The Truth About The New Rules Of Business Writing Part 10

Think this is tacky? The writer is always thanked effusively and often finds her notes prominently posted in her clients' offices. Because few people bother to send such messages anymore-especially handwritten ones-a small investment of time makes her stand out. She connects with clients and colleagues in a far more sustaining way.

Truth 28. Cover letters matter, big time.

When Simon applied for a new job, the cover letter he submitted with his resume made the "10 worst letters of the month" list at the company where he wanted to work. The letter was posted on a bulletin board in the HR office, distributed all over the company to people who looked forward to a monthly joke, and was no doubt sent by some recipients to their personal e-mail lists.

Like many job applicants, Simon had taken a lot of trouble to polish his resume, and then dashed off a quick cover note with little thought. The result was an embarra.s.sment of poor content, language, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and even capitalization.

We think it's fair to say his letter didn't succeed.

When employers ask for cover letters (even with online applications) along with your credentials, they mean it-they want a letter, not a spontaneous-looking e-mail or text message. They will most definitely judge you on how well you've written it.

This is perfectly fair. Employers want to see how you handle yourself in writing, which most consider a critical skill. If employed, you may not be asked to draft proposals or articles, but you'll be communicating often by e-mail and probably other written media. In many cases, you'll be representing your employer. The better you can do that, the more of an a.s.set you will be.

So, badly written letters are the first filtering mechanism that consigns your resumes to that circular file, the wastebasket. Those who do the filtering love it when your cover letter fails: They always get more applications than they want to read. And the higher up the company ladder you aim, the higher the writing standards you're expected to meet.

Writing the cover letter-You're answering the following ad for a marketing job, which specifies a cover letter. If marketing is not even close to what you do, even better-practice putting yourself in someone else's shoes.

Position Open: a.s.sistant Marketing Manager.

Algorhythm Guitars, America's third largest manufacturer of guitars, is creating a new position in the marketing department due to recent sales growth. Responsibilities include strategic planning support, presentations, working with the sales team, and interfacing with top management. Requires relevant marketing experience, excellent communication and people skills, ability to create and track new programs, and effective team management.

Let's a.s.sume you've got some basic qualifications, but it's a stretch. How do you plan your cover letter?

What's your goal?-To get the job? Sure, but narrow that down more exactly and see what happens. Your first goal is to keep your resume out of the employer's wastebasket. Your next goal is to get the recipient to read your attached resume with a favorable bias. So you do not have to include all your qualifications and personal history. In a way, you're introducing yourself through the cover letter, just enough to make you a person of interest. Your resume will carry the conversation from there.

This is important: Think of it as divide and conquer. Just about every communication should contain the least information that will accomplish your purpose. How liberating is that?

Who's your audience?-You may be responding to the Human Resources department, the Marketing department head, the company president if the firm is small, an unidentified person's name, or an anonymous e-mail address. Often your application will proceed through a series of checkpoints-when you're lucky.

So, what's the useful way to define the audience? As businesspeople. No matter how trendy the organization, when it hires, it's a business proposition.

What does this tell you about tone?-When you antic.i.p.ate multiple audiences with different standards and interests or can think of no way to visualize your reader, be formal. It's always appropriate in an arena like the job application. This doesn't mean you should write stiffly or in an old-fashioned way. The piece should be gracefully written and, if possible, project some personality, which resumes can't do.

Content-What points to make? Brainstorm your experience for matches with the ad's requirements. a.s.suming you are a suitable candidate, your resumes should be proving that you meet the specs. But what will help you rise above the compet.i.tion? Perhaps...

* You play an instrument yourself.

* You worked two summers in a music store.

* You're a member of Toastmasters.

* You co-managed a successful marketing initiative that involved strategic planning.

How to lead and follow through-Your opening should immediately identify why you're writing, confirm that you meet the basic requirements so you're not wasting their time, and introduce your special strengths as soon as possible. Here's one way: Dear Ms. Rinehart: I'm a marketing professional with more than five years of experience in the music industry, and I'm very interested in the new a.s.sistant marketing manager position at Algorhythm.

My five years of related work experience are backed by formal training, and I've developed my presentation skills as an active member of Toastmasters. As a serious amateur guitarist, I can bring an in-depth understanding of your company's market to the role. My early work as a music store salesperson gives me an even broader base for creative strategizing.

Recently I conceived and co-directed a successful marketing initiative that involved working with the company's leadership and the sales team. The results have measurably increased this year's sales figures. I look forward to exploring my qualifications with you in person.

That's all you need.

With cover letters for jobs, remember to echo their specs and buzzwords-our short letter references most of them. This will not be seen as unoriginal, but as understanding what the ad said and establishing yourself as a kindred spirit. So read any ad you answer 10 times to absorb its content-and its tone.

Part V: The truth about reports and proposals.

Truth 29. Good reports generate action.

Do you sometimes feel buried by requests for reports? You're not alone. With fewer and fewer face-to-face meetings taking place, and so many collaborations to manage, report writing has become a big staple of office life. It's a basic way to keep everyone updated, and therefore needs to be treated as a major business skill. Most organizations require a constant flow of reports: progress and project reports, survey reports, budget reports, committee reports, technical reports, and more.

In general, reports follow some pretty standard patterns: They introduce the subject and explain the reason for writing them; provide "the meat" (what happened, what was learned); in some cases, explain how results were obtained; and usually offer recommendations (where do we go from here?).

In the business world, a successful report is easily defined: It's one that is read, and results in action. The role of good, clear, concise writing is obvious-if the right people don't read your report, you've wasted your time. Write to be read.

Your plan of action-As an example, let's say you're a marketing director and must report on whether your company should venture into emerging international markets. For a high-stakes challenge like this, it helps to put your strategy "on paper" early on to guarantee the right substance-you may discover some missing components that require research. Think step by step: Goal-To persuade management to market the company's tennis racquets or golf clubs in India, Laos, and China and to open offices in two of the countries. Writer's sub-agenda: To position himself for the director's role in the new marketing ventures.

Audience-Chief executive officer, company president, board of directors: a sophisticated group with their eyes right on the bottom line.

Tone-Business formal; objective with understated enthusiasm.

Content-The writer should ask, "What will it take to persuade management to my viewpoint?" Possibilities: * Overview of the immediate options in specific countries * a.n.a.lysis of how selling each product would coordinate with the company's current marketing and production plans * Financial predictors, such as statistics from a consultant's survey of emerging markets; government forecasts; five-year sales/investment cost projections * a.n.a.lysis of each country's political and economic climate * Balanced recommendations for/against opening the offices Organize the material-Starting with the overview is necessary and natural. To make the rest flow logically, you could organize by product-tennis racquets and golf clubs-or by country. Because the basic issue is whether to open offices in each place, organizing by country is probably best. A section for each would cover, first, economic and political climate because strong negative factors here could make the rest irrelevant. Then you'd go on to cover the various predictors of success, fit with company marketing and production, and end with conclusions/recommendations-next steps.

Writing the lead-some options:.

* Start with an anecdote that emerged during your research, such as another company's remarkably profitable experience.

* Start with a rhetorical question: "Is it time for ABC Inc. to bring its products to the emerging Asian markets?"

* Start by putting the new ventures into a broader perspective. For example, "ABC Inc. has led the industry for a century by capitalizing on just the right time to make dramatic marketing moves. Now it is time to consider..."

Follow through on writing the middle, based on the organizational plan, section by section. And at the end, summarize your well-reasoned, balanced recommendations and outline the next steps needed to implement your thinking. The end might also include an inspiring statement or a vision of a great future-but don't raise hopes to unreasonable levels.

Write a table of contents for any report that's more than a few pages long.

The executive summary-This is best done after the doc.u.ment itself is finished. You are likely to need executive summaries for business plans and proposals, as well as reports. The executive summary has a bright future because the more time-pressured everyone in business feels, the less people want to read long, complicated doc.u.ments. Because managers and colleagues may read the executive summary and nothing else, it needs to be self-contained: a piece of writing that can stand on its own if separated from the report itself. Think of it as a call to action. Communicating a sense of urgency may be appropriate.

Start by carefully reviewing the report. Then shape the piece in its own right, aiming for...

* A good t.i.tle (not just Executive Summary) * A strong lead, which makes the subject's importance clear and perhaps introduces the recommended action * A middle section that explains what was done and the main points that support your recommendations * Conclusions and recommendations If your report is directed at more than one audience, consider creating different executive summaries for each that take account of their varying "what's in it for me?" viewpoints.

How long should an executive summary be? The cla.s.sic advice is to make it no more than 10 percent of the doc.u.ment's own length. It can be shorter than that, providing it does the job of defining the subject and its importance, presenting your findings or actions, and offering your conclusions and recommendations.

Review and edit-Always edit your work to sharpen the writing and check for a good level of detail, meaning one that makes the writing interesting and credible, but doesn't interfere with its flow. Statistics, charts, graphs, and other supporting materials can be added in an appendix. If the report was prepared by a team, it's critical to edit for consistent style, tone, and so on. As always, you make your best case when you deliver writing that moves well and engages the reader, even within a formal business framework.

Truth 30. Organizing complex projects isn't that hard.

Elaine, a.s.sistant manager of an environmental services company, was handed a challenge: a dense, disorganized, and meandering "white paper" (a report on a major issue) that dealt with an important aspect of the firm's work, remediating polluted lakes and ponds. Her a.s.signment: "Fix it." Where to start?

It's always easiest and most efficient to plan a substantial writing project in advance, before plunging into the research and actual writing. But sometimes a project just grows out of hand. At other times, you've already acc.u.mulated ma.s.ses of information on the subject and, paradoxically, knowing so much can be paralyzing. And sometimes, like Elaine, you're handed a half-baked doc.u.ment and asked to clean it up.

The step-by-step writing method that enables you to plan and follow through on a complicated writing a.s.signment helps in a retrieval effort as well. The process is similar. Here's how it can work-with variations, of course, according to the nature of your subject.

Clarify goals and audience-With a major project, this often demands a team approach. If you're dealing with complicated technical information and a mora.s.s of possible content that needs to be translated for a general audience, you'll need help from the subject experts. If you are the subject expert, you'll find it helpful to get input from people who communicate effectively. Use team thinking to brainstorm goals in relation to audience.

In the water pollution example, the original focus of the confusing paper was to report on a regional survey the company had done to identify contaminated bodies of water. A think-tank session revealed that even some partic.i.p.ants were unclear on basic aspects of the problem, and that many members of the target audience-government administrators, civic leaders, developers, and the general public-would have minimal understanding.

This led to a decision to refocus the paper as a "Water Pollution 101" education piece. The agreed-upon goal was to make people care about the problem, present an a.n.a.lysis of the roadblocks to fixing it, and promote exploration of solutions. The sub-agenda-raising the company profile as a relevant service provider-could be kept un.o.btrusive so the paper would be perceived as done for the common good.

Content mapping-The articulated goals and better sense of audience made it fairly easy to figure out what content would work. Agreement was quickly reached that the paper should include the following: * History of why the problem exists * Clear explanation of why it matters to everyone in the region, and demands attention * Rundown of current relevant laws * a.n.a.lysis of what's wrong with the laws * a.n.a.lysis of why little progress has been made toward fixing the problems * Recommendations toward solutions * Organization's credentials, to validate its viewpoint * Examples of successful processes and outcomes Research and a.n.a.lysis-With a contents. .h.i.t list in hand, the already written material was reviewed rather easily to see which sections might be used or adapted, and what was missing. The content holes were filled through research and discussion with the subject experts. Keeping the content areas in separate files, and developing each one separately, sidestepped the confusion of having to deal with so much information.

Organization-With all the pieces at hand, it was quickly agreed that it was logical to begin with "why care?"-the "what's in it for me?" concept: If readers didn't see the importance of the subject in the first 10 seconds, they would read no further. From there it was natural to move on to why, given the situation's seriousness, so little progress had been made.

Next, to set the stage for making recommendations, the organization's expertise should be established. The rest of the sequence took shape naturally. When it came to presenting an a.n.a.lysis of each major problem, it seemed most effective to cap each element with the recommended solution. Thus, the final sequence: 1. What defines a polluted body of water, how many there are in the region, and why it matters 2. Reasons why little has been done regionally to clean them up 3. The sponsoring organization's credentials for addressing the problem, briefly 4. History: Where did the problem come from?

5. The relevant laws: each briefly summarized 6. a.n.a.lysis of what's not working and recommended initiatives toward solutions 7. Conclusion: Recap of what healthy ponds and lakes can mean to the region, how the organization can help, vision for the future 8. Appendix: Three case studies of successful programs Details on the company's regional survey Glossary/definitions More detailed backgrounder on the company and its services In sum, attack big challenges by being clear about who your audience is and what you want to accomplish...break down the elements into specific components...figure out a logic to your argument so you can identify what's missing, as well as how to sequence your material...adjust the organization to make the best use of your material and to make the most powerful argument. Put supplementary material that might slow the flow into an appendix.

These ideas apply directly to proposal writing, reports, and other long doc.u.ments.

Truth 31. Well-crafted proposals win.

Two technology companies regularly apply for government defense contracts by responding to RFPs (requests for proposals). One reaps a modest ratio of success. While the executives usually voice a "win some, lose some" att.i.tude, they are always surprised when a bid fails, because "our engineers are the best in the business." The second company lands a steady stream of contracts, some of which are a distinct reach. What's the difference in how the companies bid?

Company #1 leaves the proposal preparation to those who understand the specs and the work. Company #2, while basing the content on its engineers' input, delegates the writing to a small cadre of managers who write skillfully.

Good proposals win; it's that simple. Even with compet.i.tive bidding, price can usually be interpreted in terms of extra value and proven ability to deliver. The process for crafting strong proposals also applies to internal proposals-like a service offer to another department or a case for introducing new technology.

Goal and audience-You're competing for a business opportunity. Who will review what you submit? Realistically, a whole series of people with different degrees of knowledge who probably have far too many proposals to plow through. This makes readability valuable. Also, they probably are armed with a checklist of "plus" and "minus" factors, and may review proposals electronically to see that the requisite keywords and elements are included.

So if you have an RFP or a less formal announcement in hand, your first step is to read it 20 times to pick up the keywords and identify the underlying agenda. Look beyond the obvious and a.n.a.lyze: What problem is the company trying to solve? Can you read between the lines to understand what keeps the management up at night? Your content should address that.

If you've met with the clients, visualize them: Reconstruct the conversation and note what mattered to them and how they talked about their needs. Play that back in the proposal, and you may reach them on an emotional level.

Tone and style-Even when an RFP's language is convoluted, your writing must be clear, simple, logical. Strip the modifiers. Keep words, sentences, and paragraphs short. Eradicate promotional hype and claims without evidence, such as, "We're the most technologically sophisticated company in the industry."

A proposal doesn't necessarily have to be a cold, dry doc.u.ment. Often it's good to show a pa.s.sion for the work you do. People like to deal with those who make it clear that they truly care about their product or service.

Content mapping-What must you include to come out the winner, whether your firm is selling telescopes, psychological services, architectural design, or salami?

* Demonstrate a complete understanding of the business and project and describe what you'll provide in those terms.

* State how you'll do it-time frame, staffing, resources.

* Present your company resume in tight form, tailored to the project needs.

* Present the advantages you offer, such as experience in the industry, awards, technology infrastructure, special expertise.

* Backgrounds of the princ.i.p.als who'll do the work.

* Comfort factors: evidence that your company can be trusted to do the job right, on time, and within budget-testimonials, track record on similar projects, references.

* Essentials such as fee structure, exclusions, project schedules.

The headline and lead-Unless you're filling out a specific form, you need a headline, perhaps a subhead, and a lead. Generally, headlines can be simple and matter-of-fact: A WATER SYSTEM PROPOSAL FOR THE TOWN OF BROMPTON, N.Y. Presented by H2O Products Inc.

Try for a good, benefit-oriented lead. For example, "ARV Media proposes to create a radio campaign that will make Jake's Paint a household name." It's also perfectly okay to use simple, straightforward leads such as, "XJY Architecture is pleased to present this proposal for Barton City's first solar-powered library."

Build your middle-Put the content in logical order in marked sections. Use subheads, bold lead-ins, varying typography.

Conclude-According to what feels right, end with a confident summary statement. You may need an executive summary, a table of contents, and an appendix with backup.

All the principles of good writing apply to proposal writing, which has the clearest bottom-line result of anything you'll ever write. The language may need to be formal and it needs to sound objective, but that doesn't mean it should be stilted and dull: To pull people through a proposal, the writing must be crisp, sharp, active, and convey enthusiasm. Use the "say-ability" test. Use good transitions between sections and paragraphs.