The Truth About The New Rules Of Business Writing Part 5

* Suggest what you will be asking them to do.

Someone we know who was trained to write in the army says he learned: "Put the bottom line on top." It's a good rule to follow. To see why, just look critically at the e-mail messages you receive in the course of a day. How much time do you spend figuring out why each person wrote to you, if the message is of interest, and whether you should read, file, or delete it?

Wouldn't it be a more perfect (and efficient) world if you knew exactly what every message was about and what interest it held for you, after reading just the subject line and the first sentence or two?

Realistically, it's the same for every kind of writing, from letters selling insurance to reports to your boss, a note to the Purchasing Dept. and announcements of all kinds. If the first paragraph or so doesn't catch us, we stop reading. Suppose you receive the following memo about a training seminar.

Subject: Training seminar November 8.

I'm pleased to tell you that my department has been charged with planning and implementing a series of workshops to upgrade new managers' skills. The resources were provided by HR after an a.n.a.lysis of staff capabilities and company needs. Sessions will be offered every month for the rest of the year. On November 8...

So far, who cares? If you're having a busy day, will you be drawn to read further and find out what HR is congratulating itself for? Here's an alternative.

Subject: Nov. 8-Learn to be a great presenter.

You're invited to a special morning workshop on November 8th: "How to Deliver Dynamite Presentations." This major leadership skill was pinpointed by HR as key to manager success, and we're flying an expert in from Chicago to lead the session.

Maybe you have something better to do on November 8, but you understand the opportunity, right? You'll read the rest for details if the workshop appeals to you. If it doesn't, you recognize your disinterest faster.

The point is, when you're writing, lead with strength: Start with the best reasons why the people you're addressing should be interested. They'll always want to know how the matter affects them and will read down to the details if it does.

Provided you've done the brainstorming work we recommend, you now just need to look at your content mapping list. Pick what's most important, relevant to your audience, and intriguing if possible, and make that your lead, in whole or part.

When you're writing the memo, how do you arrive at a lead like the second one? Your preliminary thinking tells you. You already know: * Your goal-To get good attendance at the workshop, which is voluntary.

* Your audience-New and middle managers who badly need to develop presentation skills but may not want to take the time, may fear speaking before an audience, or doubt the session will be helpful.

* Your content-This workshop can directly help the target audience polish a major skill...the skill matters to the company...the session will be taught by a very good person...plan to reserve the time. Plus details about where and when, how to sign up, and so forth.

* Best way of organizing the material-For the medium you're using-e-mail-you must quickly get your points across so that the recipients don't filter the message out.

Now you can build a lead paragraph that covers as many of the content points as you can.

Truth 15. To succeed, cover your ground and remember "the ask"

With most writing situations, the middle section is the nitty-gritty, descriptive information. It tells the reader how to do something, gives details for an event, specifies the items to be covered in an a.s.signment, provides technical specifications, spells out the reasoning behind a decision, or whatever else is necessary.

Your lead will have set up the reader by defining the subject, setting the tone, and establishing a "what's in it for me?" appeal. It might be only a sentence long, as in many e-mails, or it could be several paragraphs of a long doc.u.ment.

Whatever the medium, the middle needs to follow through and cover your content list in the logical order you figured out earlier. It's just a matter of getting the content down on "paper."

For example, if you're making an a.s.signment to someone who reports to you, the middle of the message would detail what the a.s.signment consists of. You could do that as a bulleted list or as a narrative, making sure your instructions are clear if the person is new on the job or hasn't done this type of work before.

So, Mike, I'm asking you to a.n.a.lyze the new spare parts program for our widget shipments. We need you to determine whether the program is working properly, whether the parts are arriving on schedule, and whether they are in good condition when they arrive.

Please send me a report detailing your findings in each of these areas. If you think it would be helpful to include a graph or chart to show your results visually, please append it. If you need one of the accountants to work with you, feel free to use my name when you ask for help.

The lead paragraph would have stated the a.s.signment and deadline, and any context needed to do the job well. The closing paragraph might repeat the deadline and any contact information Mike might need.

If you're writing a response to a customer complaint-for example, a letter complaining that a mail-order dress didn't fit-you'd use the opening paragraph to say something positive (such as, "We are delighted that you've been a customer of X brands for three years, and that you chose Style Y, which we just introduced this season."). Then you'd use the middle of your message to explain nicely why the error may have happened, because, for example, this style fits differently.

Write the middle quickly-Our recommendation is to write the middle quickly: Get it all down and then go back and edit. That way you can review for the right amount of information: what's not needed, what's missing. You can improve clarity and conciseness; find better words and linkages where the expression is awkward or confusing; and, of course, fix mistakes.

As far as substance goes, you've already done all that prep work in thinking about goals, audience, and content, and part of the payoff now is that it's relatively easy to write the middle.

Depending on the length and nature of your doc.u.ment, you can employ various kinds of graphic devices to help organize your informational material, break it up, and make it accessible: subheads, bold lead-ins, bullets, numbers, and more.

Every message should end well-Many times, the conclusion needs to bring home the action you're requesting. In sales terms, it's "the ask." And remarkably, sales trainers find that in many cases, salespeople fail to ask for the business. Let's consider how the messages presented as examples in preceding sections should end.

The training seminar invitation.

Please mark your calendar and e-mail me back by October 30 so we can reserve a seat for you.

The "share a good idea" memo.

March 1 is the deadline to receive your suggestions-send as many entries as you want. We'll read them all and present the best on the 18th, crediting the contributor, along with awarding the prize. Good luck!

The "here's a new account for you" e-mail.

Congratulations, Joe, I know you'll do a great job. Give me a call this week and we'll talk about any questions you may have.

The a.s.signment given to Mike.

The best person in Accounting to talk to is Meg White, who's familiar with the project. And of course, call me with any questions or problems.

I look forward to having the report in hand no later than April 10.

The customer complaint letter (in this case, you need to come to a resolution).

I'm sorry you were disappointed with how the dress fit, and we are happy to issue a full refund on receipt. In future issues of the catalog, we will take care to clarify how this particular model is sized. Thank you again for being our customer.

The ending gives you a chance to reinforce what you're trying to get across-an apology and commitment to solving the problem in the case of the customer complaint, for example, or a motivational feeling in the case of Mike's a.s.signment. At the same time, you should state or restate the need for a response if appropriate.

The conclusion closes the circle: The message has been set up to engage the audience (lead), deliver the needed substance (middle), and clearly conclude (end).

Better to ask twice-A word of caution: If "the ask" is a request for the recipient to take an action, such as to "e-mail me back by October 30 so we can reserve a seat for you," it's usually better not to hold this information for last.

Putting "the bottom line on top" makes more sense in these days when everyone is too rushed to read the whole memo. The e-mail recipient may never get to the end, so anything vitally important belongs in the lead. Use the ending sentence or paragraph to reinforce the thought. For example, you can start with "Reserve a seat by October 30 for...," and your close can be "I look forward to hearing from you by October 30."

Truth 16. Your goal and audience determine the best way to communicate.

Jessica had worked for Kate, her new supervisor, for six months and found her boss's style cold. So she wrote a long e-mail explaining how Kate could get better results from the staff by praising them more and not giving preferential treatment to a few.

Was that a good idea? Obviously not. Even if the boss wanted Jessica's advice-not all that likely-a personal meeting would have been a better choice. The same is true the other way around: Jessica would much prefer an in-person critique of her performance to a written one.

Here are some guidelines to help you choose the best communication channel. Remember to take the individual person into account, especially his or her age. There's a real generational divide on preferred communication modes. When you're addressing multigenerational audiences, use multiple channels.

E-mails-E-mail is useful for sending brief notes to colleagues, such as telling them about meetings and checking their schedules; inviting people to lunch; giving a quick progress report; providing or requesting information; giving updates after a meeting and making a.s.signments; and more.

Did you notice the common thread? E-mails are best when they're short, to the point, written with an immediate purpose, and also, geared toward people who use and like e-mail.

What about those times when you need to deliver a lot of information? Many of us work virtually now, so almost everything we write is sent by e-mail, and in most organizations, sending reports and other materials by interoffice mail doesn't cut it.

The principle still holds: Keep e-mails short and deliver bulky material as attachments. Then the e-mail serves as a cover letter.

Never forget that e-mails tend to live forever, thanks to backups, e-mail storage, and archiving. Whatever you write in an e-mail can come back to haunt you, in legal, professional, or personal ways. If you don't want to see your message on the front page of the newspaper, don't e-mail it.

Letters-There are occasions when a letter, whether sent by postal or e-mail, is right. Among these are when you need to thank someone; request an appointment, favor, contribution, or interview; introduce yourself to a potential employer; provide a reference or recommend a colleague; or congratulate someone.

Letters work to promote your business in the community or via a network and to tell clients about a new service or special offer. You need letters to cover a proposal, grant application, or resume submission; and to create a formal or official record, such as a complaint, legal announcement, performance review, resignation, or offer of employment. And you need letters if you want to present your views to your elected representatives or a newspaper.

The common thread? Formality. Sometimes, also, your communication may need to be a bit more formal because the recipient is higher up in the company or older than you.

Letters used to be necessary for signatures, but many organizations now accept faxed or even e-mailed (typed) signatures as valid, although you should check to be sure they're legal for your purpose.

Paradoxically, a letter can communicate more warmth and individuality than an e-mail. This makes letter writing a good choice when your goal is relationship building. Letters have their own downsides, including the fact that copies can be made and circulated, or the letters themselves can be saved and archived.

Telephone calls-Sometimes it's better to pick up the phone. This applies if the other person responds better to the sound of the human voice and whenever it's important for you to hear a personal reaction. The telephone also works if you're untangling a knotty issue that's best talked out, need an immediate response, or want the conversational interaction you don't get with written communication. A call can be followed up with an e-mail or a letter giving details or reinforcing what was said on the phone.

Texting-For business purposes texting, is increasingly wide-spread, because it's so convenient for our on-the-go, on-the-road work styles. Often it's the only form of communication that's practical, given differences in location, time, and accessibility. Texting's downside is clear: The messages may be cryptic, hard to decipher, or both. It's also a generational thing, in that many people beyond their twenties have never texted and may not want to.

Meetings-Face-to-face communication has many advantages, mainly because body language, facial expressions, and tone are clear to everyone. Although corporations use video-teleconferencing and even sites like Second Life for group conversations, nothing really gets the message across as well as sitting across a desk or a table.

So, when should you aim for a personal get-together? When the topic is sensitive or possibly hurtful; you're delivering criticism or bad news; a brainstorming session is needed; you're making a sales pitch to a potential major client; a major decision or organizational change is being made; cultural differences could affect communication; or when a team culture needs to be forged.

For example, a software manager in Boston, supervising a work group in Bulgaria, may find that e-mail, conference calls, and videoconferences are difficult because of language-use problems, time differences, and the like. Getting on a plane and sitting down face to face at least once may resolve long-standing differences.

Unified communications-Another way of sending a message is called "presence," or "unified communications." This means sending a message-by e-mail or voice-that's delivered to the recipient via cell phone, desk telephone, desktop computer, laptop, fax, BlackBerry, or similar device. This lets you communicate with recipients wherever they happen to be, in the fastest possible way for each.

The bottom line-There's no one answer to which communication medium to use. Among the variables, consider the age and tech savviness of recipients; the time/speed required; the potential language, cultural, and physical barriers; and the nature of your message.

Part II: The truth about self-editing.

Truth 17. The best writers don't write; they rewrite.

"A writer isn't someone who writes, but someone who rewrites." This is a basic principle of professional business writers, and if you ask one what it applies to, he or she will say, "Everything." The reason is simple: The first version is usually awful.