You may not be writing a book, but if you\u2019re in the business world, you\u2019re writing thousands of words a day. Yes, in an age of the latest, greatest and smartest phones we have ever imagined (until the next one is rolled out in a few weeks), we spend more time texting and emailing than we do talking.
\nAnd, whether you like it or not, those texts and emails, along with memos, business letters, sales letters, blogs, online postings, bios, web content, ad copy, product descriptions\/instructions and press releases are all forms of written communication used all the time in business. With that in mind, here are a few tips to keep in mind:<\/p>\n
1. Know what is and is not important:<\/strong>\u00a0Most business communications are short and to the point. Filter out all the unnecessary details. I used to attend meetings where one member would discuss the conferences he attended. He would inform us about new ideas he learned and then branch off into ten minutes on what food was and wasn\u2019t served. Fortunately, the menu sections didn\u2019t make it into the minutes. Unfortunately, we had to listen to the details. Be concise and to the point when writing business communications.<\/p>\n 2. Know your audience:<\/strong>\u00a0Industry specific terms and references that make sense to colleagues and team members may not play well on a website, in a blog or a marketing piece written for rest of the world. Re-read your words from the perspective of someone who does not know the language or the references in your industry and don\u2019t be afraid to explain them to a lay audience. Too often we take short cuts assuming everyone knows the terms and the references we\u2019re using.<\/p>\n 3. Put things in context:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cHow he got in my pajamas I\u2019ll never know,\u201d is the second half of a very old Groucho Marx joke. On its own it makes no sense. If you use the preceding line \u201cI shot an elephant in my pajamas,\u201d it\u2019s worth at least a groan because you get it. We want everything written quickly today \u2013 but if you leave out the context, it may not provide the reader with the entire message\u2026even in a memo.<\/p>\n 4. Facts Count:<\/strong>\u00a0Despite what you hear from Kelly Ann Conway or others in Washington, facts still need to be accurate. Theories, conjecture and assumptions are not facts. I remember working at AXA Equitable and there was a brochure coming out for a product that was available in 49 states. On the brochure it mentioned that it was not available in Oregon and Washington (the state). No matter how you slice it 49+2 =51 states. Fact is we have 50 states. Problem was that it included Washington D.C. as a state. Fact number #2, D.C. is not a state. I pointed it out to the manager of marketing who, \u201cWe\u2019ll see what we did last time,\u201d meaning if we had the facts wrong the last time, it\u2019s okay to have them wrong again. No it isn\u2019t. Gotta love corporate America.<\/p>\n 5. Headlines Matter:<\/strong>\u00a0If you need a headline, think about what it tells readers about the written material that follows. I recently finished a book where the author had creative headlines which gave no indication of what the chapters were about. While this may work in a novel or a mystery, it does not bode as well in business, where it can lead people astray. Creativity is great but business folks want to know what they\u2019re going to read about from the start \u2013 they don\u2019t have t time to read long winded material only to find out it wasn\u2019t important to them in the first place. Also, you want keywords in your title to draw people to postings.<\/p>\n 6. Attribution:<\/strong>\u00a0If you\u2019re using quotes, comments or various sources, please provide the proper attribution. It\u2019s so embarrassing when it\u2019s obviously not your words\u2026and it\u2019s easy for the reader to find the source on Google. It can be actually advantageous to include quotes from notable individuals (in the proper context) and\/or outside resources.<\/p>\n 7. It may obvious BUT \u2013 read EVERYTHING closely \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0especially emails and texts! Living in a fast paced world does not preclude you from taking a few precious seconds to look over what you are sending. I once invited someone to join me for lunch at the fast food restaurant Bare Burgers. However, somehow my iPhone invited him to join me for lunch at Bare Buttocks. Oops.<\/p>\n There are so many tips on better business writing. If you have some, please email me and I\u2019ll post them.<\/p>\n Rich Mintzer<\/p>\n Author, ghostwriter, blogger and business writer<\/p>\n rsmz@optonline.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You may not be writing a book, but if you\u2019re in the business world, you\u2019re writing thousands of words a day. Yes, in an age of the latest, greatest and smartest phones we have ever imagined (until the next one is rolled out in a few weeks), we spend more time texting and emailing than we do talking. And, whether you like it or not, those texts and emails, along with memos, business letters, sales letters, blogs, online postings, bios, web content, ad copy, product descriptions\/instructions and press releases are all forms of written communication used all the time in …<\/span> Continue reading…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clientswebdesigns.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clientswebdesigns.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clientswebdesigns.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clientswebdesigns.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clientswebdesigns.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clientswebdesigns.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198,"href":"https:\/\/clientswebdesigns.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clientswebdesigns.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clientswebdesigns.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clientswebdesigns.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}