Descriptive Writing WPM

Discussion in 'Copywriting' started by joebert, Nov 15, 2008.

  1. #1
    Sorry if mangled an industry term, I'm not exactly a copywriter. :)

    Imagine that you had to look at a screenshot of a website template and describe what you see in that screenshot using as much detail as you can.

    What would you consider an average number of Words Per Minute for doing something like that with a broad range of themes ?
     
    joebert, Nov 15, 2008 IP
  2. kiteguy123

    kiteguy123 Well-Known Member

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    #2
    For me, this is a really tricky question to answer, because I find that if I try and type really quickly then I sometimes make errors, so by the time I've gone back over the writing and double checked everything, my average time per word has dropped massively.
     
    kiteguy123, Nov 15, 2008 IP
  3. jhmattern

    jhmattern Illustrious Member

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    #3
    First of all, there's a big difference between typing wpm and writing wpm. For example, I can type about 120 wpm. However, that doesn't reflect what writing is, and my "writing" speed by that measurement would be significantly less. Typing speeds are solely about fingers to the keyboard - the text is usually written and in front of you already.

    Writing, on the other hand is much slower if you're doing the job right. Typing is only one small part of the writing process. There's research (in this case not only looking at the templates, but researching the audience to determine the best type of copy - such as knowing how to sell to them if you want the descriptions to help sell those templates). There's the matter of organizing thoughts and even sentences or individual phrases to best convey what you're trying to say. There's also the matter of editing, followed by final proofreading. That's an over-simplified look at the writing process, and that's not something people generally measure in wpm.
     
    jhmattern, Nov 16, 2008 IP