Despite the common belief, traditional writing goes way beyond the academic environment. This style includes literary works, essays, and reviews for books or movies. Digital writing is entirely different because it focuses on content for various websites, using the methods that allow better indexing by search engines.
If you’re creating content for a website, your assignment is to be clear and concise. However, you wouldn’t think about that as much if your aim was to write the novel and independently publish it in the USA. The main differences between these two types of writing are about the rules and goals the writers usually set while the similarities focus on the skills necessary. Keep reading to find out how to get inspired and avoid mixing those styles.
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Differences: It’s All About Goals
Almost any literary expert will advise you to create a text that’s not like anything that existed before, showing your originality and talent. Although digital content isn’t the same as an academic essay, it has practical goals that demand more formality. Let’s look at the main differences between these styles.
Traditional writing has fewer limitations
For example, it’s a terrible idea to make writers count the words in each chapter so that the text is divided into equal parts. However, that’s a normal thing to do for copywriters working for large companies. Digital writing needs to rely on-site design, so sometimes even one extra symbol is unacceptable. On the other hand, traditional writers are known for despising the college standards that make all papers look almost the same. Those creators go beyond limitations, challenging the imagination of their audience. Those people must not help their readers understand the text, no matter how complex it is.
Digital writing is designed for search engines
When you try to make the website of a specific company better, you constantly have several terms in your head. Let’s see what they are.
- Indexing. Digital writing isn’t just for people—it’s for Google. That’s why the structure of the text isn’t free, aiming to fit the standards. Sometimes, you need to settle for fewer words, so each phrase matters.
- Keywords. It goes without saying that every creative text must be original, but digital writing often requires inserting specific expressions into your custom work. Traditional writers would probably get frustrated by this practice.
- Friendly tone. While the literary style doesn’t necessarily set a standard for the way you address your readers, a high-quality digital text will always be nice to the audience. If you’ve ever read Stephen King, you know that’s not the case when it comes to traditional writing.
Literature challenges the readers, sites do not
Every small element described above amounts to this simple truth. You want to find a personalized explanation when you google something, so websites have to be as concise and clear as they can get. It’s not about the formality that so many students are used to, it’s about your personal comfort as an internet user. Do you think about the comfort of your readers when you write a story that’s supposed to puzzle them? Rhetorical question.
Many people actually struggle to understand where to draw the line in literary works and how to approach digital writing for their blogs. In that case, you can get time-tested assistance. Custom Writings is one of the best essay writing services, capable of boosting your creative abilities and giving you a nice example of any style you ask for.
Similarities: Audience and Creativity
Despite different standards and goals, there are factors that all creators need to consider before they get down to business. Those factors include obvious things, such as the desire to give the readers what they want, and some unexpected elements, like full-scale research.
You need original ideas to write well
Whether you’re about to start a review that describes a car service next to your house or produces a poem that will be admired by every reader, you need a unique approach. Nobody wants to read a hundred paragraphs of “top-notch reflections” before getting to the point. In other words, people won’t enjoy the text you’ve created from scratch just to admire yourself. The readers are looking for practical assistance or emotions, not for lectures from someone they don’t even know. This applies to every genre and writing style, from news articles to popular novels.
All audiences have expectations
As we’ve mentioned before, people read to get specific information or emotions, so each writer must honor their needs. Let’s look at the factors that set the expectations of your audience to a certain level.
- The genre you’ve chosen. If it’s detective fiction, the main focus shouldn’t be on some online relationship drama. Otherwise, the people who like stories about investigations and chases won’t buy a book that doesn’t meet their expectations.
- The title of your work. Many professional writers change the names of their novels several times so those titles really reflect what people are going to get from the story. Otherwise, your audience will feel deceived.
- The structure focuses on important facts. Neither traditional nor digital writing is as formalized as the style of an academic paper, but you still have to avoid empty dialogues and other non-informative elements. After all, your readers don’t expect the text to be boring.
Good writers do their research
You need to understand a phenomenon in order to describe it. That’s why any written work that’s popular relies on hours, days, or even weeks of research. This is especially important if you’ve chosen another historical era as a setting for your story. As for digital writing, this style is often about explaining complex notions in simple English. People say that you need to know the topic thoroughly to avoid complex words while talking about it. Hence, both types of writing urge you to treat each reader like a customer because ignorance never comes cheap.
There’s No Right or Wrong Way to Write
If you’re looking for a writing style that can enhance your ideas, you need to choose the most suitable genre. For example, literary style is the best option for a short story or a novel that can impress the readers and teach them new things.
However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t use the elements of digital writing, especially if one of your characters has a business and needs to describe the services convincingly. Similarly, writing content for a website isn’t like creating a formal essay, so relatable analogies and understandable metaphors can enhance such texts.
Just look at the right examples, approach your style scrupulously, and you’ll reach the balance soon enough.
