New times, new dilemmas (II): Why write in code?

This week we continue our BlogMarks column with a dilemma that is interesting, to say the least: coding our messages.

In the first article of this series we talked about writing fresh content and scratched the surface of this vast subject, which is hard to get a grip on from any angle.

I did mention something about talking to robots, though, meaning the language created specifically for Google’s crawlers. It is usually made up of keywords at a certain density, often in their search form (e.g. custom cakes Bucharest), which for many people are neither informative, nor attractive, nor relevant.

We also talked about how it is good to know the audience you are addressing, so you can use language that suits the group they belong to.

While writing about this, though, I realized something that is part of everyday life for all of us, without our consciously giving it almost any importance: the coding of language.

Yes, whether we do it out loud, in writing or silently in our own heads, the language we use is always coded.

But why?

What is a code and how do we use it?

Most people who hear the word code today associate it with something like a password, a cipher, programming material or simply a meaningful string of digits.

And that is perfectly correct, because, in essence, one of the many definitions of a code is “a system of conventional signs or signals used to convey a message, a communication”, as the DEX (the standard Romanian dictionary) puts it.

Wait, do not start snoring yet, because I am not trying to send you back to school.

We do need a starting point, though.

One more bit of theory and that is it:

We know that the basic elements of communication, according to Roman Jakobson (we have to give the man credit), are six in number: sender, receiver, message, code, channel and context.

Fine, so why do we need to know all this?

Because, according to Jakobson, communication needs context, so I have given it to you.

I am the sender, you are the receivers, the channel is this blog, and the message you are about to find out.

So why are we focusing on the code?

Isn’t what we convey more important? The message itself?

I would say not… necessarily. The message is essential, but the code, or the way we encode the message, really deserves a discussion.

The message puts the spotlight on the sender, the code on the receiver!

Let’s say you are a content writer. Or a journalist. Or anyone working in one of the branches of written, spoken or sign communication.

One of the unwritten rules of communication is: it’s not about you, it’s about them!

Yes, maybe I made up this unwritten rule. Or maybe not. Someone has surely thought of it before, because it is absolutely vital, and it means the following:

When you convey a message aimed at a certain audience, do not do it to please yourself, because it is not about you, the writer.

It’s about them: the readers!

And this is where encoding the message becomes the best tool you can have at hand. Because the message can be one and the same, but encoding makes it different.

The message says: Here are the valid arguments I have about topic X.

Encoding turns it into: Only you truly understand what topic X is all about.

We communicate in code? But we speak the same language!

What needs to be established from the start is that there is no single type of code.

Language (the linguistic system, not the organ) is one of the best-known types of communication code. But language in turn has several types of coding.

Which can, obviously, be divided into several branches:

• Coding based on geography: a true-born Moldavian and his counterpart from Oltenia (two Romanian regions) might have trouble understanding each other, even though both speak Romanian, because of the regional words specific to each part of the country. Not to mention the inhabitants of two different countries, each speaking their own language
• Coding based on age: I think we all know how parents or grandparents mangle the names of gadgets, or how we try to understand words that have fallen out of use today. Imagine telling your grandmother: “Gran, could you reset the wireless, my net just dropped”. In a fit of innocence, you will probably be asked whether the net broke when it dropped
• Coding based on education : you would probably get some confused faces if you went to talk about Wittgenstein’s philosophy with a 6th-grade class, or about the importance of Barbie dolls with a group of medical students
• Coding based on group membership : whether it is a religious group, a group of friends or a group of environmental volunteers, all their members are united by something they share, and the way they communicate would probably be met with incomprehension by outsiders
• Coding based on profession : this one even has a name: professional jargon. And the coding of language in this case is not even conscious, but unconsciously acquired, because people in a certain field work with words that are commonplace to them but can be incomprehensible to others. Talk to a literature student about a head gasket and you will see.

There are surely countless types of coding specific to the Romanian language, for example, but we will stop at these, because they are truly interesting.

Since we are talking about creating written content, though, not about absolutely every type of communication, how can you use these types of coding in a text written for a target audience?

Coding your language gives you an ideal advantage: the inside joke between you and your readers

In your group of friends, colleagues or family, you probably have expressions or jokes that only you know. They are generally known as inside jokes, meaning jokes whose context is known only to the people in that group.

For people outside the group, such an inside joke may not be funny at all or may simply make no sense.

Is it completely meaningless?

No, it is just that people outside that group do not have the means to decode that inside joke. And for those on the inside, it is all the more valuable, because only they know it, so it is rarer and it helps hold the group together.

How do we apply coding when writing online content?

After all these explanations, let’s get to a more practical part and see how coding our language can be a trusty ally when we write a text.

Based on the branches of language coding above, we can draw some directions to help us achieve the most important thing for any content writer: the audience receiving the message well.

How pompous that sounds!

Here are some common-sense directions:

1. Context will give you the code

In other words, the topic you are discussing and the context you place it in will also tell you how to code your language. If you are talking about a frustration, use language that shows it, even if the thing is only in your imagination or happened a long time ago. The reader should get angry along with you, not get angry at you.

Be an actor!

If you are trying to evoke a feeling of calm and peace, use smooth, gentle, musical words. Do not stomp on the consonants, do not throw exclamation marks around and do not use long sentences.

2. Use jargon wisely

Clearly, when you are discussing a more technical field, for example, it is advisable to use words specific to that field. If it is about cars, call them spark plugs, not the thing that makes a current and lights the gasoline, because you lose credibility if you cannot handle the specific terms.

That said, do not fall into the other extreme. Into what I like to call the drainpipe syndrome. You probably know the guy who described a drainpipe as “the extortion of a building’s discharge into a water”, and you do not want to be him. Especially not in writing! Maybe we all get more nervous with a microphone in front of us, but in front of the keyboard we need to be careful not to become ridiculous by over-coding our language.

3. Don’t think of a group, think of one person in that group

When you have a target audience you need to write for about… baby bottles, let’s say, do not think about what all mothers want from a baby bottle, because it is impossible to meet every single one’s wishes.

Instead, think of a single person representative of that audience and talk to her. Speak her language, because right now she lives in a world full of baby talk, diapers and sleepless nights. Understand her feelings, discover her needs and offer her valid solutions.

4. Use the horoscope technique

Whatever you think of horoscopes, from a writing point of view they have a fantastic quality: they make you fit yourself to the situation described, rather than fitting it to the situation of your life.

Why?

Simple: because there are millions of Leos, let’s say, men and women, young and old, employed or unemployed, from cities or villages, and a horoscope for that sign has to satisfy most of them.

Coding works in a case like this through the way you address an audience, prompting each of them individually to see the solution as if it had been written especially for them.

5. Don’t become indecipherable!

So far I have talked mostly about advantages, although there is also a less bright side to the whole process of coding the language used in a text.

Really try not to reach the point where your readers, who are part of your audience, are faced with a pile of jargon and in-group quirks lumped together.

A kind of stereotype about the social group they belong to.

Do not turn into a kind of coding sitcom. A sitcom usually follows a joke-joke-context-joke-joke format. It is almost one joke after another.

You do not want a whole text made only of coded elements, because nobody should need a dictionary next to them to read you. Nor do you need to impress anyone with the arsenal of terms you know from a certain field.

Apply the K.I.S.S. principle

This conclusion probably works for absolutely anything, but it needs to be said here too.

Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Better simple than complicated.

Better direct than sophisticated.

Better blunt than understated

but

Rather than generic and faded, better coded!

Get closer to your readers by sending a message only they can decode!