The 3 Cs of Government Copywriting for the Web

I’ll never forget the first conversation I had with an editor as a government copywriter. At the time, I was fresh out of college with a penchant for flowery prose. But the reality check she delivered has become a guiding copywriting principle: Write at an eighth grade reading level. 

Why eighth grade? Because according to my editor, that’s the median reading level of people in America. While our country’s collective reading skill varies depending on who you ask and how you measure it, the underlying strategy is the same: when writing for the general public on behalf of the government, everyone in America is your audience.

Of course, as content writers, we can’t be everything to everyone. But content can and should be accessible to anyone who visits a government website. Keeping the three Cs of government copywriting—clear, concise, compelling—in mind, will deliver high-quality work with real impact. 

Be Clear in Communicating

There’s no room for ambiguity in government copywriting. People could be coming to a site during an emergency, where every second counts.

One way to ensure content comes across clearly is to align it with users’ search intent. Ask these two questions: 

• Why would someone visit a government website? 
• Are we answering the questions to which they're most likely seeking answers? 

The key to answering these questions is understanding the audience’s primary goals, challenges, and behaviors well enough to anticipate what they will need to know, and where they’ll search for it 

Want to see what it looks like when a website is on the same page as its users? Check out how FEMA organizes its disaster declaration content.

As Hurricane Ian rampaged across the southeastern United States, displacing families and destroying property, thousands of people searched for a way to pick up the pieces. If they visited FEMA.gov, they found a great place to start. 

When time is of the essence in an emergency, a jump-nav at the top of the page helps put essential information at the users' fingertips.

Another great approach FEMA took with their website content was writing headers as if they were coming straight from the user in a first-person point of view.

The headers could have defaulted to a dry, economical tone. Instead, FEMA put themselves in their audiences’ shoes by writing headers that mirrored what their audience may type in a search bar. 

For example, instead of “Contact the Small Business Administration,” FEMA switched up the header with “I Was Told to Call the Small Business Administration.” And rather than writing “Applying for Assistance,” they opted for “I Applied for Assistance. What’s Next?”

This strategy serves two purposes: It not only provides people with the information they want, but also provides the answer where they expect to find it. 

Keep the Main Messages Concise

All copywriters should value their audience’s time, but it’s especially important for government copywriters to respect it. As competition for consumers’ attention intensifies, we have to convey information faster than ever.

Luckily, there are plain language standards for government writing. These guidelines are easy to understand and to the point. The three quick tips I always keep top of mind for government copywriting are: 

1. Speak to your audience, not about them. Establish a dialogue.
2. Verbs > adjectives. Active tense is more effective than passive tense because it encourages your audience to complete an intended action.
3. Less isn’t always more. Sure, we should always look to trim the fat from sentences. But there’s a fine line between being concise and being cold,

And as a bonus tip, a good rule of thumb is to read sentences out loud. If you have to take a breath before the sentence is finished, it’s almost certainly too long. Condense it or break it up into multiple passages.

And for high-quality examples of what good, concise government writing looks like, check out plainlanguage.gov’s annual awards. 

If you’re a government copywriter with a focus on healthcare, the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine maintains a database of Easy-to-Read Health Information.

You can even see what it looks like when content is given a plain language makeover.

Compelling Communications = Higher Audience Engagement

Some would argue that “compelling” is a matter of opinion. But as copywriters, it’s our job to make the subjective objective. Website metrics like bounce rate, exit rate and navigation summary are effective at measuring how compelling a website’s content is.

If there are certain constraints on the type of content that can be featured on a government website, consider stretching those creative muscles through other channels, like social media. TSA and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission both take a light-hearted, meme-driven approach to their subject areas. I mean, who doesn’t love a good dad joke?

Regardless of how “compelling” is defined, it’s important to remember that content alone can’t make a site “pop.” It takes copywriting, content strategy, UX design and a smart build working together to nurture a user’s journey toward completing an objective. 

Whether that’s delivering critical information during a crisis or smoothing out the airport experience during the holidays, the three Cs are a good foundation for achieving your website’s goals.

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