Sep 2

WRITTEN BY: Mark Scott
Thursday, 2 September 2010 

If you spend a lot of time writing, ensure your effort is not wasted. 

How? I’m glad you asked.

I’ve been participating in LinkedIn discussions about the quality of writing ... well, the lack of it. And I’ve read pieces in the press about the falling standards of English, like this article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

This got me thinking about the amount of formal business documentation that gets released without being properly proofread, edited and reviewed.

On average, business writing is pretty average

Take the average document in the average organisation (commercial or public) and you’ll see the standard of writing that the average worker deals with and produces every day. 

I’m not talking about the material that’s released for public consumption—that’s generally well edited. I’m talking about the material that’s used internally and that flows between businesses. 

Look, it’s there on your desk!

In business, you can’t afford to sell yourself short, and the quality of your writing has the potential to do that. So, here are my seven tips to improve the quality of your business writing:

1. The golden rule: consider your audience

Your writing style, the level of detail you include, your choice of words and use of jargon, are determined by the needs of your audience. 

Ensure you know who those readers are, and take time to understand what they need and expect. More importantly, write for the people you’ve never met, who’ll pick up your document at some point in the future.

Make sure nothing gets lost in transcription.

2. Allow enough time

Writing takes time. Don’t underestimate the effort involved. 

Allow adequate time to: plan the structure of your document; gather, write and edit content; report progress; and, most likely, have the document reviewed and approved by others.

There are many factors that influence how long this will take (no, I’m not going to list them here), and I guarantee it will take longer than you expect!

3. Write first, edit later

Plan the structure of your document and choose appropriate headings. 

Your organisation’s templates are a great starting point. If there are no templates (did you check the intranet?) and you don’t know where to start, don’t waste precious time staring at a blank page—just start writing something, anywhere in the document. 

Don’t feel you have to start at the beginning and write to the end. When you have a flash of inspiration, or as content comes to hand, put it where it belongs in the document.  Use bullet points, leave comments for yourself … do whatever it takes to get the content in there. 

Rework the structure and the headings as the content is developed. Just don’t get bogged down with final wording ... yet.

4. Copy with caution

Be cautious when using an old document as the source for a new one. Ensure you read every word and replace what’s needed. And remember to reword copied content to suit its new context. 

Be extra careful when using your word processor’s global search-and-replace. You’ll find yourself in trouble if words and terms weren’t used consistently in the document you copied. You still need to read the content to ensure everything was picked up and replaced as you intended. 

5. Flow and clarity are paramount

Once you’ve finished writing your content, read your document … every word of it. 

Edit it: add, move, change, delete, improve, simplify and clarify. Review the structure of sentences, paragraphs and sections to ensure the content flows. 

Leave it a day or more before you read it again, editing as necessary. Then leave it another day or more and read it again, editing as necessary. (Was that an echo?)

6. Read it aloud

Read your document aloud to get a better sense of how it flows. Remember your audience—reading the document should be effortless. If you need to re-read a sentence in order to understand it then you need to rewrite it. 

Reading aloud may also highlight obvious grammar errors. 

7. Allow adequate time for others to review your work

We tend not to notice our own mistakes, so have someone proofread your document. Definitely do not rely on a spellchecker. They don’t pack up valid works used incorrectly. 

And if your document requires peer review and approval, consider that a single reading may be insufficient to properly assess it. Consequently, planning and communication are necessary to ensure adequate time has been allowed. 

It’s unreasonable to expect that a colleague can drop everything to review or proofread your document on demand.

Ta-da!

It's worth the effort

I don’t remember where I picked up some of these tips, but I’ve been using them and sharing them with colleagues for many years. And I recently saw some of them in this blog, so I’m not the only one who believes they work!

Is the effort worth it? Absolutely. The important thing is that your written communication is understood as intended. 

Producing a report that’s misunderstood, or costs your company money to rework, or loses a deal ... now that’s worthless effort.