Resources - Newsletter Tips Archive
Write Like You Mean It
Ahhhh, the age of communication. It's an age of business correspondence…of memos, of emails, articles and presentations—and just about anything else that arises during the course of everyday business. But when you're writing to an audience of co-workers and peers, or even to an audience you don't know, what do you do? Well, as the title of this piece suggests, you simply write like you mean it.
Here are some tips to help:
Less is more. It seems that everywhere we look, people are telling us things twice. For instance, they say something is highly significant, when significant would do. Or they call it an old adage instead of an adage. And these words aren't very redundant, they're just redundant. The point is, when one word says it all, one is all you need.
Clarity is key. Your audience will best understand your message when your language is clear and to the point. Short sentences prove more effective than long ones. They enable readers to more easily comprehend—and therefore better retain—what you want to convey. But take your verbosity down a long and flowery path, and your readers work so hard to decipher your language, they miss your whole point.
Pretentiousness is oh, so passé. Big words do not earn instant respect. Big messages do. A page filled with words that scream out, "Look at me! I have four syllables!" instead of a page filled with your everyday professional vocabulary will only distract your audience, not impress them. Write in a way that's true to your professional self, and in a way that's easy to digest. Your sincerity (along with increased credibility) will shine through. Plus, as we said in the beginning, "Less is more," and that goes for the syllable count too.
We hope these writing tips, along with those mentioned in other columns, will serve you well. But if the years fly by and these rules happen to fall by the wayside, no worries. All you really need to remember is to write like you mean it. Then you'll be true to yourself, and all those other tips will fall right into place.
