Now, typically that headline would deserve an all-caps, exclamation-point treatment, but the people at 37signals seem to have paid attention to good writing for some time, or at least for the time I’ve been following their blog, Signal vs. Noise. Now they’ve added a category about good writing to the blog. It’s called, appropriately enough, “On Writing.”

I think this is a fantastic development and I hope these posts get a lot of attention. But I’m not sure I agree with their inaugural selections.

37signals is a great and very successful small company, now selling their own products to what I’m guessing is a self-selecting group of in-the-know clients. I’d love to have clients use their products, but they don’t usually consult me about these things. Anyway, as a freelancer who often works with established, maybe even cautious companies, here’s my take on their examples.

1) The Amphibian About page: the honest, conversational approach wins a lot of points for its conversational feel. But what if he didn’t have a portfolio to show as well? I think this is great for smaller, hipper clients, but I think it would have to be tighter and more focused for a buttoned-up client.

2) Jewelboxing’s One Thing Leads to Another: Fantastic. Coudal Partners are smart and confident and it comes through. I would say the piece is a bit long, but you would only ever see it if you were interested in the story.

3) Pinder Bags’ About page: This is another good example of clear, plain English, which is great. However, I found it weird that the “Philosophy” paragraph came before the “Quality” paragraph. Surely I’m buying from them mainly because I like the product, and only secondly because of their good works, right? Who would buy a crappy bag because the company gave to charity? I was also a little disappointed to see them trash the competition in the first sentence. Seems a bit defensive.

Of course, us writers always want to rewrite others’ copy, so let me know if I’m wrong. I’d say that 37signals are admiring the right stuff, but I’d like to see examples of clear, plain writing from sites outside of their usual orbit as well.