Mark Scott

Seven tips to improve the quality of your business writing

mark.scott@framegroup.com.au — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:00:00 GMT

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.

Just how long is that piece of string?

mark.scott@framegroup.com.au — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

‘But it’s 118 pages long!’ exclaimed the project manager. ‘We can’t expect a service provider to read this when they turn up to do work for us.’

Picture this: I’m at a meeting with a client (a big Aussie company), presenting the draft of a document I’ve just completed for them. We (that’s me and the team I wrote the document for) are now socialising the document within the organisation. Considering what was presented, I was somewhat taken aback (to put it mildly) that the comment about the document’s length was the first piece of feedback we received.

Love me, tender, part 4: it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to

mark.scott@framegroup.com.au — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

In this last part of my Love me, tender series, I attack … I mean, I cast a critical eye over the response requirements for procurement documents. By ‘response requirements’ I mean the content you expect from a service provider to demonstrate they’re right for the job, and how you want that content to be presented.

Read my three final tips for procument document writers.

Love me, tender, part 3: please, please me

mark.scott@framegroup.com.au — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Do you get lots of requests for clarification to your RFPs and other procurement documents? Do you receive responses with varying content and levels of detail that make comparison difficult? These are measures of how clear your procurement documents are.

The question is: how can you make them clearer?

Love me, tender, part 2: listen, do you want to know a secret?

mark.scott@framegroup.com.au — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:00:00 GMT

It’s essential that you consider how service providers will interpret and use your procurement documents. With timeframes to meet and the effort required to get tenders out the door, the less confusion for service providers, the better. After all, service providers are the primary audience of your document.

Love me, tender, part 1: an expression of vested interest

mark.scott@framegroup.com.au — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Given the cost of developing procurement documents, organisations need to take care to achieve the best possible outcome. Just look at what’s at stake: the commitment to a solution or service, with its associated—and potentially large—financial transaction, contract period and changes to business operations.

Lost in transcription

mark.scott@framegroup.com.au — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:00:00 GMT

The way you write is a reflection of the way you think. That means your documentation affects people’s perception of your ability. The cleverness of your work can be diluted and even lost if it’s not matched by top-quality documentation.

Three tips for better flowcharts

mark.scott@framegroup.com.au — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT

I hate flowcharts! Harsh, yes, so allow me to explain …

As a means of mapping or modelling a process, socialising and refining it, and as a visual representation of it, flowcharts are hard to beat. They make processes easier to define, understand and follow. But as the final documented form of processes, flowcharts aren’t always effective.

It's not flowcharts per se that are the problem—it's that, often, they’re poorly drawn. And that's why I hate flowcharts.

The benefits of MS Word templates

mark.scott@framegroup.com.au — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:00:00 GMT

MS Word templates … do you use them?

When I say ‘template’, I don’t mean a single-paged document with a few headings that you have to try and craft a report from. I mean a multi-paged fully-branded document based on a company-wide style sheet. And I mean a structured document with standard headers, footers, sections, headings, and lots of instructions to explain what’s expected of the author.

So, why bother with templates like that?