an even more important job -- arouse the reader's emotions enough to make him or her want to buy.
The way to do that is to make our appeal a personal one, as if we're writing a chatty letter home, or chatting on the internet or on our cell phone.
That's why we use informal language in sales letters.
Perhaps you're still not convinced.
Maybe you're thinking how effective formal language can be in appeals for charity, in political speeches, or in sermons.
Perhaps you recall Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech.
" That wasn't informal, but was powerful enough to be remembered to this day.
I've pondered long over this question.
I surely know both sides of it.
I had to write in dry, formal language in my research thesis.
And my book The American Panorama, while easy to read, isn't written in the style of a letter.
The answer I've come up with is this.
When people listen to the formal rhetoric of speeches and sermons, they know that, in a sense, they're being sold to and they don't mind.
They want their beliefs to be confirmed by the speaker on the platform or the preacher in the pulpit.
They may have already made a decision to donate to a cause or campaign and gone online or to a rally for just that purpose.
But when people read or listen to a sales pitch, they have few or no prior beliefs about the product, and may have doubts and objections.
They also know that somewhere along the line they're going to be asked to pay money.
That's why we need to approach them as a friend or adviser.
Maybe you've got your own take on this you'd like to share with me.
If so, just drop me a line.
Meanwhile I'll be back with more about how to make your copy more relaxed and hence more effective.