"Write Like You Talk" . . . Within Reason

In an entry titled Conversational writing kicks formal writing's ass, the weblog Creating Passionate Users says, "If you want people to learn and remember what you write, say it conversationally."

This isn't an excuse to be incoherent, rambling, or ungrammatical. The author reminds us

What most people mean when they say "write the way you talk" is something like, "the way you talk when you're explaining something to a friend, filtering out the 'um', 'you know', and 'er' parts, and editing for the way you wish you'd said it."

Backed up with some studies of how personal and impersonal writing styles contribute to learning, the blog entry is good reading. (And check out some of the responses to the blog entry, too.)