Write It Well

New York  Times reporter Adam Bryant interviewed Richard Anderson, chief executive of Delta Airlines about what’s important in today’s business world.  Communication skills are high on his list.  Here are three quotes from the article about the importance of strong written communication:

“…when you write e-mail, you need to express yourself very clearly.”

“People really have to be able to handle the written and spoken word.”

“More and more, the ability to speak well and write is important. You know, writing is not something that is taught as strongly as it should be in the educational curriculum.”

With Write It Well’s facilitator materials, you can deliver the workshop yourself!  For less than $20 per person per day, you can deliver an excellent workshop (and wow your boss). Reduced printing costs have allowed us to discount the prices on our popular facilitator kits (Effective E-Mail and Business Writing).

Lists are more effective than paragraphs because they:

• communicate information quickly
• save valuable writing time
• reduce the chance of grammar and punctuation errors 

Here’s an example of text in paragraph form.  Read on to see the same information presented in list form. 

PARAGRAPH

The task force found that the customer service representatives need training in how to respond to problems and complaints.  There is widespread unhappiness about the quality of food in the cafeteria, indicating the need to find another vendor.  How to implement flexible hours without creating logistical problems requires additional study.  Finally, field representatives need more powerful laptop computers, which have not been included in this year’s budget.  These are the primary areas of concern the members of the task force believe they need to address during the next six months. 

LIST

Below are the primary areas of concern the members of the task force believe they need to address during the next six months:

• The customer service representatives need training in how to respond to problems and complaints
• There is widespread unhappiness about the quality of food in the cafeteria, indicating the need to find another vendor
• Additional study is needed to determine how to implement flexible hours without creating logistical problems
• Field representatives need more powerful laptop comptuers, which have not been included in this year’s budget

 To make sure your lists are easy to read, follow the guidelines below. 

1. Introduce the list.  Every list needs an introductory statement, if only a few words, that tells readers what the list is about. Make sure that you leave a space between the introductory statement and the first list item. 
2. Make sure that all items belong on the list.  All items on the list should be directly related to the introductory statement.
3. Keep lists short.  If you have more than five or six items in a list, you should consider creating more than one list.
4. Be consistent with initial capitalization and end punctuation. List items that are fragments of sentences do not have to begin with capital letters (unless the first word is a proper name).  If you capitalize the first word of one line, capitalize the first word in every item.  End punctuation is only necessary if an item contains more than one sentence. It’s not wrong to use end punctuation but if you use it for one item, you must use it for all items.
5. Keep the list parallel in form.  All items on the list should be presented in the same form.  For example, if one item begins with an “ing” verb, all items should begin with “ing” verbs.