I’ll Take Potpourri For $200 Alex.

I had difficulty settling on a single tip to offer for improving your business writing, so instead I present a potpourri of advice.

These tips are offered to provide professional consistency and aesthetic appeal in your business correspondence, speeches and writing.

• As a general rule, avoid using abbreviations and acronyms that your readers would not quickly recognize. This exception applies to well-known organizations such as the FBI, NATO, IRS. On first mention use the name of the organization, Bankers and Auditors of America, followed by the acronym in parenthesis (BAA). Afterword use the acronym in your writing.
• When referring to a state, California, do not abbreviate. If the state is used in a mailing address, 100 N. Main, San Francisco,Calif., then the zip code.
• Capitalize proper nouns of specific regions such as West Coast, East Coast.
• It is common to use periods in phone numbers, 405.555.1234. This is based more on a stylistic choice of web designers. It may be more professional to use dashes, 405-555-1234.
• Use “less” for quantity and “fewer” for number – The building has less floor space than the Empire State, yet it contains no fewer than 1,200 offices.
• In a list of names, use alphabetical order unless there is reason to do otherwise.
• Using numbers spell one to nine in most cases. Use figures for reunions and anniversaries – 25th anniversary.
• Spell out decades, sixties, or use 1960s with no apostrophe.
• Use figures for ages – 9-year old daughter, 23-year old son.
• Try not to begin a sentence with a figure, if you must, spell it out. Ideally it is best to rewrite the sentence.
• Avoid starting a sentence with and in a formal document. It is however accepted in informal communication.

Well If You Want To Get ‘Technical’ About It…

Comedian Steve Martin tells this joke on his first record that humorously makes a point about using technical jargon to the wrong audience.

“Ok, I don’t like to gear my material to the audience but I’d like to make an exception because I was told that there is a convention of plumbers in San Francisco this week.  I understand about 30 of them came down to the show tonight, so before I came out I worked-up a joke especially for the plumbers. Those of you who aren’t plumbers probably won’t get this and won’t think it’s funny, but I think those of you who are plumbers will really enjoy this.

“This lawn supervisor was out on a sprinkler maintenance job and he started working on a Findlay sprinkler head with a Langstrom 7 inch gangly wrench. Just then, this little apprentice leaned over and said, “You can’t work on a Findlay sprinkler head with a Langstrom 7″ inch wrench.” Well this infuriated the supervisor, so he went and got Volume 14 of the Kinsley manual, and he reads to him and says, “The Langstrom 7″ inch wrench can be used with the Findlay sprocket.” Just then, the little apprentice leaned over and said, “It says sprocket not socket!”

How often are we guilty of using technical jargon in writing press releases, business letters, speeches or blog columns? By jargon I mean, words or expressions that refer to a specific thing or activity relating to a certain field and only professionals in that field can understand. As for outsiders, jargons are mostly meaningless or easy to be misunderstood.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that your writing must be appropriate for your audience. Unless you are writing to a very specific audience, try to avoid technical jargon or be able to explain the terms in a few sentences.

• If you are a medical billing professional, you know what ICD9, HCFA, and CPT mean.
• If you are an accountant, you know the difference between a 1099, W-2, W-4, W-9, and K-2 form.
• If you are an IT professional, you speak in terms of servers, routers, and hubs.
• If you are a web developer, your language includes terms like .net, PHP, PPC, monetizing, and URL.
• If you work in a hospital setting, your vocabulary includes terms like DNR, PRN, and QID.

Chances are that several of the terms you just read don’t make any sense at all to you. As you write, you need to look closely at your writing to make sure that you aren’t using terms that readers aren’t likely to understand.

You know what you mean. Make sure readers will also know what you mean. That’s what good writing is all about.

Dropping “In” For Better Writing

A writing crutch that many writers will lean on too often is adding the word in where it really doesn’t belong.

These verbose constructions can often be whittled down with no loss of clarity or meaning.

Here are some examples of where in can be dropped for cleaner, tighter writing. This applies for fiction, nonfiction and especially business writing.

1.
Please submit your report in advance of the meeting.
Please submit your report before the meeting.

2.
We received a check in the amount of $1,000.
We received a $1,000 check .

3.
We’re implementing this policy in an effort to streamline our process.
We’re implementing this policy to streamline our process.

4.
Do not use in excess of the recommended dosage.
Do not use more than the recommended dosage.

5.
Improvement will be noted in most cases.
Improvement will usually be noted.

6.
They have changed the procedure in order to reduce the necessary steps.
They have changed the procedure to reduce the necessary steps.

7.
She is attending the meeting in place of her vacationing supervisor.
She is attending the meeting for her vacationing supervisor.

8.
I am in possession of damning evidence.
I have damning evidence.

9.
They are in proximity to the epicenter.
They are close to the epicenter.

10.
We are in receipt of your letter.
We received your letter.

11.
I wasn’t sure what the question was in reference to (or regard to or in relation to).
I wasn’t sure what the question was about.

12.
In spite of the fact that the box was clearly labeled, he could not find it.
Although the box was clearly labeled, he could not find it.

13.
In terms of reducing costs, the strategy has been a failure.
The strategy has been a failure in reducing costs.

14.
We were speaking in the context of yesterday’s discussion.
We were speaking about yesterday’s discussion.

15.
In the course of the session, little progress was made.
During the session, little progress was made.

16.
In the event that no decision is made, the current procedure will remain in effect.
If no decision is made, the current procedure will remain in effect.

17.
He will return in the near future.
He will return soon.

18.
It took in the neighborhood of two weeks to complete.
It took about two weeks to complete.

19.
They are in the vicinity of the headquarters now.
They are near the headquarters now.

5 Tips For Writing A Great Speech

As a broadcaster and public speaker I have often been asked questions about how to write and deliver a strong speech.

Over the years I’ve learned that there are essentially five rules that all business leaders, public spokesmen and spokeswomen should follow in order to write a winning speech:

1. Read your speech out loud

Unlike other forms of writing, speech writing is designed for listeners. So, when reviewing your text, read it to yourself, and pay attention to how the words sound and feel. Do they flow off the tongue, or are they clunky and awkward? If your phrases make you stumble, they are guaranteed to make you stumble when you go before an audience as well. Just remember that good writing is not necessarily good speech writing.

2. Simple phrases are your friend

Keep your sentences short and to the point. Compound phrases with multiple clauses may look great on paper, but are likely to confuse your audience and decrease the effectiveness of your speech. Limit yourself to one idea per sentence, and express them as clearly and powerfully as possible.

3. Do your research

Before beginning a speech, be sure to familiarize yourself with the subject, so that you can write about it with confidence and authority. The creative aspects of speech writing are only effective when backed by a strong foundation of knowledge by the speaker. The audience must trust your words in order for their meaning to sink in. If you’re well-prepared, it will show.

4. Watch the time

A man once said that the key to crafting a great speech is writing a good beginning and a good ending, and making the two as close together as possible. That might not always be true, but consider this: Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address,arguably the most famous speech in American history, lasted less than three minutes. Compare that to the two-hour speech given directly before Lincoln by Edward Everett. If I gave you four-score and seven guesses, could you tell me what Everett said? The best way to prune your writing to make it more concise is to write your first draft, then let it set for an hour or two before picking it up again. This way, you are looking at the speech with fresh eyes and a clear mind. Read the speech again and cut it in half by trimming the fat or replacing run-on sentences or technical jargon.

5. Know your audience

Your listeners should be a strong determining factor of the content, tone and style of your speech. Before drafting remarks, think about who you’re speaking to, the venue you’re speaking at and the timing of your speech. There’s a time and a place for every type of remarks. It’s your job to figure out when and where you are.

I’ve saved for last perhaps the most important point and that is “if you are not naturally funny don’t try to lace your speech with humorous anecdotes.”

I know that flies in the face of what many speech writers would tell you but I have witnessed too many people lose their audience by attempting to funny. These speakers came off as too stiff and not natural.  Weaving humor into a speech looks effortless to those who understand the timing and delivery of humor. Don’t try this if this is your first public speech.

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

When was the last time you wrote a business letter to a client, coworker or vendor? It may have been a while since “snail mail,” or postal letters, have decreased in favor of email. However good business writing with purpose and proper structure can enhance your position at work and your customers.  Allow me to demonstrate some common types of letters that you’re likely to need to write at some point.

Business Letters

1. You should use a simple, standard font such as Arial or Times New Roman for business letters, and a font size of 10-12 pts. Even if your letter is short, don’t use a large font size to increase the space it takes up on the page – this will look unprofessional. This goes especially for writers, who are often tempted to use fancy fonts and layout.

2. You should never hand write a business letter. However, you may send a very brief handwritten note on a printed compliments slip, in lieu of a letter.

3. For all business letters, you should keep your audience in mind. Don’t use business jargon when you’re writing to customers, for instance. Keep your letters as short as possible – if you need more than a page, consider whether the information might be better delivered in a leaflet or brochure.

4. Always check your spelling and proof-read your letters; if possible, ask someone else in your company to go through them. It’s surprising how mistakes can slip past your eyes: errors can alter your meaning and may confuse or even offend the recipient.

Business Thank You Letters

In a business context, thank you letters are often appropriate and expected. You might send a thank you letter when someone has given you their time and advice.

In general, you should:

• Make it very clear that you’re writing to thank the recipient.
• Mention a specific detail of how they helped you.
• Express your gratitude for the time or effort they spent.
• Avoid using the letter just as an excuse to promote yourself (though if you are following up an interview, it’s appropriate to highlight your suitability for the job).

Personal Thank You Letters

When someone has given you a gift or done you a particular favor, it’s polite to send them a thank you note or letter. You might do this by email – but you still need to send a separate note to each person, rather than emailing a group of people.

Thank you letters are required is in response to wedding gifts. You should send these through the post, and in many cases, you may want to hand write them. As well as saying “thank you” for the gift, it’s often nice to acknowledge the particular role that a person played in your wedding – even if that’s just saying “We were so pleased that you could come and be with us on the day.”

Other times when you could send a thank you letter include:

• For birthday and Christmas gifts.
• When you’ve stayed as a house guest.
• After someone has treated you to a meal, a theater trip, a vacation or similar.
• To your parents, grandparents or other relatives who have helped you out with a big purchase or a college degree.

Your thank you letter doesn’t need to be long. In many cases, a few lines is plenty.

People are always delighted and touched by being thanked in this way and it goes far to establish your professionalism on the job.

50 “Tricky” Words and Phrases

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to conceive written communication. So many pairs or trios of words and phrases stymie us with their resemblance to each other. Here’s a quick guide to alleviate (or is it ameliorate?) your suffering:

1. a while / awhile: “A while” is a noun phrase; awhile is an adverb.

2. all together / altogether: All together now — “We will refrain from using that two-word phrase to end sentences like this one altogether.”

3. amend / emend: To amend is to change; to emend is to correct.

4. amount / number: Amount refers to a mass (“The amount saved is considerable”); number refers to a quantity (“The number of dollars saved is considerable”).

5. between / among: The distinction is not whether you refer to two people or things or to three or more; it’s whether you refer to one thing and another or to a collective or undefined number — “Walk among the trees,” but “Walk between two trees.”

6. biannual / biennial: Biannual means twice a year; biennial means once every two years.

7. bring / take: If it’s coming toward you, it’s being brought. If it’s headed away from you, it’s being taken.

8. compare to / compare with: “Comparing to” implies similarity alone; “compare with” implies contrast as well.

9. compliment / complement: To compliment is to praise; to complement is to complete.

10. comprise, consist of / compose, constitute: Comprise means “include,” so test by replacement — “is included of” is nonsense, and so is “is comprised of.” The whole comprises the parts or consists of the parts, but the parts compose or constitute the whole.

11. connote / denote: To connote is to convey (“Air quotes connote skepticism or irony”); to denote is to specify (“A stop sign denotes the requirement to halt”).

12. continual / continuous: Continual events are frequently repeated, or intermittent. Continuous events are uninterrupted, or constant.

13. credible / credulous: To be credible is to be authoritative; to be credulous is to be gullible.

14. deserts / desserts: If you eat only cake, pie, ice cream, and the like, you eat just desserts. If you have it coming to you, you get your just deserts as well. (However, the connotation is negative, so hit the gym.)

15. different from / different than: The former phrase is preferred in formal writing; but “differently than” is always correct usage.

16. discreet / discrete: Discreet means “subtle”; discrete means “separate.” (“He discreetly reminded them of their discrete meanings.”)

17. each other / one another: “One another” is preferred in formal writing when more than two of something are being discussed.

18. economic / economical: Economic refers to the science of economics; economical suggests frugality.

19. elemental/elementary: What’s elemental is essential or integral to nature; what’s elementary is basic.

20. ensure / insure / assure: To ensure is to guarantee, to insure is to indemnify, and to assure is to comfort or convince.

21. epidemic / endemic / pandemic: An epidemic is the outbreak of disease in a limited place and time; an endemic disease is a recurring one peculiar to a place or population; a pandemic is pervasive over a wide geographical area.

22. forgo / forego: To forgo is to go without; to forego is to go before (and is generally used only in the forms foregoing and foregone, which are themselves rare).

23. gibe / jibe / jive: To gibe (soft g, as in gym) is to taunt or insult (though jibe is an alternate spelling), to jibe with is to coincide or fit, to jive is to deceive.

24. historic / historical: Something historic is remarkable for its impact on history; something historical is simply an event in history.

25. home in / hone in: To home in is to close in; to hone in is to confuse one word for another. (“Hone in” has no meaning.)

26. jealousy / envy: Jealousy is resentment; envy is covetousness.

27. lay / lie: Lay is transitive, associated with a direct object — “Lay that pencil down.” “Yesterday, I laid that pencil down.” “That pencil has been laid down.” Lie is intransitive, not so associated — “Lie down.” “Last night, I lay down.” “It was my plan to have lain down already.

28. leach / leech: To leach is to dissolve by percolation; to leech is to remove blood with a leech or to exhaust; as a noun, it means a parasitic worm or the human figurative equivalent, or the edge of a sail (also spelled leach).

29. libel / slander: Libel is written defamation; slander is the spoken equivalent.

30. may / might: May refers to factual or possible; might is appropriate for the hypothetical or counterfactual.

31. nauseous / nauseated: To be nauseous is to cause sickness. To be nauseated is to feel sick.

32. notable / noticeable / noteworthy: Something notable is worthy of note. Something noticeable is capable of being noticed. Noteworthy is a synonym of notable, though the former implies the unusual and the latter the commendable.

33. partly / partially: Partly means “in part”; partially means “incomplete” or, rarely, is an antonym for unfairly.

34. peak / pique: To peak is to reach the pinnacle; to pique is to arouse interest or to bother.

35. people / persons: People has assumed primacy; persons is reserved mostly as a synonym for bodies (“those belongings carried on their persons”).

36. persuade / convince: To persuade someone is to motivate them to do something; to convince someone is to lead them to understand or believe.

37. predominantly / predominately: Both forms are correct, but predominantly predominates.

38. purposely / purposefully: What’s done purposely is done on purpose; what’s done purposefully is done with a purpose.

39. regrettably / regretfully: Regrettably is a synonym for unfortunately; regretfully means just that — full of regret.

40. repetitive / repetitious: Both terms have acquired a negative connotation, but the former retains a more neutral meaning.

41. sensual / sensuous: Sensual has an erotic connotation; sensuous refers more neutrally to what is pleasurable to the senses.

42. since / because: Informally, these terms are interchangeable, but in formal writing, since should be used only to refer to time.

43. stationary / stationery: To be stationary is to stand still; stationery refers to letter-writing materials.

44. that / which: That is used restrictively (“The pencil that is sharp” — among more than one pencil, the one with that characteristic); which is employed nonrestrictively (“The pencil, which is sharp” — one pencil alone, possessing that characteristic). The distinction is rarely observed other than in American English.

45. tortuous / torturous: A tortuous experience is a winding one; a torturous one is painful.

46. transcript / transcription: A transcript is a thing; a transcription is the process of creating it.

47. verbal / oral: Verbal refers to both written and spoken communication, but oral is useful for distinguishing the latter from the former.

48. while / although / whereas: Informally, while is a synonym for the other two terms, but in formal writing it should be reserved for temporal connotations.

49. wreak / wreck: These terms do not share etymological origin; you wreck a party, but you do so by wreaking havoc.

50. whether / if: Both words are correct in expressing a choice, but the former is more appropriate in formal writing (“I can’t decide whether to go”), whereas the latter is better reserved for reference to possibility or probability (“I’ll go if you do”).

The More You Tell, The More You Sell

Most writers don’t need encouragement to write more words. After all, that’s how some of them get paid: by the word! Using the words you need and no more – writing concisely – is a skill that every writer spends a lifetime learning. Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

But the main problem of many writers, especially reluctant writers and business owners, is not that they say more than they need, but rather, that they say less than they need. Writers can be too lazy to edit and trim their work, but they can also be too lazy to think enough about their subject to cover it adequately.

The direct mail copywriters of old had a saying, “The more you tell, the more you sell.” It was a bold statement. Other copywriters argued that people don’t want to read long copy, would stop reading before they got to the end of the sales letter, the advertiser would lose sales. That’s a valid objection, to which the proper response is, “Then ask for the sale before they get to the end!” There’s nothing wrong with giving the customer more than one chance to buy.

Besides, none of us reads more than we want to, except for students and acquisitions editors. We all read until we lose interest, or we skip ahead, go back, or jump to the end. We keep reading as long as we feel there’s something in it for us.

And that’s where, as a copywriter, you win more when you tell more. The more reasons you give the customers to buy, the more likely they will buy. Once they’re convinced, they will stop reading anyway and start ordering. Or they might go back later and read the rest to reassure themselves they made the right choice. Reassurance is an important purpose of marketing communications too.

Start your writing process by listing all the reasons someone should buy your product or service. Get a friend – or a customer – to tell you if you don’t know. Don’t be lazy. If a reason is compelling, don’t leave it out if you have space. On your website, you have unlimited space to tell your story. List your most attractive benefits and let your readers decide which ones are most attractive to them.

True, you don’t want your marketing piece to appear too long to read. You have to format your writing so people can read only what they want. In sales literature, you might use bold text and headings so your readers know where to skip to. When writing for the Web, it’s especially easy – add links to other pages. Your benefits don’t all need to be on the same page, as long as customers can find them when they need them. Your potential customers will follow the links that interest them, and will ignore the ones that don’t. Certainly, start off short and sweet for those who don’t want to read much. But don’t stop until you’ve told the whole story to those who insist on hearing it all.

Comparison shoppers, such as myself, actually look for longer text. We tend to believe that the product that mentions the most benefits probably has the most benefits. If the copywriter neglected to mention that it has a five-year warranty, how are we supposed to know that it does?

Customers buy for many reasons. Some are convinced by one point, others are convinced by another. But if you leave out their favorite point, that’s one point that won’t help make the sale.

John A. Williams is a communications specialist, author, editor, broadcaster, speaker and videographer available for new opportunity in the Oklahoma City metro area.