Manage Your Writing

Fifty resources

At Job Profiles, Christina Laun has published "50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Online Writers." They're worth a long look.

This week: Do it three times

Historian Paul Fussell once confessed:

Crappy work I do twice, good work I do three times.

This week, just as an experiment, don't just "do" each piece of work twice (drafting and revising), but take a minute or two to revise again. See if that third time pays off for you.

This week: Leave out what your readers will skip

In his book The Invisible Touch, marketing expert Harry Beckwith writes:

Skip the balderdash, the puffing, the filler. Tell me. Tell me the same way novelist Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty) writes books. Asked to explain why his books were so popular and so easy to read, Leonard answered: "Simple. I just leave out the parts that readers skip."

This week, as you revise your messages, put yourself in your reader's position and ask yourself what, as that reader, you would skip over. Leave that out.

This week: Follow SEC guidelines

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has led the U.S. government in pushing for plain language. SEC guidelines advise:

Surround complex ideas with short, common words. For example, use end instead of terminate, explain rather than elucidate, and use instead of utilize. When a shorter, simpler synonym exists, use it.

For example, the SEC recommends revising

No consideration or surrender of Beco Stock will be required of shareholders of Beco in return for the shares of Unis Common Stock issued pursuant to the Distribution.

into

You will not have to turn in your shares of Beco stock or pay any money to receive your shares of Unis Common Stock from the spin-off.

This week, as you revise, look for ways to replace long, uncommon words with short, common ones.

This week: Take the flab out of your end

The ending of your letters and e-mail messages may be the last thing your reader reads, so you'll want it to leave a good impression. Avoid flowery, "rubber stamp" endings like "Thank you in advance" and "Begging to remain yours truly." Such endings only sound stilted and insincere.

The best endings are focused and personal. If you know your reader well enough to close with a personal reference, by all means do so:

Thanks for your help with the Oswald project, Carmen; I'm glad we're working together again on this one.

Otherwise, a simple "Thanks" or "Thank you" is usually better than a longer, more formal close.

This week, as you revise, give special attention to how your messages end. Make sure they end effectively.

This week: Lose the powdered wig

An amazing fact about modern business is that some of the same people who like to think of themselves as on the cutting edge of technology still write the way people talked 200 years ago. They choose words that people haven't said to each other since they stopped wearing powdered wigs. When was the last time you heard a coworker say, "Pursuant to your recent inquiry"?

Malcolm Forbes called it as he saw it:

Business jargon too often is cold, stiff, unnatural. Suppose I came up to you and said, "I acknowledge receipt of your letter, and I beg to thank you." You'd think, "Huh?"

This week, as you revise, ask yourself, "Is this something people would actually say to each other?" If not, lose the powdered wig and bring your writing up to date.

This week: Take time to plan

I spent this past weekend in the Chicago area, at a meeting of the board of directors of the Association of Professional Communication Consultants. Among those present was my long-time friend Lee Clark Johns, Tulsa-based communication consultant and author of The Writing Coach (you can find it toward the bottom of the right column of this blog).

So I'm reminded of one of my favorite observations from Lee: "People often say, 'I don't have time to plan.'" "But," says Lee, "if you want to become a reader-friendly writer, you don't have time not to plan."

This week, as you write, take time to plan. A few minutes spent planning each piece of writing will pay off big-time.

This week: Use "readability" formulas wisely

A number of "readability" formulas, both manual and computer-based, have been developed to measure the difficulty of written text. Perhaps the most widely used is part of the grammar checker built into Microsoft Word. It and some others claim to report the number of years of schooling required to read a document.

The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission is a leader in calling for plain, easy-to-read language in government documents. So it's worthwhile to listen to what the SEC says about readability formulas:

You should be aware of a major flaw in every readability formula. No formula takes into account the content of the document being evaluated. In other words, no formula can tell you if you have conveyed the information clearly.

This week, if you have a readability checker available, give it a try. If it gives your draft a high grade-level score, take that score somewhat seriously, and look for ways to simplify. But don't automatically take the checker's specific advice. As the SEC says about readability formulas,

Take their suggestions as just that--suggestions. The final test of whether any piece of writing meets its goal of communicating information comes when humans read it.

This week: Separate rules from tools

When we first learned to write, we had to learn a lot of rules. So we sometimes believe that writing consists entirely of following rules. If we learn the rules, we'll be better writers.

Actually, writing has few rules, and we know and use almost all of them already. We know, for example, the rule that says that sentences must begin with capital letters. We know, in almost every case, the rule that singular subjects must have singular verbs.

To grow as writers, we don't need more rules. What we need are tools. And we need them most when we revise our messages.

This week, randomly pick one of the  posts on this blog that have been tagged "revising." (This post is the 159th, so you'll have lots to choose from.) Almost all these posts are tools, not rules, but if you choose one that you're sure is a rule, pick another. As you revise this week, think of that tool as if it's a physical tool in a toolbox. Look for opportunities to pick it up and use it. 

This week: Take as much time as you want others to take

Bill Jensen, in his book Simplicity, writes:

When people are in need of communication, they want others to take the time to listen, and then to take the time to create meaning, clarity, and connections between ideas. But when they have to do the communicating, saving time becomes a priority . . . .

When it comes to communication, business is facing major discipline and accountability problems. It's like the line about change: Taking the time to create clarity is important--as long as it's the other guy who has to do it.

Don't fall into this trap. This week, look at the writing you receive, and ask "What do I wish this writer had spent more time on?" Then, when you write, be sure to take the time you need to communicate effectively.