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Writing Event Descriptions

Client:

The Clarice: NextNOW Fest 2021

For each of the events I helped to curate at the festival, I wrote the event marketing descriptions that were listed on The Clarice’s website to advertise the events at the festival, which helped me learn the unique demands of writing these descriptions. Though these descriptions are written to inform site visitors, they serve an additional purpose of enticing site visitors to attend the festival. I needed to create these event descriptions in a way that would increase the conversion rate from site visitors to festival attendees. Additionally, the event descriptions were a challenging task as I needed to encapsulate the events’ arts and experiences in words.

As I wrote my event descriptions, I became adept at a number of conventions for making these descriptions effective forms of communication. First, I used action verbs to empower readers to attend—instead of “you could engage with…,” I wrote “engage with.” Inclusion of indecisive verbs like “could” or “can” leaves participation up to choice, but “engage” without the presence of these on-the-fence verbs allows the readers to picture themselves at the event, doing or experiencing what is being described. As a professional writing minor, my writing style tends toward more professional language, but the marketing descriptions needed to take on a casual tone to fit the mood of the festival. Instead of “get a beanbag,” I wrote “grab a beanbag.” Using more casual language was important to accurately convey the festival vibe, as reading a less casual description may make readers feel more apprehensive about attending—casual is more comfortable, especially for students. In my years of writing for academic purposes, I’ve been discouraged from using exclamation marks in my writing. However, these marketing descriptions could include exclamation marks because the tone is casual and the events are exciting. Exclamation marks, when used sparingly and effectively in place of periods, make the reader become further interested in what is being described because the event or activity sounds fun, and the exclamation mark reinforces that fun. At first, my descriptions included more information about the event venues, but I removed that after seeing that the event listings on the website already separately list the venue. With that realization, I decided that I needed to limit the marketing description to what would best encapsulate the event and what would best convince readers that they could not miss the event. The process of writing and tweaking these event descriptions made me learn the effectiveness of a casual tone when used in the right context, the importance of choosing included information wisely, and the unique conventions of marketing descriptions. I appreciated the challenge of capturing the essence of an arts event in words.

Year:

2021

© 2024 by Selia Myers. All portrait photography by Mary Killeen Myers.

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