Helpful Hint # 1 Write to be understood, not to overwhelm
Your goal in business writing should be to inform people. This means you
need to express ideas in a fashion your readers can read quickly, understand, remember and
act upon.
Let's put that another way. Keep your business writing conversational. Your business
writing should sound as natural as a telephone conversation. That's all business writing
is - conversation on paper.
I seriously doubt you start a conversation with a friend, coworker, boss or client,
"per your request."
Also avoid your academic tendencies to impress people with your vocabulary. You are not
writing to get a grade. You are writing to inform. Rather than paradigm, use model,
pattern or example. Rather than subsequently, use after or later. Don't make people guess
want you mean. Tell them. Give them a warning, not a caveat.
In his book, "Talking Straight," Lee Iacocca wrote, "write the way you
talk. If you don't talk that way, don't write that way."
I will add a side bar to Mr. Iacocca's sound advise. Write the way you speak; then, edit,
edit, edit. Check your first draft to ensure you have used complete sentences and correct
spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Helpful Hint # 2 Become intimate with your grammar checkers
This is another way of saying always leave time to edit and possibly
rewrite your first draft. Someone once said, "There's no such thing as good writing,
just good rewriting."
I realize in the hectic business world, finding time for editing and rewriting becomes a
challenge. However, investing the time to run your writing through grammar checkers pays
huge dividends.
Grammar Checkers will help save you time, improve the quality of your writing, and
eliminate the embarrassment of misspelled words, incorrect grammar or confusing writing
styles.
Helpful Hint # 3 Average 18 words per sentence
The important word in this helpful hint is "average." That does
not mean every sentence must be 18 words long.
I feel confident most of you have heard the expression, "in 25 words or less..."
"In 25 words or less, tell us why we should send you to Hawaii."
Please understand the importance of this concept. Do you understand they are giving you
the first seven words? "You should send me to Hawaii because..." If you take the
first seven words they give you, you must then state your reason in 18 words!
Helpful Hint # 4 Find some friends
Business writing is a team sport.
Every day, you compete with thousands of the best letter, memo, proposal and e-mail
writers in the world. That's the "sport" part of the equation. Sports also
involves "winning." Winning for you means getting results with your writing.
Increase your chances of winning by letting at least one other person read what you have
written before sending the document. Your chances increase if you ask more people to
review it. Your friends are looking at your words for the first time. They will find
things in your writing you never dreamed you put in there.
After reading your writing, your friends will likely give you comments such as, "I
don't understand this part." "What do you mean by this?" "You forgot
_____." "You can't say that." "You misspelled some words."
Receiving these comments from your friends is a lot better than receiving them from your
bosses or your customers.
Helpful Hint # 5 Use a twenty-four hour drawer
This means putting what you have written in your desk drawer for one day
before sending it out. I know, you think I'm crazy. But, you will find the more distance
you put between you and your first draft, the better your writing becomes. Waiting 30
minutes before you edit your first draft may mean the difference between a successful
document or an embarrassing situation.
You have at least two good reasons why you should use the 24 hour drawer. First, if you
write a document and read it immediately after writing it, are you really reading it? No!
You are remembering all the good ideas you wrote about. You don't even see half the words.
Second, in the writing stage, we use the creative side of our brain. In
the editing stage, we use the analytical side of our brain. Using a 24-hour drawer means
allowing enough time for your brain to switch from the creative to the analytical. This
takes time.
The more time you allow between the writing and editing stages, the better
your writing becomes.
Helpful Hint # 6 Read your writing out loud
That is not an invitation to a rubber room. That is a good technique to
test your writing. If you read your writing out loud, you will see how long the sentences
are. If you run out of breath before you run out of words, you know your sentences are too
long. Remember the helpful hint - average 18 words per sentence? That hint helps ensure
you don't run out of breath too often.
Reading your writing out loud forces you to slow down to look at each word. Looking at
each word helps ensure the sentence says exactly what you want it to mean.
Helpful Hint # 7 Proofread, proofread, proofread, proofread
Obviously, helpful hint # 7 stresses the importance of proofreading. Let
me tell you why I use the word proofread four times. First, I am reminding you that you
don't have to do all that proofreading. Remember I said find some friends? You should do
one version of proofreading, your friends should do another, your spell checker's and
grammar checkers should do another.
I also stress the importance of proofreading because the minimum you should do it is
twice. The first time you proofread, you proofread for content. Is my message clear,
correct, concise, complete, and conversational? This second time you proofread, you
proofread for mechanics. By mechanics, I mean your spelling, punctuation, grammar, format
and approach.
Proofreading is your last shot at getting the your writing to the point
where you will be proud of it and get the results you're looking for.
© 1999 Al Borowski, MEd, CSP
For a free copy of Al Borowski's Special Report, Creating IMMPACT When You
Communicate," visit his website, connectallthedots.com or contact him at
al@connectallthedots.com. Al is an author, speaker, trainer and consultant. This article
is an excerpt from his book, How To Get It Right When You Write. |
