Good writing is good writing, whatever the platform

When The Guardian published former science editor Tim Radford’s 25 Commandments for Journalists earlier this month, the link was widely circulated on Twitter and discussed on blogs all over the web. And quite right too – it’s a passionately argued and carefully constructed set of rules that every hack should commit to memory.

Mr Radford drafted his commandments more than 15 years ago, when the media landscape looked very different to the digital world of today. But reading through the piece in 2011, it struck me that every line is still just as relevant to the content that we produce everyday. We create content for web pages, Facebook groups, Twitter streams and emails. We publish magazines, produce videos and post blogs. We write for brands ranging from Dr Pepper to The Economist.

And it doesn’t matter if you’re writing for sixteen-year-old boys in Bolton or sixty-year-old bankers in Boston, the same basic rules still apply. The only reason to write is to be read, so the most important person in your life is the reader. Assume the reader knows nothing, but don’t assume the reader is stupid. Writing is important, but must never be self-important. A good story will only ever say one big thing.

These quotes might sound like common sense, but it’s amazing how often they are ignored. There’s a lot of stuff out there about how to write for the web, as if writing for a different medium means learning a whole new set of skills. It’s true that today’s journalist needs to understand SEO, and that there’s an art to effective communication in just 140 characters.

But the core skill of journalism is more important than ever – the ability to tell stories which resonate in the mind of the audience.