“Writing is dead,” A business major once told me. “Who cares? I’ll just have my secretary do it.”
Fast forward a few years:
“I was wrong. I wish I knew how to write better. We don’t even HAVE secretaries anymore.”
Yes, IMing and text messaging have created a new sub-language. But computers have not led us to the death of literacy (even though it sometimes seems so). In fact, more of our business communication is done in writing than ever before: When I wrote my last book, I spoke to my editor ONCE on the phone! We did everything else, from proposal to revisions to contract negotiations to art to cover design to editorial queries to proofreading, via e-mail.
The need to communicate clearly in writing has never been greater.
Three things every creative enterpreneur should be able to do:
1) Write a press release.
2) Answer questions in an e-mail interview.
3) Write text for a brochure, an Internet site or a blog.
Non-writers have funny ideas about writing (I get to say this: I’ve been a published writer since 1980, and I’ve taught writing classes). Non-writers think they have to sound fancy. Smart, even. They think bigger words are better (and smarter). They think they have to use a metaphor every sentence or to, or say something profound. They think the passive voice sounds formal and erudite (note the big word.) They think they have to distance themselves form the material so they sound inellectual. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
In fact, the absolute worst writing I have ever read was from a woman who was on a board of directors with me: She had some legal training, including legal writing, and every time she wrote something, she used the biggest words she could think of and the most convoluted sentences; she sounded like George Bush II on a bad day. Anyone with half an education wouldn’t have taken anything she wrote seriously: Not only was she trying too hard, but her muddled words betrayed muddled thinking.
I can’t write a whole book on writing on an Interent blog. But here are some tips:
- Get a copy of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. This short, easy to digest book has been teaching the basic of clear, concise, and grammtically correct writing for two generations.
- Learn the appropriate format for what you are writing. A press release, for instance, should have a title, a release date, and a contact person. It should start with the basic who-what-when-where info, and then give short, factual information. Opinions — ie adjectives — shoud be minimal.
- Use the active voice. In other words: “Karen Berger writes this blog;” instead of “This blog is written by Karen Berger.”
- Avoid adjectives and adverbs; Show, don’t tell. Your point is to get information across; the simpler the better.
- Use your spell check. Grammar checks are more problemmatic because they sacrifice readability in favor of sometimes stilted correctness.
- Read the piece out loud. if it sounds stilted, silly, or too formal, revise it.
