Power of Words
A field guide to writing product copy that earns trust.
How readers hear tone, then three traps that quietly erode trust, then before and after edits, then two exercises, then the four ingredients you take home. Read in order. By the end you have a checklist, a vocabulary, and two exercises to run with your team on Monday. Short on time? Skim the headlines and pull-outs.
How we read words
What is a word? By the definition, it is a group of letters with meaning. So why do we become detectives the moment we read one?
I once asked my mom if I could go to a party. She replied, “Do whatever you want.” What did she mean by that? Can I actually do whatever I want? Or is it more like, do whatever you want, never mind? Or, don't ask me? Or is she pissed?
Same four words. I still have to interpret what they mean. That is how language works on us. It does not deliver meaning, it asks us to find it.
A user opening your product is doing the same thing. They read your copy with a question in mind, and your words answer it before the interface does. That is the premise of this guide. Copy is not neutral. The way you phrase a sentence sets the temperature of the product. So we start with a small kit of patterns to notice, and a few to avoid.
Three language traps
Special words used by a group that are hard for outsiders to understand. Circle back. Alignment. Bandwidth. Paradigm shift. Looks fluent. Reads vague.
“Enable scalable simulation workflows via modular integration.”
Words that carry strong emotional weight beyond their literal meaning. Freedom. Disruptive. Luxury. Bureaucrat. They steer the reader before they inform them.
“Tech giants are spying on your every move.”
Loaded language disguised as folk wisdom. It is what it is. Agree to disagree. That is just how the world works. New ideas die before they grow.
“That is how we have always done it.”
Why we fall for them
Neither trap is really about vocabulary. Both are about the room. Two real findings, two votes, two things you can test in your head right now.
Two people speak in a meeting
One speaks for two minutes. The other speaks for twenty. Who walks out of the room sounding smart?
Cast your vote
Same person, same message, two rooms
One room is full of nine-year-olds. The other is full of stakeholders. Which room hears more jargon?
Cast your vote
The next time you reach for a long word, ask which room you are afraid of.
AI language models are trained on the same corpora full of jargon.
Words like synergize, streamline and mission-critical are high-probability continuations in professional contexts. So if your copy reads like ChatGPT, it is because ChatGPT learned from the copy you have been writing.
Some new terms to be mindful of
Every era adds its own. These are the words that have spread faster than they were defined. Treat each one as a flag, not a ban. If you reach for it, ask what it is actually doing in the sentence.
Spread faster than it was defined. Most teams use it to mean automation. Say what the system actually does.
A statistics problem dressed as a human one. The model is wrong. Call the failure by its name.
Infrastructure word doing UX work. If you mean rules, say rules. If you mean limits, say limits.
A promise products rarely deliver. The user will notice the seam. Describe the actual experience instead.
Vague and often condescending toward the user. Replace with the specific thing they can now do.
Borrowed from gaming and growth marketing. Rarely earned. Try opens, reveals, or lets you.
An expensive way to say use. If there is no real lever, use the simpler verb.
Sounds reassuring, says nothing. Name the thing it survives instead.
Implies before-and-after without showing either. Replace with the step you removed.
Before and after
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Two exercises
Reading does only so much. These two games are what carry the lessons home. The first one tests your ear. The second one finds the hook hiding under any CTA. Try them now.
Trust the Voice
Two founders. Two pitches. One of them earns your trust. Read both. Cast your vote. Then see who said what.
Whom would you trust? Click a card.
Find your hook with Five Whys
Take any CTA. Ask why a user would click it. Then ask why, five times in a row. Each layer goes deeper. At the bottom is the feeling. Rewrite the copy from there.
Four ingredients
I once read a line on a restaurant menu that stopped me mid-bite. “God who dwells in the cherries, in the wind, in the sea, in the eyes of the dog, and in the reasoning of man.” Anna Maria Ortese. I kept reflecting on it, and it made me wonder what kind of writing makes things sound beautiful.
So I took a course with Shani Raja, and came out with a structure I now use to read everything. Good writing is a balance of four ingredients. The recipe changes based on the intention and the audience.
Makes writing punchy. Short sentences. Plain words. Nothing the reader has to translate.
Makes writing easy to understand. One idea per sentence. The point arrives early, not after a warm-up lap.
Makes writing flow well. Rhythm, length variation, a sentence that reads like it was meant.
Makes writing stimulating. Concrete images, unexpected pairings, words that earn a second read.
Paying obsessive attention to detail as a writer means erasing every trace of literary, typographical, and formatting ugliness in a text.
Once I started looking for it, I could not stop. I now see music in writing, and the small ugliness when it is missing.
“Words don't just explain design. They are design.”
After the workshop
Neha has been bringing their A game lately.
Neha just did a smashing shareout in the UX Hive. Really, really good. The content was solid, and the presentation style was fun and engaging. I'm really impressed, and the discussions afterwards were excellent.
“Kick-ass hosting Neha! Loved the news today.”
“Thank you Neha! I love your storytelling as always.”
“The overall narrative is very easy to follow. Your proactivity is one of your greatest assets, and as you can see it gets you good results.”