Based on some calls and notes from readers, some of you are seriously challenging your word use habits in routine workplace communication. Great – I was hoping that would happen. Effective word use is the same, whether the medium you use to communicate those words is an email, a phone call, a face-to-face conversation or a more formal presentation.
Workplace Writing
Energize Your Email
Every time you send an email to a customer, colleague or manager, it projects an image of your professionalism, competency and courtesy. That image should be positive whenever possible, or at least neutral, but never negative. Accept the reality that every email you send at work impacts your image. These simple suggestions will help you project your best possible positive image.
Verbs Beat Nouns
Here’s a Quickie Rant about Making Words Matter that might challenge some of your word use habits, like the one you carried over from those 500-word essay days in high school – Noun Phrases.
Sexless Writing
Here we go again … trashing more time-honored rules of grammar that may have made sense in your grandparents’ workplaces … but probably not in yours any more. Hope you’re having as much fun as I am getting back at your high school English teachers who beat those rules into you … often with a yard stick. I know I am. So, please allow me one of my favorite WordPower rants – sexist language.
Energize Your Writing
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.
To Write … Or Not To Write? That is the Question
Last month, we discussed the all-important Pre-Write phase of workplace writing: Plan What You Write. The piece encouraged you to ask four groups of questions about each document: What are your objectives? Who are your readers? What tone and style would be appropriate? What message format and structure would be best?
Pre-Write: Plan What You Write
‘Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail!’ This logic is never truer than when we communicate important workplace information in writing. So, to plan NOT to fail, invest the time in the Pre-Write Phase and answer these four groups of questions. Thorough and thoughtful planning will make your writing process faster and easier and increase your chances of accomplishing your objectives.
ReWrite to Make it Better
There are three main phases in my workplace writing workshops and seminars:
- PreWrite – Plan what you write.
- WriteRight – Write what you planned.
- ReWrite – Rewrite what you planned to make it better.
Today, let’s discuss the third – and often overlooked phase – ReWrite. To do that, we’ll assume you thoroughly planned your email or document and wrote it effectively. Since your readers will never see your first draft, you only need to be concerned with your final draft. And if your first draft is your final draft, you miss out on the opportunity to make it better and increase the probability your will accomplish your communication objectives.
Give Your Readers a Break
A very effective Reader-Centric strategy for your workplace writing is to make it very easy for your readers to read, understand and act on what you write. One way to achieve these results is to use more white space to make your emails and other documents easier to understand and use. This is especially helpful when they’re reading on their phones … and, soon, on their watches.
We’ve Got Your Number
I was pleased to see that several readers are enjoying this periodic series and asked for more. Thanks … and here you go with guidelines for writing numbers.