Online & digital

An informal, personal piece written online — like a public diary or a friend talking to you.

To share experience or opinion, entertain, and connect with followers.

Followers and casual online readers — often young, treated like friends.

Relaxed, everyday language, like friendly speech.

An incomplete sentence used for effect.

Gently making fun of yourself.

Any of: direct address, fragments, humour/self-deprecation, honesty, a closing nudge to comment.

They build a friendly, trustworthy, real-sounding voice.

It makes the writer relatable and trustworthy — and so persuasive.

A warm call to engage ('tell me in the comments') that builds community.

Scanned, not read word-for-word — headings and images guide skimming.

The button/link for the click they want (Buy, Join, Sign up, Donate).

It makes the service feel personal and speaks to each visitor.

The way size, colour and position steer the eye to what matters most first.

Headings for scanning, a clear call to action, and image/layout hierarchy.

‘Where does the design send my eye — and my click?’

Hierarchy: size and position signal what the page wants you to notice first.

Both use design, but a site adds clickable calls to action and navigation.

Say what its colour/placement DOES — pulls the eye, makes the action feel easy.

Reading only the paragraphs and ignoring design, buttons and hierarchy.

A very short, informal text built to relate and be shared quickly.

It has seconds to stop a scroll, so it works through brevity, tone and image.

They play off each other; the meaning is in the combination, not either alone.

Set a tone and tag it to a community or shared mood.

Tone and feeling in a tiny space — irony, warmth, humour.

A short punchy caption, image+caption interplay, and hashtags/emojis.

The way a post invites a like, share, reply or tag.

‘How does it earn a like or a share in seconds?’

No — the brevity is the craft; every word, emoji and hashtag is a choice.

Dismissing it as too short, instead of analysing tone, image and hashtags.

A written record of real speech, kept exactly — hesitations, pauses and all.

They're evidence — signs of nerves, thinking, uncertainty or power.

Who cuts in and who is cut off shows who holds the power.

One person dominating vs one-word replies reveals the balance of power.

They record how something is said, not just what — tone and manner.

Nerves, uncertainty, or a speaker thinking on their feet.

‘How does the WAY they speak reveal character and power?’

No — the stumbles and interruptions are the evidence you analyse.

A transcript keeps speech raw; an interview article selects and polishes quotes.

Analysing only the topic and ignoring the speech features that reveal character.