Write It Well

If this week’s teetering worldwide financial markets didn’t prove we’re a tightly connected globe, the recent surge in overseas outsourcing and international collaboration can leave no doubts. What does globalization mean for business communications? Try these tips when communicating with a global audience:

• Doublecheck your writing for regional figures of speech or obscure jargon that might confuse a nonnative speaker (or even a native speaker).
• Take yourself lightly when confusion arises. Remember that English isn’t the most widely-spoken language in the world — and when choosing a second language, people are more likely to learn Hindi, Arabic, or Mandarin.
• Finally, direct, active sentences work just as well for the global audience as the coworker down the hall. Baggy language and passive voice can be particularly confusing to a nonnative speaker.

Latin forms the root of many English words, but we’ve also adopted it wholesale in many cases. Take “data” and “alumni”, for example. To get technical, both are Latin plurals — and many publishers and newspapers insist on using them like plurals. But most of us would agree that “two data” sounds terribly odd, and “these data” only somewhat less so. What’s to be done? Grammar Girl has a nice podcast about data.

The issues are even trickier when we take a look at “alumni”. The New York Times reports that more and more students are taking their Latin seriously. If we follow their lead, we’ll need to figure out how to use not just “alumni” but “alumnus” (one man), “alumna” (one woman), and “alumnae” (multiple women). What’s to be done with all this Latin?

Be aware of your audience. Are you writing for scientific or formal publications that prefer “data” stay a plural word? Will a bright young graduate think less of you for calling her an “alumnus”? When their audience is sufficiently casual, many people use “alum” and “alums” without hesitation — and “the data says” is standard English.

A friend of mine has a cell phone that only sends all-caps text messages. More than once, she’s terrified me with a message. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” she’ll text, “WHERE DID YOU GO?” Of course, she’s baffled when I call her back to find out why she’s so upset. 

Why do I think she sounds angry? Words written in all caps look LOUD: they’re the textual version of shouting. Unfortunately, many people push their caps-lock key because they think capital letters are easier to read, or look unusual and attractive. In fact, lower-case letters are easier to read, especially on a computer screen. Save all caps for acronyms, quotations of shouted speech, and extra emphasis on rare occasions. 

For more advice on capitalization, check out E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide.

Hitting “send” is easier than finding a stamp and sealing an envelope, and far easier than confronting a person face-to-face. If you’re prone to bursts of anger, put a safety on your send button: compose your e-mail in a word processor. The extra cut-and-paste steps will help you avoid sending e-mail that could damage relationships or even land you in legal trouble. Check out Chapter 5: Cautionary Tales in E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide.

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead,” quipped Mark Twain. He’s right: it’s hard to be terse. Well-crafted prose takes time, but ounce-for-ounce it gets more results than loose, sloppy writing. Some ruthless tips on keeping it short:

• Summarize a wordy sentence. Replace the sentence with its summary.
• Pretend you’re describing your document to someone getting on a bus. Which parts did you gloss over? Cut them.
•  Maximize meaning. Choose the right words and craft them into focused sentences.

22% of workers who use e-mail say that they are required to check their business e-mail even when they aren’t at work, according to a study by the PEW Internet and American Life Project published last week. The numbers are even higher for the BlackBerry-and-iPhone set: 48% of workers with mobile e-mail say they have to check their e-mail at home.

With all this e-mail interrupting our weekends, it’s even more important that our messages are relevant, clear, and concise. Write It Well offers workshops and do-it-yourself workshop facilitator kits that can help your business reduce e-mail clutter — and leave your down-time as free as possible.