Write It Well

Dustin Wax has a lovely piece on Lifehack about writing. Writing deserves practice, he says. “The skills that make us better writers make us better explainers, better persuaders, and better thinkers,” he writes. In a world dominated by information, those who write well have a huge advantage over those who don’t. Wax lists four steps to becoming a better writer:

• Read. By reading broadly, you train your mind to recognize good writing.
• Write. Practice as much as you can, in contexts as informal as Twitter, or as controlled as a business report.
• Read again. Wax thinks most poor writers fail because they don’t take the time to re-read their own writing and see how it works, or doesn’t work.
• Repeat. Persistence and practice pay off.

Good grammar rules make our jobs easier: they help us communicate clearly and professionally. But there are many mistaken grammar notions that do nothing but get in the way and make us feel insecure about our writing. Philip Corbett, the deputy news editor at The New York Times, points out some of these grammar hobgoblins this week in After Deadline. Here are two:

• None: singular AND plural. Under the mistaken impression that none was a contraction for “not one,” many grammar advocates insist we use none with singular verbs. Actually, none has been both singular and plural since its birth as the word nan in Old English. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage notes that King Alfred the Great used it as a plural back in A.D. 888.
• Beginning with but or and. Conjunctions like but or and give us a short way to say “however” or “in addition” when opening a sentence. However and in addition often sound awkward and overly formal. And none of the major style guides have a problem with conjunctions starting a sentence.

Social media has captured everyone’s attention these days, especially businesses who want to capitalize on personal networking. In a recent article on The Morning News, Margaret Mason lists fourteen ways to use Twitter politely. She divides Twitter users into two types: those who broadcast, blog-style, and those who use the service to chat with each other. Some of her tips:

• Remember everyone can hear you. This goes not just for Twitter, but for Facebook and even e-mail.
• What’s rude in life is rude in Twitter. We feel a certain imaginary invulnerability when using the Internet. Being mean will come back to bite you.
• Think twice before Twittering in an altered state. Again, this goes for any type of communication that doesn’t require stamp-licking effort.

Whether you’re Twittering on a corporate account, starting a blog, or just shooting your co-worker an e-mail, take the time to polish your writing. Electronic communication is marvelously easy — which means broadcasting your mistakes is marvelously easy, too.

Smashing Magazine recently published a list of ten truths most corporate websites don’t want to face. I found Harsh Truth Number Five most interesting: “You are wasting your money on social networking.”

Not that social networking isn’t effective for corporations. As Paul Boag writes, “Tweeting on a corporate account or posting sales demonstrations on YouTube misses the essence of social networking. Social networking is about people engaging with people. Individuals do not want to build relationships with brands and corporations.”

How can a business use social networking tools effectively? Boag encourages companies to let their employees blog or tweet independently. With a few guidelines on acceptable content, employees can give their companies a personal, networked presence on the Internet.

With unemployment rising, job hunts have become even more competitive. The president of Greener World Media put it this way: 

“The ability to write clearly is important. My business, Greener World Media, helps businesses succeed by being green. We write letters, reports, presentations, e-mails, and more, so I need people who can write clearly and without errors. We’re growing and I recently filled a few new positions. I can’t tell you how many cover letters and resumes I discarded because the applicant didn’t take the time to think about their reader, organize their thoughts, use correct grammar and punctuation, or proofread!”

If you’re on the job market, now is the time to hone your writing skills. Write It Well has a selection of books and workshops to help you improve your professional writing, from cover letters to performance reviews.

Worried about how you’ll help managers deliver effective layoff interviews?  Write It Well has an online learning application that will solve your problem. 

(PR Web, Oakland, CA – February 9, 2008) – Write It Well, a training and publishing company that improves business communications skills, has an online training solution for managers who are tasked with the difficult job of laying people off. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that nearly a quarter-of-a- million layoffs were announced in January. In these economic times, layoffs are a sad reality. They are difficult for everyone involved – certainly for those losing their jobs, but also for the managers delivering the bad news and the staff left behind.

In last week’s article, “Layoffs Herald a Heyday for Employee Lawsuits,” The New York Times reported that the number of lawsuits filed by laid-off workers is rising steadily. Layoff interviews conducted well can reduce the risks of legal action and slipping employee morale. Write It Well’s customizable application gives managers the tools and confidence they need to conduct layoff interviews effectively.

When Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang got to work writing an e-mail about layoffs, he made some serious blunders. This is a topic that affects people at a visceral level and warrants a professional e-mail with correct grammar and punctuation. Yang’s confusing, rambling, error-filled message delivered the opposite impression. Ironically, Yahoo!’s own written guidelines for layoffs are right on the mark: get right to the point, don’t own the employee’s feelings, and be clear, concise, and respectful.

 Nobody likes to write difficult e-mails or deliver bad news, but when they learn how to do it right, managers can deliver bad news respectfully and effectively.

Drawing on more than twenty-five years of experience helping people communicate clearly and professionally, Write It Well has developed a training solution that teaches managers why layoff interviews are so challenging to deliver and how to avoid some of the most common pitfalls. By watching excerpts from layoff interviews, they get to see the dos and don’ts in action. Following these excerpts, the solution’s facilitator offers a brief analysis of why each interview was successful or not, emphasizing the risks inherent in poorly chosen words, poor delivery and lack off preparation.

Interviews are unsuccessful when managers are not prepared (e.g., working without a script, failing to prepare documents about severance or COBRA), deliver the news poorly (e.g., with too much emotional content in the interview) and a fail to document the interview immediately afterward. By completing the exercises in the training program, managers will learn the three steps necessary for success: 1. Prepare, 2. Deliver, and 3. Document.

About Write It Well

Write It Well is a training and consulting firm that helps people in the workplace communicate clearly and work together effectively. Write It Well offers step-by-step techniques to improve business communication through onsite and online training courses, e-learning solutions, blended solutions, and business writing books with companion facilitator guides. Our books include Professional Writing Skills, How to Write Reports and Proposals, Grammar for Grownups, and E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide. For more information about Write It Well, visit our website.

Our e-learning solution, How to Conduct a Layoff Interview, can be customized for any organization and stored inside your firewall. In most cases, delivery only takes three weeks from the date of order.

Write It Well developed a customized blended learning program for Berkeley, CA-based low-income housing developer, Satellite Housing.  Read about the project and outcomes here.

A friend of mine was talking to a literary agent about his novel. “Give me the two-sentence pitch,” she said. When he looked anxious at the thought of condensing his masterpiece to two measly sentences, she told him, “I’m here and happy to listen when you figure it out — but I’m just asking you the question everyone else will ask me when I try to sell your book.” 

We would all do well to take her point. Audiences aren’t ready-made. Usually, our first job as writers is to persuade people to read our e-mails, reports, and novels — with an engaging subject line, summary, or blurb. Of course, it can be tricky to write a short summary of something you’ve just written pages about, but executives and other readers often make big decisions without reading the whole report. Natalie Canavor and Claire Meirowitz have some summary-writing tips in the CW Bulletin. Their suggestions:

• Give your summary a summary: make sure the title and first sentence are interesting and to the point.
• List the key points that led you to your conclusion.
• Don’t leave out your recommendations! After someone reads your summary and sees that you did your research, they’ll look to you for a concisely worded, educated opinion.

For more tips on writing concisely, check out Write It Well’s Professional Writing Skills.

The New York Times has a sweet little editing quiz on “After Deadline” this week. See if you can spot the errors in their articles. Their answers won’t appear till tomorrow.

Here’s one:

Purchased by investors at the height of the real estate boom in 2006, the management’s conversion plan appears unrealistic about meeting its sales and revenue goals, one lender is quoted as saying in court documents in the lawsuit between the owners.

Was the management “purchased by investors”? Or did investors buy the management’s plan? The phrase “purchased by investors…” no doubt refers to a company — but the company isn’t mentioned. You can avoid such “dangling participles” by writing tight, active sentences in the first place.