IT Management Reference Guide

Eight Uncommon Tips To Improve Your Writing

Last updated Aug 11, 2006.

Communication in any form is an essential skill in today's fast-paced business environments. Verbal skills typically are on display from the very outset, beginning with the initial interview, and continuing through one's career on a daily basis. Presentation skills may come into play later when developing proposals, evaluations, business cases or new project initiatives. But writing skills are often overlooked when assessing one's communications inventory. This is unfortunate because writing is still one of the most valuable means of conveying information in business today. During my many years as a manager, consultant and educator, I have had the opportunity to experience a large variety of styles and proficiencies in writing. Excellent writers, regardless of the deliverables they produce, all tend to use a few, simple techniques to transform their writing from merely average attempts at documented communication to sterling examples of information sharing. I describe these tips as uncommon not because they are rare or unique, but because that are so infrequently used that when I do see them employed it is a refreshing and rather uncommon occurrence. I offer you what I believe are eight of most effective and helpful of these writing tips, and present them in the preferred order of sequence.

1. Match Style to Intent – The style of a written document can be formal, informal, conversational, structured, textual, graphs- and charts-oriented, free-form, or some combination of these. Often the intent of the document dictates the most appropriate style to use. For example, a business case should employ a style that is factual and objective, similar to that used in a cost vs. benefit analysis. If you are writing up a sales pitch you should use a style that plays up to the personal benefits of the product or service. When documenting the summary of a lessons learned session balance what was done well to what could have been done better. Matching the style of your writing to the intent of your writing helps both the author and the reader.

2. Outlining – Once you have determined the style you plan to use so that it matches the overall intent of the document you are creating, you are ready to outline. Many writers overlook the advantage of outlining thinking it wastes valuable time. In reality it usually saves you time. Outlining your document forces you to organize your thoughts and leads to how best to layout your document. Outlining also helps determine the true length of the document. This can give you immediate feedback on how the planned length of the document compares to the likely length. Outlining also helps to locate and format section breaks, major headings and sub-headings.

3. Story Boarding – Some reports tell a story. For example, a proposal for a new software application system may start with a description of a business problem, followed by several alternative solutions, leading to the best solution, and finishing with the costs and benefits of the new solution (presumably with the benefits far exceeding the costs). Story boarding the entire report by putting each major idea as a separate frame can help present a powerful, logical flow to your argument. This technique is used often when developing Power Point presentations and can be easily adapted to written reports. Cliff

Atkinson explains this approach in his excellent book Beyond Bullet Points.

4. Match Tone and Detail to Audience – Executives, technical staff, sales oriented people and non-technical users all have different levels of comfort and reception when reading a hardcopy document. Have you ever heard a co-worker comment that a particular report was 'beyond me' meaning that the level of detail was more than what they could comprehend? The tone and degree of detail should match that of the intended reader.

5. Echo Some Words and Phrases – Using the exact wording or phrasing when responding to a correspondence can make the effort of your writing quicker and simpler, yet just as effective as originating prose. When responding to a bid, or a job description, or to a customer's complaint, using the exact wording or phrasing as in the original document for appropriate portions often clarifies issues and reduces confusion. If a job description calls for expertise with Remedy-based problem management processes using the ITIL framework, respond by saying you have expertise with Remedy-based problem management processes using the ITIL framework. There's no need to embellish or originate if the exact same wording conveys the desired meaning.

6. Active Voice – Use the active voice and a conversational style of writing. For most technical and managerial personnel, the passive voice is the more common use for writing even though it is not as highly regarded. It is very natural for many people to write passively, so it takes some focus and effort to write actively. Here are a few examples:

• replace 'the project was completed' with 'the team completed the project'
• replace 'the system was brought down' with 'the operator brought down the system
• replace 'SLAs were developed by IT reps' with 'IT reps developed SLAs'

A conversational style of writing means to write as close as possible to the way you converse. Try to avoid sounding too stuffy, preachy, or theoretical. Keep it simple and direct.

7. Grammar – The advent of email has brought about a definite decline in the emphasis of the proper use of grammar. I have read email forums in which poor grammar, if not outright encouraged, is at least tolerated in the interest of speed, brevity and responsiveness. But this is not new. Music and pop culture for decades has taken license with good grammar. When I was in elementary school several popular song titles all took grammatical liberties:

"He Don't Love You Like I Love You"

"Don't Say Nothing Bad About My Baby"

and topped off by the Rolling Stones classic:

"I Can't Get No Satisfaction"

Being grammatically correct is not high on an adolescent's priority list, and using popular slang that makes a shambles of good English often go hand-n-hand with being a teenager. But poor grammar in business writing can have the same screeching effect on a reader as fingernails on a chalkboard. Good sources for improving your use grammar tend to be scarce, but Lynne Truss's bestselling Eats, Shoots & Leaves one exception. It is both informative and entertaining. The following example is typical. Here she illustrates the importance of punctuation by using two sentences with identical words and two entirely different meanings:

"A woman, without her man, is nothing."

"A woman: without her, man is nothing."

8. Proof Reading – Spell check software has been around for decades but it is not fool-proof. You should always proof read your writing, and the proofing is far more effective when done from a hardcopy. In this day and age of maximizing electronic information and minimizing hardcopy forms of it, this is one case where the hardcopy clearly wins out.

Another tip is to try reading from right to left. Your eyes can sometimes trick you into seeing what you expect to see. Reversing direction can spots errors otherwise missed. And of course there is always the tried and true method of having another pair of eyes looking over your writing.

References

Atkinson, Cliff, (2005). "Beyond Bullet Points, Microsoft Press

Truss, Lynne, (2003). "Eats, Shoots & Leaves", Gotham Books

IT Service Management, (2001). IT Service Management Forum Limited