The Truth About The New Rules Of Business Writing Part 4

We'll meet briefly to go over the process on Monday at 10 a.m. in the conference room. Ask any questions about it then, and follow up with me personally if necessary. It's important to get this right because your check won't be issued if you don't follow through properly.

Thanks for handling this change efficiently.-Jim Note that we added a few things to the plan when we came to the actual writing: announcing the meeting, and the "thanks" at the end. Why? Because neither idea had occurred to us before. As we wrote the simple memo, the meeting seemed like a good way to go in the circ.u.mstances outlined, and the closing carries both conviction that the new rules will be followed and a touch of appreciation for accepting procedural change (which, face it, n.o.body likes).

When the "technical" part of an e-mail needs to be long or complicated, it might better be delivered as an attachment; or you can make it the final section of the e-mail and head it clearly (How to Use the System). Otherwise, readers may get lost in the details and miss important parts of your message.

Writing helps you think.

Here's something else that is important about writing effectively when you give it a chance: What you write reveals the quality of your thinking. When you really understand what you're writing about, you can describe it clearly. If Jim describes the new system but is hazy about how it works, that will show up in his memo.

To reverse the idea, consider that the reason so much bad writing exists is probably because there's so much bad thinking.

This is all too true in today's business world. Fuzzy, confused writing results from fuzzy, confused thinking. Overinflated claims for a person, product, or organization backed by little or no evidence-what we call "empty rhetoric"-lacks substance and fools no one.

In fact, if you want to be sure you understand a new product, service, or technical procedure, try writing about it (or teaching it to someone else). When you hit gaps in your knowledge or thinking, take the time to remedy them. You can do research, ask a colleague, think some more, review your notes: whatever it takes. Most writers we know have one eye on their writing, the other on a search engine as they work so that they can look up terms and references they don't understand.

You can't fake good writing because it's built on good thinking. But take the trouble to try to write well, and the process will lead you back to your thinking. Improve your thinking, and you'll write better-a win-win situation.

Many professionals-from scientists to artists to business leaders-use writing as a way of crystallizing their thinking. Attempting to articulate ideas helps you figure out what you know and what you don't know, and points up what you need to find out.

With relatively short doc.u.ments, you can choose to just write it all down organically and see what you've got. If you followed the first four steps of our strategy, your material will probably be reasonably organized. Then you can take a closer look and start shifting around sentences, paragraphs, and sections to improve the logical flow of your ideas, facts, and arguments.

Truth 12. How to organize is a personal choice.

While mapping the content leads you to a natural organization for relatively short and simple kinds of writing-memos, letters, and such-longer and more complicated materials make organizing more of a challenge.

Here are some approaches professional writers use to organize their work when it's complex. These approaches can be adapted for proposals, reports, articles, and other writing projects where you have a substantial amount of information to pull into shape. Some approaches give you ways to build in the organization early on, saving you lots of time later: 1. Divide and conquer-List your major project components that are likely to make up sections in the final doc.u.ment, and give each a separate piece of "paper" (a file) on your computer. For example, if you're a.s.signed to a.s.semble a company history, you might have sections such as Founding and Early History, Important People, Product Development, Current Financial Picture, and so on. Then, as you're a.s.sembling information, add the relevant information to the appropriate page or file. Thanks to the computer, you can shuffle the pieces around after collecting them, too. People used to do this on index cards-and some still do-so try that if you're a tactile learner.

2. Create a master list-Skim your pile of raws notes and make a list of the most important ideas or elements. Review the list and see what order seems most logical and rearrange as necessary. Then for each idea or element, find the backup information in your material and add it in directly under the right heading.

3. Color code-Print out your ma.s.s of material and go through it with colored markers, matching up the color with a section-green for financial information, for example. You can also mark a piece for great quotes, possible leads, endings, and more so that they're easy to find later. You can color code on your computer screen, too, but because it's hard to do a lot of reading on screen, many people prefer to work with printouts.

4. Bubble it-Some of us learned this method in school. It works best with pen and paper. Put each major idea on paper with a circle around it, leaving plenty of room among the circles. Then draw lines between the circles of those ideas that connect, or logically follow, the other. This gets messy, but you can see the whole complicated picture on one sheet. If you're a visual thinker, it might be the technique for you. The Visual Thesaurus (www.visualthesaurus.com) is an example of this technique. Thinkmap (www.thinkmap.com) describes it as creating "word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words."

5. Don't look now-Without referring to your ma.s.sive pile of notes, and preferably after you haven't looked through it for a day or so, think about what comes to your mind as important (or interesting) about the information you've collected. Many of us find our subconscious has been hard at work figuring this out while we weren't actively focused on the project. Write down the points that occur to you, and then review your material for backup in each category.

6. Tell somebody-Suppose you're reporting on a research project. Ask yourself, what would I say if X (my boss, girlfriend, cubemate, whoever) asked me why I did this, why does it matter, what did I find? Your answer gives you the kernel of the report and a structure that works.

7. Let your computer do more of the work-There is a lot of project management software available, ranging from open source desktop and Web-based programs to proprietary programs for desktops and the Web. They vary in difficulty and in the learning curve required to use them. Many are collaborative, which means you can work with others who are not sitting next to you but are continents away.

Try some of these systems out and see if they help. If not, don't use them-they are not ends in themselves. Everyone works differently, and there's never only one way to get where you want. Thanks to modern technology, the tools for organizing, reorganizing, shifting material, and making big changes are easy to use.

We won't talk in detail about editing yet, because we have to get the words down first. But here's a liberating thought: You're never-well, hardly ever-stuck with your initial version. In fact, writers label that version "the first draft," then review it to see what's not working, and fix it.

That means you can experiment with your first draft and not get hung up on details and missing pieces. Will you have to schedule time for editing a major writing project? Yes, but ultimately, you can get the work done with surprising efficiency.

Truth 13. Every message you send has a psychological impact.

Which of the following e-mails start well? Which do not? Which versions would you keep reading, and how you would feel about each?

#1 Subject: Share a good idea, win a prize.

Colleagues: Do you have an idea about how the company can do something better? Improve a system? Reach more customers? Tell our story more effectively?

CEO Jack Martin wants to know, so on March 18...

#2 Subject: Introducing a new suggestion system.

Colleagues: Our CEO, Jack Martin, has asked this department to develop and implement a new system designed to encourage staff suggestions, so I'm writing to tell you that on March 18...

a.s.suming that you prefer alternative #1, notice how much energy it picks up because the writer thought through the goal (to generate good usable ideas) and the audience (busy, cynically inclined employees) and then connected the two with a prize. If you try to imagine the reasoning behind #2, it would probably be something like, "I'm required to make this announcement but expect no results."

#1 Subject: The McAllen account.

Dear Joe: As you know, at this time of the year, we review responsibilities for individual members of the team, considering general workload and record of accomplishment, and have decided to ask you to take on an additional responsibility...

#2 Subject: New a.s.signment for you-the McAllen account.

Dear Joe: Great news! We've decided you're ready to take on the McAllen account, which as you know, is a very important one for the company. Your achievement record has done the trick. I don't think it should unbalance your workload, but if it proves to be time-consuming, we can talk about getting help for you on another account...

Which e-mail would you rather get? The information is nearly the same, but with version #1, you'd be groaning by the end of the first sentence. But version #2 would make you feel good about the new a.s.signment, and valued. Further, from the writer's viewpoint, putting a positive spin on the message leads to supporting thoughts-for example, that help will be provided if needed.

Here's something to remember: Everything you write, even a garden-variety e-mail, has a psychological impact. It reflects relationships and sets the tone for how things are perceived. Ten years ago, no one would have written an e-mail message like "Dear Joe"; the information would have been delivered in person, or perhaps in a carefully written memo. But today, the ability to communicate instantly by e-mail has made us very careless about how the way we say things affects other people.

What's the real message?-Note that when you read a message, the physical cues-tone of voice, expression, body language-are missing. So, your innocent e-mail might send an entirely different message than what you meant. That's why you've got to be aware of your tone and how your message may be received on the other end.

If you want to motivate others, or impress those you report to, take the potential of your written words seriously. You'll have a powerful leadership tool in your hands.

When the news is bad-Here's an example of how to think through your choices in crafting a bad-news message.

#1 Subject: No holiday party.

Dear Staff: Please be advised that the holiday party scheduled for December 18 is canceled. The reason is that our cost-cutting program requires it.

We hope the company is in a position to reinst.i.tute this tradition next year. Thanks for understanding.

#2 Subject: The holiday party is canceled.

Dear Staff: This is news we regret having to share with you. At a time when we are working to trim costs in the interest of maintaining all staff positions, the Executive Committee has decided to forgo the traditional holiday party planned for December 18.

Instead, everyone is invited to gather for coffee and cake in the Johnson Auditorium at 10 a.m. on the 18th-and to bring a toy as a donation to the Homeless Children's Holiday Drive. We can wish each other all the season's joys and also share our good fortune with those who have little.

Which would you rather get? The news is essentially the same, but recipients of the first message might well grumble at this particular cost slashing-we can hear them mutter about executive perks being the last benefit to go-and employee insecurity is being fed as well. Is my job safe? If management doesn't care about the holiday season, will they care about cutting my job?

Message #2, on the other hand, puts everyone in the same boat: We're all disappointed-but it's more important to maintain jobs; who could deny that? It's good to see someone taking responsibility for the decision. And the subst.i.tute invitation results from the kind of brainstorming that should accompany situations of this type. It costs little, offers something in the holiday spirit to look forward to, and contributing toys for needy kids reminds everyone of their relative good fortune. It also demonstrates that the company has a heart and it's in the right place, which is very rea.s.suring.

Guidelines for delivering bad news.

* Tell the total truth (or as much as you can and is appropriate).

* Show a human face (in a restrained way).

* Acknowledge that someone, or at least a department or unit, made the decision rather than using the obscuring pa.s.sive ("a mistake has been made...").

* Think about how your audience will react, on every level you can think of.

* Map the content in response to antic.i.p.ated reaction.

* When possible, come up with some mitigating factor.

* Review the message you craft carefully for how it comes across.

It's not a bad idea to test run bad-news messages by a few trusted colleagues.

These rules don't apply to more serious bad-news situations such as firing people, taking them to task, or transferring them, because you should never use e-mail for what should be one-on-one conversations.

Truth 14. Effective messages lead with strength.

Did you freeze whenever your high school or college teachers told you to develop "a strong thesis statement" for your "essays"?

Journalists have a much more encouraging way of talking about an opening. They call it the lead. For a newspaper or magazine article-and for broadcast journalism as well-the opening statement has a lot of work to do: It must pull the reader in, represent the full content of the doc.u.ment, establish accurate expectations, create the tone, and more.

A lead for an advertising or promotional doc.u.ment works even harder to attract attention and set up the reader to view the rest of the piece favorably. In both journalism and advertising, the lead must answer that essential "what's in it for me?" question: Why should I care?

Business communication is not very different. Whether you're writing a letter, memo, report to your boss or a colleague, white paper, proposal, news release, home page of a Web site, or an article for your company's newsletter, the lead must focus your audience's attention and crystallize the core of your message.

The lead can be a sentence, a paragraph, or more, depending on the nature and length of the doc.u.ment. If your message is delivered via e-mail, you should consider the subject line as an important part of your lead.

Professional writers probably spend half their time developing the right lead. That's because when you start right, the rest will follow (although it often works in reverse-many writers create or rewrite their lead after the rest of the story is finished).

Here's a useful way to think about the lead. It must: * Tell your specific audience how your subject relates to them.

* Indicate why the subject is important in general.