10 Tools for Improving Your Business Writing

Transcript

1. TO O L S I N YO U R TO O L K I T
2. G E T R I D O F T H E F E A R O N E
3. G E T OV E R I T. • Practice! Develop a daily habit and write as often as you can. • Do your research. Understand your audience and be clear about what you’re trying to accomplish. • Crappy first drafts are ok. • Just start.
4. M I N I M I Z E PA SS I V E VO I C E T WO
5. T I P S TO M I N I M I Z E PAS S I V E VO I C E • Spot it: the subject of the sentence is not doing the acting. • How? • Add “by zombies” after the verb. Does it make sense? Then it’s passive voice. • Use Microsoft Word’s grammar checker or a tool like Grammarly. (or find a friendly editor) • Look for “is,” “are,” “can,” “could,” “have,” “has,” and “ought.” AT T E N T I O N M U ST B E PA I D… BY ZO M B I E S .
6. E L I M I N AT E JA R G O N T H R E E
7. D O N ’ T A L I E N AT E YO U R R E A D E R ! • Jargon makes writers seem like sophisticated insiders, but it makes life harder for readers. • Direct, informal language is more effective. • Three exceptions: • The terms are ones everyone in your audience knows. Be ok with excluding some. • Legally required • Define the term up front.
8. E X A M P L E System-level competition is a new model for strategy in a globally-linked, information- oriented society. This is a methodology for strategic innovation that blends system design and management, ecosystem-centered business strategy, and applications from complex adaptive systems research. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. V S
9. E X A M P L E The Area Vice President, Enterprise Customers will develop and manage a sustainable strategic relationship that transforms the current commercial model by creating joint value that results in the ongoing reduction of costs, continuous process improvement, growth and profitability for both partners with the ability to export key learnings. You’ll show key enterprise customers the benefits of working with us and share what you learn. O R
10. TA M E T H E W E A S E L WO R D S F O U R
11. W H AT TO WATC H FO R • Most • Many • Few • Rarely • Millions • Cheap • Countless
12. “…our incredibly loyal and dedicated employee base has stepped up to every challenge along the way….The teams here have not only built incredible products and technologies, but have built Yahoo into one of the most iconic, and universally well-liked companies in the world….I’m incredibly proud of everything that we’ve achieved, and I’m incredibly proud of our team. I love Yahoo, and I believe in all of you.”
13. E X A M P L E I am excited about the incredible opportunity that the United team has to improve the travel experience essential to the vitality of global business and to the personal lives of millions of people. I am excited about the opportunity to improve your travel experience. I know that United Airlines is vital to the global business and personal travel that led you to take 140 million trips with us last year. O R
14. W R I T E S H O R T E R F I V E
15. T I P S • Treat the reader’s time as more valuable than your own. • Eliminate everything you don’t need. • Edit everything. • Emails: under 250 words 
 Blog posts: under 750 • If each word costs $10, how much can you afford?
16. WO R K O U T A P P R OVA L S I N A DVA N C E S I X
17. • Decide questions of authority ahead of time • Get (or give) pre-approval on the objectives and outline before writing • Example: • Legal or compliance reviews claims • Marketing team advocates for the reader • Technical team confirms accuracy • C-Suite overrides the decision to publish • Editor has final say on tone and style
18. V I S UA L I Z E YO U R AU D I E N C E S E V E N
19. B U L L E T/O U T L I N E YO U R I D E A S E I G H T
20. E D I T. E D I T. E D I T. N I N E
21. E D I T BY C H A I N SAW • State your main idea as clearly as you can. • Slash anything extra (even if it’s a good story) • Every paragraph has to earn its keep • Every sentence does, too • Move things around
22. • Trim the bloat and fat. • Shed the obvious (ex: “in this article… I’ve always felt that…”) • Trim word bloat (ex: although instead of despite the fact that… or when instead of when it comes to…) • Ditch adverbs unless they’re necessary to adjust meaning • Get rid of weakling verbs • Don’t rely on “however,” “although,” “therefore” for transition E D I T BY S U R G I C A L TO O L S
23. O N L I N E TO O L S T E N
24. TO O L S TO U S E • Grammarly.com • scribens.com • MS Word (try the “read out loud feature)