An election guide to writing

No - vote for ME!

How many people ever actually read the election manifesto of a political party?

Other than other politicians and political commentators/analysts, I’d guess fairly few.

I’m saying this as someone who is passionate about politics; I’ve tried and failed on many occasions to get through a manifesto, and I know I’m not alone.

Reading a manifesto for a party is a lot like a reading website for a company. You want to know who these people are, what they do, and how that helps you.

It needs to open with a brief introduction that explains why the things you offer are right for me, next you need to go into detail about these services, products or policies and reinforce why they help me.

You also need a place where people can find out more about you, what you’ve done in the past, where you aim to go in the future or any other important facts about your company, party or movement.

Simple, really.

Of course, for politicians, knowing that very few people will ever read their work can be a bonus. They write manifestos for the professionals, knowing that the public will only read the actual policies – you know, the bits they actually WANT to know, without having to wade through the extraneous information.

Maybe if they just cut out the blurb and focussed on the voters, more people would be interested enough to read the manifestos in the first place. . . .

. . . .

.  . . . On an interesting side note, reading the introduction to the three big parties’ manifestos showed up a difference in language that I’m always banging on about.

I mean of course, “we” versus “you”.

And here’s how the big 3 scored in their introductions:

Meaningless from a political point of view, naturally, but always of interest to this copy writer!