If you’ve begun thinking more about the words you use in routine workplace communication and presentations – that’s a good thing. No need to thank me … it’s my pleasure.
If you identified lots of word choice habits, also good. If you asked yourself why you used a particular word or phrase and weren’t happy with your blow-off answers ‘That’s the first one I thought of’ … or … ‘That’s the one I usually use’, then get ready to rock & roll. You’ll benefit from some lessons learned on our journey towards more people-centric word choices.
Go back to Square One
1. If you gathered – or assumed – enough Audience Analysis data up front, it should tell you a lot about what type of words would be most appropriate for the specific outcomes you intend for your memo, report or presentation. Consider their educational levels, organizational levels, backgrounds and culture when choosing the ‘Best Words you can think of’.
2. You also determined the appropriate Tone of your message. Your words, structure and syntax all influence how your message ‘feels’ to people and the emotional or connotative reactions they might have to your word choices.
3. Let those decisions impact your word choices. Every word you say should be on purpose and for a purpose. Go beyond the ‘first one/usual one’ approach to the Best one you can find that consistently and clearly conveys your intended meaning to your specific group of people. And it’s not that long a trip.
Clarity Wins
You’re probably expecting me to grind my axe about brevity here. Correct – Less is More in workplace communication and presentations. Brevity is very important, but Clarity always beats Brevity. If you have a choice between a shorter or more conversational word or phrase and a longer, more formal word or phrase … and the shorter option is just as clear … or clearer … go with it. But, never sacrifice Clarity just to achieve Brevity. Better to use a longer word or more words to clearly communicate your message.
That said, ‘telephone’ becomes ‘phone’, ‘automobile’ becomes ‘car’, ‘compensate’ becomes ‘pay’, ‘finalize’ becomes ‘finish’, ‘approximately’ becomes ‘about’ and ‘modification’ becomes ‘change’. Turn ‘fluctuation’ into ‘change’, ‘commence’ into ‘begin’, ‘utilize’ into ‘use’ and ‘anticipate’ into ‘expect’.
Brevity Still Counts
Instead of adding four words with ‘to the extent that’, only add one with ‘if’. Instead of ‘each and every one of you’, save three words with ‘all of you’ or ‘each of you’. No need to say ‘ … a check in the amount of $2,300 … ’ when ‘ … for $2,300’ works better. Is ‘at this present point in time …’ any clearer than ‘ … now …’? No! Do we really add any value by saying ‘… state of Ohio … ‘ instead of simply ‘ … Ohio … ‘? No! Avoid redundancy with ‘consensus of opinion’ when ‘consensus’ means the same thing. Why ever say ‘red in color’ when all we need is ‘red’.
Don’t Forget Tone
Can you hear and ‘feel’ a difference in tone between ‘in lieu of’ and ‘instead of’, between ‘I am in receipt of’ and ‘I received’ or ‘’pursuant to our telephone conversation’ and ‘as we discussed’? I can. Your readers or audience certainly can.
So, clarity and brevity both rule in routine workplace writing, interactions and presentations. Now go write and present with more power and success … and start harnessing the power of your words.