I have a new podcast channel, and to inaugurate it, I created my first podcast entitled Less is More: Works well in Written Communications. You can listen to it below, or visit my new Anthor.FM podcast channel to find out where else you can listen. If you want a little written commentary, please read on.
Schools of Hard Knocks
Over the years, but in two arenas specifically — working in administrative careers in Corporate Canada, and teaching for the largest colleges in Canada — I learned to appreciate why I should not be verbose. Schools of hard knocks, and all that. I learned that busy professors, college coordinators and chairs, and a varied collection of senior executives I worked for, did not have time for my usual (too) thorough explanations. In that, I came to appreciate how to write for specific audiences as well.
Business Writing
As I learned how to organize and write all sorts of business documents like memos, letters, and reports, I also learned about the ubiquitous component of many large reports that is called an executive summary. A very good thing to get to know. While busy executives may need the ‘devils’ that are in the details, they usually first turn to the executive summary to get an overview.
There were many other writing, and speaking, tips I picked up along the way. For example, keeping business emails to the point; efficient. Another example: not missing any key points in any business document. These two things are compatible. One can write effectively with brevity.
Another great piece of advice I received from one of my bosses (an executive vice president of a well-known debit and credit card processing company) was that I needed to drop all the extra explanations about a thing, and perhaps my emotional reaction to that thing, and get on with it. More so, that I walk into an office — or write an email or other business document — with a solution in mind. A whole other topic, probably, but perhaps good advice if you’re just entering into the business world.
Editing and Proofing
Please, do not, ever, be 100% reliant with the grammar or spelling checker your browser (or word processing program, like Microsoft (r) Word) uses. We should always be the final arbiter on our written work. Editing and proofreading, in that order, can be complex tasks, but they need not be. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill published an excellent article on editing and proofreading. A distillation of the main points include:
- If you’re short on time, prioritize your editing and proofreading tasks.
- Start with your content: In brief, have you done everything asked for?
- Look at overall structure, then paragraph and sentence structure.
- When proofreading, in addition to not relying on spell or grammar checkers, proofread for one kind of error at a time.
- Consider circling every punctuation mark.
There are more tips in this excellent article; I hope you’ll give it a read.
My Typical Process
Even in texting, I pretty much review (edit and proofread) anything I create at least two-to-three times. Texting is particularly taxing as autocorrect can make the difference between something clearly understand or something spectacularly wrong!
In going over my work two-to-three times, I often catch words that should be capitalized, but were not, missing or incorrect punctuation, and just plain wrong messages. For example, I may have meant to say “I will attend the event”, but actually thumbed or typed “I won’t attend the event.” Another plus, and it relates right back to the title of this post, is that in several rounds of editing/proofreading, I tend to cut down on the length of a text message, article or post, or other document.
Need help fine-tuning your messages? Please use my convenient form to tell me what you need, or just drop a line to rob@successfulmessages.com.
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