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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
How many pieces of paper land on your desk each day, or emails in your inbox? Your readers – the people you communicate with at work – are no different.
So how can you make your communication stand out from the pile and get the job done? Whether you’re crafting a short and sweet email or bidding for a crucial project, Business Writing For Dummies is the only guide you need. Inside you’ll find:
- The basic principles of how to write well
- How to avoid the common pitfalls that immediately turn a reader off
- Crucial tips for self-editing and revision techniques to heighten your impact
- Lots of practical advice and examples covering a range of different types of communication, including emails, letters, major business documents such as reports and proposals, promotional materials, web copy and blogs - even tweets
- The global touch - understand the key differences in written communication around the world, and how to tailor your writing for international audiences
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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Business Writing For Dummies®
Published by:John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.,The Atrium, Southern Gate,Chichester,www.wiley.com
This edition first published 2013
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Business Writing For Dummies®
Table of Contents
Introduction
Conventions Used in This Book
What You Need Not Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Part I: Winning with Writing
Part II: Putting Your Skills to Work for Everyday Business Writing
Part III: Writing Business Documents, Promotional Materials and Presentations
Part IV: Writing for the Digital Universe
Part V: Thinking Global, Writing Global
Part VI: The Parts of Ten
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go From Here
Part I: Winning with Writing
Chapter 1: Make Writing Your Not-So-Secret Weapon.
Planning and Structuring Every Message
Applying Audience-Plus-Goal Strategy to Any Business Need
Impressing with email, letters, and business documents
Using stories and value propositions
Writing the spoken word
Writing online: From website to blog to tweet
Globalizing business English
Chapter 2: Planning Your Message: Your Secret Weapon
Adopting the Plan-Draft-Edit Principle
Fine-Tuning Your Plan: Your Goals and Audience
Defining your goal: Know what you want
Defining your audience: Know your reader
Brainstorming the best content for your purpose
Writing to groups and strangers
Imagining your readers
Making People Care
Connecting instantly with your reader
Focusing on what's-in-it-for-me
Highlighting benefits, not features
Finding the concrete, limiting the abstract
Choosing Your Written Voice: Tone
Being appropriate to the occasion, relationship and culture
Writing as your authentic self
Being relentlessly respectful
Smiling when you say it
Using Relationship-Building Techniques
Personalizing what you write
Framing messages with ‘you’ not ‘I’
Chapter 3: Making Your Writing Work: The Basics
Stepping into 21st-Century Writing Style
Aiming for a clear, simple style
Applying readability guidelines
Finding the right rhythm
Achieving a conversational tone
Enlivening Your Language
Relying on everyday words and phrasing
Choosing reader-friendly words
Focusing on the real and concrete
Finding action verbs
Crafting comparisons to help readers
Using Reader-Friendly Graphic Techniques
Building in white space
Toying with type
Keeping colors simple
Adding effective graphics
Breaking space up with sidebars, boxes and lists
Chapter 4: Self-Editing: Professional Ways to Improve Your Own Work
Changing Hats: Going from Writer to Editor
Choosing a way to edit
Distancing yourself from what you write
Reviewing the Big and Small Pictures
Assessing content success
Assessing the effectiveness of your language
Avoiding telltale up-down-up inflection
Looking for repeat word endings
Pruning prepositions
Cutting all non-contributing words
Moving from Passive to Active
Thinking ‘action’
Trimming ‘there is’ and ‘there are’
Cutting the haves and have nots
Using the passive deliberately
Sidestepping Jargon, Clichés and Extra Modifiers
Reining in jargon
Cooling the clichés
Minimizing modifiers
Chapter 5: Troubleshooting Your Writing: Fixing Common Problems
Organizing Your Document
Paragraphing for logic
Building with subheads
Working with transitions
Working in lists: Numbers and bulleting
Catching Common Mistakes
Using comma sense
Using ‘however’ correctly
Matching nouns and pronouns
Weighing ‘which’ vs. ‘that’
Pondering ‘who’ vs. ‘that’
Choosing ‘who’ vs. ‘whom’
Beginning with ‘and’ or ‘but’
Ending with prepositions
Reviewing and Proofreading: The Final Check
Checking the big picture
Proofreading your work
Creating your very own writing improvement guide
Part II: Putting Your Skills to Work for Everyday Business Writing
Chapter 6: Writing Emails That Get Results
Fast-Forwarding Your Agenda In-House and Out-of-House
Getting Off to a Great Start
Writing subject lines that get your message read
Using salutations that suit
Drafting a strong email lead
Building Messages That Achieve Your Goals
Clarifying your own goals
Assessing what matters about your audience
Determining the best content for emails
Structuring Your Middle Ground
Closing Strong
Perfecting Your Writing for Email
Monitoring length and breadth
Styling it right
Going short: Words, sentences, paragraphs
Using graphic techniques to promote clarity
Using the signature block
Chapter 7: Creating High Impact Business Correspondence
Succeeding with Cover Letters
Planning a cover letter
Opening with pizzazz
Targeting a cover letter's multiple audiences
Saving something special for cover letters
Networking with Letters
Making requests: Informational interviews, references and intros
Saying thank you
Writing to Complain
Crafting Letters of Record
Introducing Yourself in Letter Form
Creating Sales Letters
Part III: Writing Business Documents, Promotional Material and Presentations
Chapter 8: Building the Biggies: Major Business Documents
Writing the Executive Summary
Giving long documents perspective
Determining what matters
Shaping Successful Reports
Focusing reader attention
Shaping the report
Drafting the report
Fast-tracking yourself through Proposals
Writing formal proposals
Writing informal proposals
Creating Business Plans
Writing Tips for All Business Documents
Finding the right tone
Putting headlines to work
Incorporating persuasive techniques
Chapter 9: Promoting Yourself and Your Organization
Finding the Heart of Your Business Message
Searching for true value
Making your case in business terms
Stating your personal value
Representing your department
Putting your core value message to work
Finding, Shaping and Using Stories
Finding your story
Building your story
Story-writing tips
Putting stories to work
Using Value Messages and Stories to Promote
Writing better résumés
Writing online profiles
Writing email promotions
Chapter 10: Writing for the Spoken Word
Elevating Your Elevator Speech
Defining your goal
Defining your audience
Strategizing your content
Representing your organization and yourself
Preparing and Giving Presentations
Planning what to say
Crafting your presentations with writing
Integrating visuals
Standing and delivering
Scripting for Video
Introducing yourself with video
Sharing expertise
Writing the script
Scripting Yourself for Practical Purposes
Composing talking points for fun and profit
Scripting telephone messages that work
Part IV: Writing for the Digital Universe
Chapter 11: Evolving Your Writing for Online Media
Gaining Perspective on Digital Media
Changing significantly – and yet very little
Leveraging your digital power
Strategizing Your Digital Media Program
Thinking through your online goals
Attracting the online audiences you want
Turning Scanners into Readers
Adopting a share-it outlook
Clarifying your message
Communicating credibility
Cutting the hype, maxing the evidence
Using non-linear strategies
Incorporating interactive strategies
Shaping Your Writing for Digital Media
Loosening up
Keeping it simple
Keeping it global
Keeping it short: Tweets and texting
Chapter 12: Writing for Websites and Blogs
Shaping Your Words for Websites and Blogs
Working on your writing style for websites and blogs
Building a Traditional Website
Defining your goals
Refining your audience ideas
Structuring a basic site
Assembling a home page
Calling for action
Writing your inside pages
Incorporating Graphics and Other Elements
Creating Your Own Blog
Planning your blog
Choosing a subject
Writing for blogs
Categories and tagging
Part V: Thinking Global, Writing Global
Chapter 13: Using English as the Global Language of Business
Considering Native English in All Its Flavors
Adapting Your Writing for Global English
Writing Messages to Send ‘Round the World’
Monitoring your assumptions
Connecting with other cultures
Writing first messages
Writing Other Materials
Translating promotional materials
Globalizing your website
Reviewing your Internet presence
Chapter 14: Adapting Business English to Specific Countries
Writing to China
Writing to Russia
Writing to France
Writing to Japan
Writing to India
Writing to Mexico
Writing to Germany
Writing to Brazil
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Chapter 15: Ten Ways to Advance Your Career with Writing
Use Everything You Write to Build Your Professional Image
Write a Great Elevator Speech – and Use It
Write a Long-Range Career Plan for Yourself
Write an Ad for Your Dream Job
Go Out of Your Way to Thank People
Take Notes to Control the Conversation
Use Messages to Stay in Touch and Build Relationships
Write First-Rate Blog Posts, Comments and Tweets
Know How to Explain Your Value
Profile Your Supervisor for a Better Relationship
Chapter 16: Ten Ways to Tweet Strategically
Plan Your Twitter Program
Decide Who You Want to Be
Take Pains with Your Bio and Photo
Listen to Your Target Audiences
Aim to Be Useful
Avoid Blatant Self-Promotion
Use Twitter for Surveys and Questions
Write Tweets as the Ultimate Self-Edit Test
Tweet at Optimal Times
Treat Twitter as a Serious Job-Hunting Tool
About the Author
More Dummies Products
Guide
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Introduction
Afunny thing happened on the way to the 21st century. The ability to write well turned into a power tool for success.
Whether you're a manager who wants to rise, an entrepreneur who hopes to do it your way, a professional or a specialist of any kind, good writing helps you accomplish your goals.
If you're reading this book, you already know that, but I think you'll be surprised by how many more ways good writing can reward you than you now suspect. Research shows that good writers are hired first and promoted early, particularly in today's growth industries. No surprise there! Companies, non-profits, and government agencies alike must communicate well to survive and thrive. Good writers are increasingly at a premium in every field.
The growing role of writing is a rarely mentioned by-product of the digital revolution. Earlier, decision-makers used slews of people to help them look good in written form, from secretaries who rewrote their memos to public relations staffers to speak for the company. Now, with delivery systems so accessible, few managers are so sheltered. You stand on your own for everyday messaging. And you depend on writing for entry to a world of nearly overwhelming opportunity.
Today you still need the memos, letters, reports, proposals and articles – plus newer media like websites, blogs, marketing emails, and social media posts. Whenever a new communication venue emerges, the writing challenge grows.
No wonder communication professionals proclaim that ‘Content is king’. In this new democratized world where anybody can reach anyone else, you need writing to connect with people and opportunities. The Internet is the biggest consumer of written content that anyone ever imagined – and good content wins.
I wrote this book to give you a high-stakes tool for accomplishing your own goals and dreams. The method here is totally pragmatic. Every idea and technique is ready to use and fully demonstrated. I base everything on my own decades of trial and error as a journalist, magazine editor, corporate communications director, and consultant.
I created writing-for-results workshops during every phase of my career because I noticed how in every setting, people missed their opportunities and undermined themselves with mediocre writing. So every piece of advice in this book has been field tested by business people, public relations professionals, corporate communicators and non-profit leaders.
This book gives you a complete foundation for good business writing as well as guidelines to instantly improve your own writing. I hope the following chapters inspire you to keep improving what you write, a process I see as an endlessly rewarding quest.
Conventions Used in This Book
When I introduce a new term, I write it in italics and then define what it means. The only other conventions in this book are that web and email addresses are in monofont and the action part of numbered steps and the key concepts in a list are in bold.
What You Need Not Read
The grey-tinted sidebars contain extra text, such as more detailed information, that's not essential to understanding the section in question. By all means, skip these boxes if you prefer, safe in the knowledge that you're not missing out on any essential tips or practical insights.
Foolish Assumptions
I assume that you assume some or all of the following:
Writing well is a talent you're born with – or not.Improving poor writing is difficult.Good writing is defined by correct grammar and spelling.Memorizing ‘the rules’ is essential.Expressing complex thought demands complex language.Writing dense copy with long words makes you look more intelligent and educated.Reserving your best skills for ‘important’ material makes sense.Every one of these assumptions is false. I debunk all of them in this book. For now, the important truth is that you can write better, whether you need basic grounding or are already a good writer and want to become better yet.
This book is about practical business writing. The ideas and techniques are all down to earth and easy to use. Further, as part of my mission, I leave you with ways to recognize whether you're succeeding, and if not, how to fix your writing.
How This Book Is Organized
As the author, naturally I'm happy if you read the whole book in the sequence I created for it and build your skills step by step. However, you can equally choose to dip into chapters and sections as you need them or the spirit moves you. Use the table of contents or index to find what you want and after you're there, you may see options for delving further into subjects elsewhere in the book. Follow up on these as you like.
I organize the book into six parts.
Part I: Winning with Writing
This part gives you the whole groundwork for writing everything well. Discover a planning structure that helps you figure out what to say in any writing situation, as well as a set of techniques for how to say it the best possible way. Apply pragmatic strategies for editing and revising your own work that empower you to fine-tune your writing until it succeeds.
Part II: Putting Your Skills to Work for Everyday Business Writing
Email and letters remain today's communication staples, though supplemented more and more by social media. Both offer extraordinary opportunities to build your business relationships and professional image, while accomplishing your day-to day-goals. This part shows you how to leverage these tools.
Part III: Writing Business Documents, Promotional Materials and Presentations
Proposals, reports, and marketing materials are often turning point opportunities, so you need these tools in your arsenal. And you want to know how to script yourself to be a confident, effective presenter, including for that 15-second ‘elevator pitch’. This part also shows you how to use your value proposition and storytelling skills to show off your company – and yourself.
Part IV: Writing for the Digital Universe
Good writing is the cornerstone of new media, which from the communications perspective adds one more set of message delivery systems to the mix. Websites, blogs, and social media are very competitive, requiring your best writing to capture and hold viewers’ attention. Find guidelines and ideas for an ever-growing array of new media in this section.
Part V: Thinking Global, Writing Global
English is the accepted language of international business, but that doesn't mean everyone, everywhere, thinks alike. To connect successfully with your counterparts or new markets in other countries, become aware of differences. This part starts off with tips that apply to writing for all people whose native language is not English (as well as those with limited education) and then goes deeper into eight different cultures.
Part VI: The Parts of Ten
Many readers find this section the most fun section of the For Dummies book series. Look here for ten punchy ideas to advance your career with writing and how to tweet strategically.
Icons Used in This Book
To help you focus on what's most important and move it into memory, look to the icons.
These are practical ideas and techniques you can put to work immediately – and amaze yourself with good results!
This icon keys you in to guidelines and strategies to absorb and use for everything you write.
This icon signals thin ice, don't take the risk! Observe these cautions to avoid endangering your business, image or cause.
Why leave all the work to me? Take these opportunities to try your own hand or apply an idea. Nothing builds your skills like practice – and you may even enjoy it.
Where to Go From Here
Starting at the beginning gives you a foundation that applies to everything you write. But if you prefer diving right in for help on a specific challenge, by all means do so. The advice may suggest other sections for more depth and you can follow up – or not.
Everyone learns differently. Grown-ups enjoy the advantage of knowing their own learning style. Furthermore, you have your own writing problems to recognize and address. To be most useful, I offer choices – different ways to identify problems and improve everything you write.
Build a personal repertoire of techniques that work for you, then take this toolkit on the road with you. Doing so brings you a more successful journey, new confidence and a lot more fun along the way.
Part I
Winning with Writing
For Dummies can help you get started with lots of subjects. Visit www.dummies.com to learn more and do more with For Dummies.
In this part. . .
Learn the craft of business writing and watch your business or career reap the benefits.Understand your audiences in order to address their interests.Inject enthusiasm into your language to make your writing rise above the rest.Optimize your writing by assessing its readability.Fine-tune your work to ensure clarity in your communication.Chapter 1
Make Writing Your Not-So-Secret Weapon
In This Chapter
Rising above the pack with good writing
Accepting that you can write much better than you now do
Applying a planning structure to everything you write
Writing successfully for print, online and spoken media
Crossing borders with globalized business English
Good writing can change your life. Does that sound like an extreme, even ridiculous, statement? Maybe, but I believe it.
In this digital communication age, most opportunities come to you through writing. You need letters and résumés to get jobs. You need proposals to earn buy-in, marketing material to sell, and reports to show what you accomplished – and get promoted.
You need websites, blogs, and social media to reach beyond your geographic territory and personal ability to be wherever you need to be. You may want to script yourself for speeches, video, and even important conversations. And most of all, you need to be part of the everyday global communication fabric of email, texting, and perhaps tweeting.
Good writing is one of the most powerful weapons you can add to your career arsenal. It can make a big difference in the personal side of your life too, enabling you to stand out in a host of competitive situations. To speak from my own experience, I came out ahead in competing for a desirable apartment, obtained refunds when a purchase or service disappointed me, and even avoided a traffic ticket once – all by writing good letters.
Writing is a major tool for achieving what you want. As with every facet of business today, just showing up isn't good enough anymore. The competition is simply too vast to turn out adequate, ordinary writing and hope to succeed.
Consider these statistics:
100 billion business emails sent daily200 million active Twitter users, 400 million tweets per day sent634 million websites200 million blogsOf course, you're not competing with all of them or reading every one. But people nowadays are extremely selective about what they choose to read because they have so many options. See the sidebar ‘Communication in perspective’ for an even more expansive view of these trends.
From a writer's viewpoint, you no longer have a captive audience. Getting your messages read is a challenge in itself. Getting them acted upon demands writing that is not only good, but also strategic.
Communication in perspective
Once upon a time (but less than 600 years ago), writing and reading were the domains of the privileged elite. So was travel, which meant that few people could extend their personal networks beyond the places where they found themselves.
Then came the movable type printing press. Almost overnight, many more people could read, learn, and in some cases, circulate their own ideas, research, and thinking far beyond their own locations. Material of course had to be printed and physically distributed in the form of books, magazines, newspapers, and all the rest. For the past five centuries, this didn't seem like much of a limit.
But leapfrog to the 21st century. Thanks to digital communication and the Internet, everyone with access to basic systems and equipment can communicate with anyone, anywhere, as instantly as she wishes. You're limited only by your imagination and capabilities. Now everyone can be his or her own author, editor, critic, publisher, and distributor.
The opportunities for individuals and organizations of every kind are nearly overwhelming.
What is strategic writing? Simply, planned communication that achieves a set of goals. The good news is that to write strategically you need only add a mindset and set of writing techniques to what you know.
Following are some of the things you already know.
Your subject: You've invested in your field and are knowledgeable about itYour audience: They may be people you work with, colleagues, prospective employers, or a target marketYour goal: You know what you want – now and further down the line.Here are some of the things you may not know yet – that this book shows you:
How to capture and retain reader attentionHow to make people care about your messageHow to select the right content to make your caseHow to use writing techniques that make your material persuasive and convincingHow to use every single thing you write to build relationships and advance your causeHow to sharpen your ear and eye so you can spot your own writing problems and fix themThis chapter highlights the core elements of good business writing and points you in specific directions to solve your most pressing communication challenges. It introduces an audience-plus-goal structure that makes all your writing easier, more effective, and more fun.
Planning and Structuring Every Message
Faced with a blank page and something to accomplish, many people freeze at the first question: where do I start? The answer? Start with what you know – your audience, your goal, and your subject. However, you need to think about all these things more systematically than you ordinarily may.
Your over-arching goal is usually more far-reaching and complex than your immediate reason for writing. And you must analyze your audience in depth to tease out the factors that tell you your best approach. Then you can translate what you know about the subject into content that supports your message.
For example, suppose you want to ask your supervisor for a plum assignment you see on the horizon. You can simply write:
Jane, I'd like to present myself as a candidate for the lead role on the Crystal Project. You know my work and qualifications. I'll really appreciate the opportunity, and I'll do a great job. Thanks. – Jake
This is maybe okay – clear, no obvious errors – but definitely not compelling. All Jane knows from the message is that Jake wants the opportunity and thinks he's qualified.
Jake would fare better if he first looked at his own goals in more depth. Perhaps he wants a chance to:
Exercise more responsibility
Show off his capabilities and be noticed
Expand his know-how in regard to the project's subject
Add a management credential to his résumé
But he also has the longer term to consider. Jake almost certainly will find it useful to:
Strengthen his position for future special assignments
Remind his boss of his good track record
Build his image as a capable, reliable, resourceful leader
Build toward a promotion or higher-level job in his current organization or elsewhere
From this vantage point, Jake can see the pitch itself as a building block for his overall career ambitions, which calls for a better message than the perfunctory one he dashed off. He must think through the actual assignment demands and how his skills match up. Then there's Jane to consider. What qualifications does she, the decision-maker, most value? What does she care about?
After some thought, Jake may come up with a list like this:
Job requires: planning skills; ability to meet deadlines; knowledge of XYZ systems; experience in intra-departmental coordination; good judgment under pressure
Jane values: collaborative teaming; people skills; department reputation; effective presentation. She is weak in systems planning and insecure with technology.
This bit of brainstorming helps Jake produce a blueprint for persuasive content. His email can briefly cite his proven track record in terms of the job requirements; his ability to deliver results as a team leader; his awareness that success will enhance the department's reputation, and that he'll use his excellent presentation skills to ensure this result.
The weaknesses he pinpointed for Jane give Jake another avenue for presenting himself as the best choice. He can suggest a planning system he'll use to make the most of staff resources and/or a specific way to incorporate new easy-to-use technology. These aspects of his message are very likely to hook Jane's attention.
All Jake's points must be true, needless to say. I don't suggest ever making up credentials, but rather, that you take the trouble to communicate the best of what is real.
Further, never assume people understand your capabilities or remember your achievements, even if you work closely with the person you're communicating with. Other people don't have time to put you in perspective. That's why doing it yourself has such power.
Even if Jake doesn't get the assignment, writing a good memo contributes to his long-range goals of presenting himself as ready, willing, and able to take on new challenges and to be seen as more valuable.
The beauty of using this audience-plus-goal structure to plan your messages, whether they're emails or proposals or anything in between, is how far the effort takes you to the real heart of good writing – real and relevant substance. Writing is not a system for manipulating words, nor does it camouflage a lack of thought. Good writing is good thinking presented clearly, concisely, and transparently.
I make you a rash promise: for every fraction you improve your writing, you improve your thinking along with it.
Chapter 2 gives you an in-depth demonstration of this planning structure and shows you how to translate it into successful messages. While you may pick and choose which sections of the book to read, and draw upon them at need, I encourage you to invest in Chapter 2. It gives you the entire foundation for deciding what to say in any circumstance.
The other essential groundwork for successful writing is how to say what you want. This is writing's technical side, which I cover in Chapters 3, 4 and 5 If you're afraid that I'll ask you to dig out your old high school textbook or memorize grammar rules, no worries. I provide a set of commonsense techniques so that you can identify problems and then fix them.
One central technique to quickly upgrade anything you write is the say-it-aloud diagnosis. When you read your own copy aloud (or whisper it to yourself if you're not alone), you get immediate signals that something isn't working or can work better. You may be forcing your sentences into a sing-song rhythm that denotes awkward construction, unnecessary words, and too-long sentences. You may hear repetitive sounds or inappropriate pauses demanded by poor punctuation. You can easily fix all these problems, and many more, when you use this technique to find clues to better writing.
Chapters 3 through 5 give you a host of down-to-earth strategies for monitoring your own work and improving it. These include computer resources like Word's easy-to-use and much-underutilized Readability Index, which provides helpful guidance for making your writing clear.
No matter where you now see yourself on the writing spectrum, you always have room to improve. Most of the professional writers I know, whether they're journalists, corporate communicators, or public relations specialists, are obsessive with discovering and developing better ways to write. They want to write material that's ever more interesting, persuasive, and engaging.
For people inhabiting any part of the business and non-profit worlds, the rewards of better writing are often immediate. Your emails and letters get the results you want much more often. Your proposals are more seriously considered. People accord you more respect. And you move toward your goals faster.
You also find yourself actively building relationships that benefit you over the long run. If a negative relationship hampers you at work, the structured thinking I show you in Chapter 2 even provides a tool for turning that relationship around.
Yes, you can write better!
If good writing is a skill that can be acquired – and I say it can! – you may wonder why you don't currently write as well as you'd like. You already learned to write in school, right?
Actually, few people did. Unless you were very lucky and ran across an unusual teacher, the people who taught you to write never worked on practical writing themselves. Unlike the business world, the academic system is not geared to getting things done but rather to thinking about them. Writing for school is mostly aimed at demonstrating your knowledge of what you've been taught, or contributing to the store of human knowledge. Academia traditionally rewards dense, complicated, convoluted writing full of expensive words.
Business writing, on the other hand, always has a goal and is geared toward action. And whatever the goal, it is always best accomplished by being accessible, direct, clear, concrete, and simple. What you write should be conversational as well as engaging and persuasive.
Emulating 19th-century writing traditions in your work makes little sense, and striving to produce empty, cliché-ridden 21st-century business writing is just a recipe for boring your readers. Even though no one wants to read or believe them, these styles of writing surround us. That's why your good writing gives you a major competitive advantage.
Applying Audience-Plus-Goal Strategy to Any Business Need
Beginning with Chapter 6, Business Writing For Dummies shows you how to use planning and writing strategies to meet all your writing challenges. I progressively cover the various communication vehicles available to you today.
Impressing with email, letters, and business documents
Email is the most-used medium for many people, and in many ways the most basic, so it's a natural starting point.
Don't underestimate the importance or overall impact of email. This everyday workhorse offers an extraordinary opportunity to build your reputation and image, incrementally. You can actually decide how you want to be perceived: Confident? Creative? Inventive? Responsible? Steady? An idea source? Problem-solver? Make up your own list and write from inside this persona, using what you know and all your best writing techniques.
Audience analysis pays off hugely with email. Understanding the person who reads your message shows you how to ask for what you want, whether you're requesting an opportunity, inviting the reader to a meeting, or pitching for a new piece of equipment. Even further, knowing your audience in depth enables you to anticipate your reader's response and build in answers to objections she's apt to raise.
Framing the right content at the intersection of goal and audience works equally well for business correspondence, networking messages, cover letters, and more, as you find in Chapter 7. You may be surprised to see that the same principles also give you the foundation for long-form materials that often feel like make-or-break opportunities: proposals, reports, and executive summaries – all covered in Chapter 8.
Using stories and value propositions
Chapter 9 takes you into new territory by showing you how to work with two staples of contemporary communication. One is the selling proposition or core value, a concise statement used by businesses and non-profits to communicate what distinguishes them from competitors. The second is storytelling, the oldest human connector of all.
While the business world embraces both tools widely, they can be difficult to use without direction from professional communicators. But small- and medium-size businesses can profit from both core value statements and stories. The creation process channels productive thinking and defines an organization's true strengths. Working with these concepts, using the structure I present, gives you a more solid basis for all communication.
Less widely recognized is how individuals can use value statements. Job-hunting is easier when you can clearly convey your uniqueness. Justifying your position or presenting yourself for more responsibility or promotion rests on ready-made ground. And in general, when you can speak for yourself – or your department, profession, or company – you possess an asset that translates into personal success.
Chapter 9 gives you practical guidelines to identify both core value and good stories, and shows you how to craft them to deliver magnetic messages.
Writing the spoken word
Knowing your value and story can help you work magic when you need to deliver your material live, whether in a 15-second ‘elevator speech’ that introduces you to people you want to know, or as part of a substantial talk or presentation. Chapter 10 shows you how to write for the spoken word.
The same planning process (Chapter 2) works for presentations, just as it does for emails, reports, proposals, and all the rest. Start by understanding your goal – what you want people to do as a result of listening to you – and analyzing your audience. The technical guidelines are similar to those for print, too, just more extreme: aim for even simpler and clearer language based on short, everyday words that you can speak naturally and easily.
Don't be distracted – or let your audience be distracted – by presentation systems such as PowerPoint. Shape your thoughts in writing first, not to suit a limited format, and keep the focus on yourself.
These ideas apply to scripting your own video, too. And for every occasion when you must prepare to think on your feet, use the technique of politicians and CEOs alike: write talking points for yourself.
Writing online: From website to blog to tweet
Digital media seem so revolutionary that people often assume they can toss all the old writing rules out the virtual window. Don't do it! True, some aspects generate change: the delivery speed and reach of online messages shifts basic concepts of how people communicate. The traditional top-down method, whereby authoritative figures issue ‘the word’, is eroding quickly. Now everyone can be a journalist, commentator or contributor. Nevertheless, the need to write well holds steady.
Huge numbers of websites, blogs, and tweets are tossed into extremely competitive arenas. Only the well-thought-out and written ones succeed. Abbreviate all you want with texting and instant messaging (provided you know your audience can follow you), but don't introduce it into other media. Write blogs and posts with bad grammar and spelling, and you lose credibility. Fail to plan your website from the audience's perspective and you don't draw an audience at all.
Chapters 11 and 12 give you the writing know-how you need to communicate in today's digital world.
The online world is the great leveler. Never before has there been so much opportunity for individuals, or small enterprises, to make an impact. Equip yourself to do it effectively and the world may be yours.
Unlike print media and even email, a blog or website isn't personally delivered to someone who then chooses whether or not to read it. You must craft online media to pull in the readers you want. So defining your audience and goals first is at least as important as for any other writing project.
Guidelines for online writing are not radically different from those for print, but they are more intense. Sentences may be as short as a single word, and, generally, no longer than 14. Information must be more concise, crystallizing central ideas into pithy statements with zing. Plus, digital media introduce new demands that center on interactivity. You want people to respond and spread the word, and these goals require targeted techniques.
As you read this, new technologies are no doubt emerging to dazzle and intrigue us. Digital media seems to evolve almost as fast as computer speed. But the newest technology is basically one more delivery system for your messages. I guarantee you still need good writing to succeed and that the techniques presented in this book apply more than ever.
Globalizing business English
The world may be happy to communicate with you in English. After all, it is now entrenched as the essential language of international business.
But that doesn't mean everyone is on the same wavelength. Every country and culture has distinct values and perspectives. In many parts of the world, for example, work takes second place to family and leisure interests, a viewpoint that some work-obsessed cultures find hard to understand. A number of cultures value courtesy more than efficiency, and do not transact business unless you establish a solid relationship first.
In many cultures, you can't open a conversation unless you're able to cite a personal connection. And in some places, directness is not appreciated. Many cultures never voice an outright ‘no’, so you must interpret polite comments to figure out whether you're being rejected. You also benefit from developing the ability to be similarly indirect with others.
Writing may be the best way to initiate contact with people you don't know. However, you must remember that many people speak and write English only as a second – or third or fourth – language.
Fortunately, the basic guidelines in Chapter 13 go a long way toward helping you write messages in a way most non-native speakers anywhere can easily understand. In Chapter 14, I present specific suggestions for writing to businesspeople in eight different countries. I collected the insights directly from people who live or work in each country.
I recommend reading through Part IV even if you have no immediate plan to expand your business overseas. The differences among seemingly similar countries and English speakers are fascinating. Moreover, it's a rare organization today that doesn't need to communicate with non-native English speakers who may be employees, customers or partners.
We all see the world through our own filters, unconsciously constructed of personal experience, cultural values and everything else we grow up with. Glimpsing life through other filters helps you know yourself better.
Chapter 2
Planning Your Message: Your Secret Weapon
In This Chapter
Strategizing for success before you write
Knowing your goal and audience
Making people care about your message
Finding opportunities to build relationships
Think for a minute about how you approached a recent writing task. If it was an email, how much time did you spend considering what to write? A few minutes? Seconds? Or did you just start typing?
Now bring a more complex document to mind: a challenging letter, proposal, report, marketing piece, or anything else. Did you put some time into shaping your message before you began writing – or did you just plunge in?
This chapter demonstrates the power of taking time before you write to consider who you're writing to, what you truly hope to achieve, and how you can deploy your words to maximize success.
Adopting the Plan-Draft-Edit Principle
Prepare yourself for one of the most important pieces of advice in this book: invest time in planning your messages. That means every message, because even an everyday communication like an email can have a profound impact on your success. Everything you write shows people who you are.
I can't count the times I've received an email asking for a referral, or informational interview, that was badly written and full of errors. Or a long, expensively produced document with an email cover note that's abrupt and sloppy. A poorly done email doesn't help the cause – whatever the cause is.
I'm not suggesting that prior to writing every email you lean back in your chair and let your mind wander into blue-sky mode to see what emerges. The planning I recommend is a step-by-step process that leads to good decisions about what to say and how to say it. It's a process that will never fail you, no matter how big (or seemingly small) the writing challenge. And it's quite simple to adopt – in fact, you may experience surprising immediate results. You may also find that you enjoy writing much more.
This strategic approach has no relation to how you learned to write in school, unless you had an atypical teacher who was attuned to writing for results, so start by tossing any preconceived ideas about your inability to write over the side.
When you have a message or document to write, expect to spend your time this way:
Planning – one thirdDrafting – one thirdEditing – one thirdIn other words, give equal time, roughly speaking, to the job of deciding what to say – the content; another equal portion to preparing your first draft and finally, a third to fixing what you wrote.
See Chapter 3 for no-fail writing strategies and Chapter 4 for editing tips and tricks.
Fine-Tuning Your Plan: Your Goals and Audience
A well-crafted message is based on two key aspects: your goal and your audience. The following section shows you how to get to know both intimately.
Defining your goal: Know what you want
Your first priority is to know exactly what you want to happen when the person you're writing to reads what you've written. Determining this is far less obvious than it sounds.
Consider a cover letter for your résumé. Seen as a formal but unimportant necessity toward your ultimate goal, to get a job, a cover letter can just say:
Dear Mr Blank, here is my résumé –Jack Slade
Intuitively you know that isn't sufficient. But analyze what you want to accomplish and you can see clearly why it falls short. Your cover letter must yield the following results:
Connect you with the recipient so that you're a person instead of one more set of documentsMake you stand out – in a good wayPersuade the recipient that your résumé is worth readingShow that you understand the job and the companySet up the person to review your qualifications with a favorable mindsetYou also need the cover letter to demonstrate your personal qualifications, especially the ability to communicate well.
If you see that your big goal depends on this set of more specific goals, it's obvious why a one-line perfunctory message can't succeed.
A cover letter for a formal business proposal has its own big goal – to help convince an individual or an institution to finance your new product. In order to do this, the letter's role is to connect with the prospective buyer, entice him to actually read at least part of the document, predispose him to like what he sees, present your company as better than the competition and show off good communication skills.
How about the proposal itself? If you break down this goal into a more specific subset then you realize the proposal must demonstrate:
The financial viability of what you plan to produceA minimal investment risk and high profit potentialYour own excellent qualifications and track recordOutstanding backup by an experienced teamSpecial expertise in the fieldIn-depth knowledge of the marketplace, competition, business environment, and so on.Spelling out your goals is extremely useful because the process keeps you aligned with the big picture while giving you instant guidelines for content that succeeds. Because of good planning on the front end, you're already moving toward how to accomplish what you want.
To reap the benefit of goal definition, you must take time to look past the surface. Write every message – no exceptions – with a clear set of goals. If you don't know your goals, don't write at all.
Invariably one of your goals is to present yourself in writing as professional, competent, knowledgeable, empathetic and so on – but don't let me tell you who you are or want to be! Create a list of the personal and professional qualities you want other people to perceive in you. Then remember, every time you write, to be that person. Ask yourself how that individual handles the tough stuff. Your answers may amaze you. This technique isn't mystical, just a way of accessing your own knowledge base and intuition. You may be able to channel this winning persona into your in-person experiences, too.
Defining your audience: Know your reader
You've no doubt noticed that people are genuinely different in countless ways – what they value, their motivations, how they like to spend their time, their attitude toward work and success, how they communicate and much more. One ramification of these variables is that they read and react to your messages in different and sometimes unexpected ways.
As part of your planning you need to anticipate people's responses – to both your content and writing style. The key to successfully predicting your reader's response is to address everything you write to someone specific, rather than an anonymous, faceless ‘anyone’.
When you meet someone in person and want to persuade her to your viewpoint, you automatically adapt to her reactions as you go along. You respond to a host of clues. Beyond interruptions, comments and questions, you also perceive facial expression, body language, tone of voice, nervous mannerisms and many other indicators. (Check out Body Language For Dummies by Elizabeth Kuhnke to sharpen your ability to read people.)
Obviously a written message lacks all in-person clues. So for yours to succeed, you must play both roles – the reader's and your own. Doing this isn't as hard as it may sound.
Unless you're sending a truly trivial message, begin by creating a profile of the person you're writing to. If you know the person, begin with the usual suspects, the demographics. Start by determining:
How old? (Generational differences can be huge! See the sidebar ‘Generation gaps: Understanding and leveraging them’)Male or female?Engaged in what occupation?Married, family or some other arrangement?Member of an ethnic or religious group?Educated to what degree?Social and economic position?Generation gaps: Understanding and leveraging them
In business today, understanding young people is important to older ones, and vice versa. If you're a member of Generation X or Generation Y, understanding Baby Boomers is especially useful because they still constitute more than 70 percent of business owners and probably a similar percentage of all top jobs.
You may quibble about the following descriptions – especially of your own cohort – but the generalizations are still illuminating. Supplement these ideas with your own observations and you discover ways to make higher-ups happy without necessarily compromising your own values.
Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) are highly competitive and define themselves by achievement. Many are workaholics. They respect authority, loyalty, position and patience with the hierarchy and slow upward progress. They would like today's young people to advance the same way they did: earning rewards gradually over time. They are good with confrontation and prefer a lot of face-to-face time, so hold meetings often. They resent younger people's perceived lack of respect, low commitment level, expectations of fast progress, and arrogance about their own superior technology skills. And careless writing! Well-planned and proofed messages score high points with Boomers and they are more likely to prefer long, detailed accounts. They like phone calls but resent telephone run-arounds and response delays.Generation X'ers (born 1965 to 1980) are literally caught in the middle. They are often middle managers and may constantly translate between those they report to and those who report to them. They are hard-working, individualistic, committed to change and technologically capable, but lack the full enthusiasm toward technological solutions of Gen Y. They value independence and resourcefulness (having been the first latchkey children) and like opportunities to develop new skills and receive feedback. Their preferred communication mode is generally email, the short efficient kind. They'd rather skip the meetings.Generation Y members (born after 1980) expect their technical skills and input to be recognized and rewarded quickly. They are highly social and collaborative, preferring to work in teams, and like staying in touch with what everyone is doing. They want to be given responsibility but also like structure and mentoring. They don't see the point of long-term commitment and expect to spend their careers job-hopping. Generation Y'ers prefer to interact through texting, instant messaging and social media, and will use email as necessary, rather than in-person or telephone contact. A subgroup, the Millennials (born 1991 or later) are even more technocentric in their communication preferences.After demographics, you have psychographic considerations, the kind of factors marketing specialists spend a lot of time studying. Marketers are interested in creating customer profiles to understand and manipulate consumer buying. For your purposes, some psychographic factors that can matter are:
LifestyleValues and beliefsOpinions and attitudesInterestsLeisure and volunteer activitiesYou also need to consider factors that reflect someone's positioning, personality and, in truth, entire life history and outlook on the world. Some factors that may directly affect how a person perceives your message include the following:
Professional background and experiencePosition in the organization: What level? Moving up or down? Respected? How ambitious?Degree of authorityLeadership style: Team-based? Dictatorial? Collaborative? Indiscernible?Preferred communication style: In-person? Short or long written messages? Telephone? Texting? PowerPoint?Approach to decision-making: Collaborative or top-down? Spontaneous or deliberative? Risk-taker or play-it-safer?Information preferences: Broad vision? Detailed? Statistics and numbers? Charts and graphs?Work priorities and pressuresSensitivities and hot buttonsInteraction style and preferences: A people person or a systems and technology person?Type of thinking: Logical or intuitive? Statistics-based or ideas-based? Big picture or micro oriented? Looking for long-range or immediate results?Weaknesses, perceived by the person or not: lack of technological savvy? People skills? Education?Type of people the person likes – and dislikesDo you know, or can you figure out, what your reader worries about? What keeps him up at night? What is his biggest problem? When you know a person's deepest concerns, you can effectively leverage this information to create messages that he finds highly compelling.
And of course, your precise relationship to the person matters – your relative positioning; the degree of mutual liking, respect and trust; the simpatico factor.
No doubt you're wondering how you can possibly take so much into consideration, or why you want to. The good news is, when your message is truly simple, you usually don't. More good news: Even when your goal is complex or important, only some factors matter. I'm giving you a lengthy list to draw on because every situation brings different characteristics into play. Thinking through which ones count in your specific situation is crucial.
For example, say you want authorization to buy a new computer. Perhaps your boss is a technology freak who reacts best to equipment requests when they have detailed productivity data – in writing. Or you may report to someone who values relationships, good office vibes and in-person negotiation. Whatever the specifics, you need to frame the same story differently. I'm not saying to manipulate the facts – both stories must be true and fair.
You succeed when you take the time to look at things through the other person's eyes rather than solely your own. Doing so doesn't compromise your principles. It shows that you're sensible and sensitive to the differences between people and helps your relationships. It shows you how to frame what you're asking for. See the section “Framing messages with ‘you’ not ‘I’” later in this chapter for more on these techniques.
Brainstorming the best content for your purpose
Perhaps defining your goal and audience so thoroughly sounds like unnecessary busy-work. But doing so helps immeasurably when you're approaching someone with an idea, product or service that you need her to buy into.
