Here’s a summary of Best Practices you would hear often in one of my Workplace Writing workshops. Early on, I tell participants that I won’t ask them to change any of their word use or writing style habits. But, I will ask them to challenge those habits in light of these Best Practices. If they decide to change any of them, that’s fine. If not, that’s fine, too.
In reviewing your Workplace Writer Tool Kit, some of you may find a few new tools to add to it. But, most of you will find new, different or better ways to use the tools you already have.
- Everything you write at work should be on purpose and for a purpose.
- Everything you write or say at work positions you and projects an image of professionalism, courtesy and credibility … or detracts from it.
- The process of creating effective workplace messages is essentially the same. The variable is the medium you choose to transmit those messages.
- Strive for Reader-Centricity. Write for them, not you. Write for them the way they want you to, not the way you want them to write for you.
- Err on the side of over-communicating important messages to increase your probability of success.
- Strive for simplicity and brevity, but never at the expense of clarity.
- Go beyond the ‘first word you think of’ or the ‘word you usually think of’ to the ‘best word you can think of’ to accomplish your intended outcome with your readers.
- Even if you’re simply informing your reader – ‘telling’, you’re still persuading your reader – ‘selling’. You’re selling the value of the information you’re sharing and your credibility.
- Whenever you can, choose precise and consistent words, choose verbs over nouns, choose active voice over passive voice and choose second person over third person.
- Conforming to logical, relevant and important grammatical rules should increase the consistency, clarity and professionalism in your workplace writing.
- With all emails, include something in the subject line to help your readers quickly assess and deal with them.
- No one should see you first draft of important messages. Everyone will see your final draft.
In future issues of ‘Communicate Confidently!’, we’ll expand on many of these concepts and strategies to help you take some of the pain out of your workplace writing. The pain you experience … and, the pain you may cause your readers.
Till then … Happy Writing!