The right word in electronic environments should be identified purposefully. Do not take a shot in the dark...

J.P. Henriques

In the almost infinite and hybrid world of the electronic communication industry, the search for the right word implies that professionals are forced to find methods for the composition of wording in the most suitable means and format. Hence, the question is how to develop commercial copywriting with rules of style, categorise levels of information for the taxonomy of a site, define a tag to facilitate search in an engine or create a name for a brand in an Internet environment?

When placed within the body of a text, it is important for the words to be cohesive and take on a style; when isolated, the words represent a summary, a classification or a categorisation. The growth of electronic communication increasingly reinforces this last aspect. The right word permits surfing by levels and the succession of steps in a site and can render financial returns; it also allows for an easy search of information, whether on a mobile telephone or in an Internet browser, because the word assumes the function of producing different results and implies interaction with the user. The word also emerges as an element which is inseparable from the function and image illustrating a content.

The right word in electronic communication is identified in a particular context and meets specific objectives. We propose the following basic principles in its identification:

PRINCIPLE OF CONVENTION
Follow the bases of the different organisational systems and international standards. These bases are defined in a book on style for a variety of situations from monetary references to measurement systems.

PRINCIPLE OF UNIVERSALITY
Assume terms and concepts which are accepted and easily understandable by the entire target group. The right word is the one which is immediately recognised and understood. A good way to check the level of usage of a term is to enter it in the Google search engine and see the number of results. Likewise, a word highlighted in a cloud of tags demonstrates the success of the solution found.

PRINCIPLE OF THE USER
Identify an intuitive classification which leads to a user action in the different steps which must be taken within a functionality of a site, such as for example, making a bank transfer.

PRINCIPLE OF THE OBJECT 
The site was or is being developed with a specific objective in view, whether commercial or institutional. The terminology to be defined in the site should be specifically related to the brand, product, service, institution and subjects of knowledge inherent to it.

PRINCIPLE OF CREATIVITY

The identification of a highly creative term can be the reason for a high rate of use of a particular on-line content and the motive why this site is distinctive. However, we feel that creativity should be based on formal base principles such as those referred to previously. Identifying the right word blindly could be like a shot in the dark at a group of ducks, one could hit or miss (notwithstanding our deep affection for ducks...).

This summary of principles searches for the theoretical bases of Design, Information Architecture, Linguistics and of the Information and Communication Technologies. We hope that this will be useful next time you need to structure the information of an electronic or physical format.

RECOMMENDED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Christina Wodtke and Austin Govella, Information Architecture - Blue prints for the web

Rob Bowdery, Copywriting

Zacarias Nascimento and José Pinto, A dinâmica da escrita