I renamed the topic string to redirect it to offering helpful tips and tricks when writing the content of your chat bot. I will start by sharing my basic principle of concise writing. Concise sentences follow some simple guidelines:
First, keep your sentences in active voice–subject first followed by the verb. (seems simple right?) However, your subject should be concrete (the old person, place, thing bit) and not an abstract subject. Your verb should be active (active voice right), and avoid “to be” verbs whenever possible (is, was, were) because the reader gets more substance out of reading an actual action than an implied action.
Second, reduce adjectives (or purple language as it is some times referred to) and use them sparingly.
Third, kill all adverbs (okay, you can save a couple). Adverbs modify a verb, which means there is a better verb out there to describe the action than what you have (remember active verbs are king).
Finally, write with a positive tone. As it turns out, positive sentences use less words. Who knew!
Remember, these are guidelines. You can stray from time to time without too much impact to your concision, but a concise bot is a fast bot
Original Post below
When I was going to college to get my degree in English writing, I would often be asked if I was going to write a book or write articles for a newspaper. Apparently, that is the only use for professional writers according to everyone I met I would smile and nod to not be rude, but in my head I envisioned all the content swirling around the internet. The development, editing, revising, maintenance: all of it could benefit from a writer’s eye.
Often, writers are envisioned as some guy with 5 o’clock shadow dangling a cigarette from his mouth with a bottle of whiskey close at hand alternating between typing furiously and staring at the screen. The undertone of angst engulfing his general vicinity. However, we are anything but.
We are efficient with words. Concise in delivery. Calculated in our response. We focus on audience, rhetoric, tone, emotion, logic. We are students of symbols. A writer’s craft is to distill the overwhelming concept of life into a focused and relatable prose. “Make 'em bleed,” they say. I say, “let’s chat first.”
If you find an opportunity to utilize a writer, don’t hesitate unless they really do have a bottle of whiskey in hand (then just have a drink with them), What is everyone’s thoughts on using professional writers for your dialogue development? (Now that I soften you up to the idea ) Do you see it as unnecessary? Or is there a market in professional chat writing?