Put it in writing

Recently I was trying to make a purchase from an online vendor who never quite lived up to her promises, but who did believe in communication.

She sent a two-page, singlespaced email urging me to read it in its entirety for the helpful information on her company.

It wasn't helpful, and it was much,much too long.

In today's business world we're already overloaded with written communication.

It's easier than ever to get our thoughts across: email is instantaneous.

But even with the proliferation of written communication, people are still intimidated by putting their thoughts in writing.

For business writing projects meant to represent your company high-end brochures or annual reports to stockholders or white papers there's always the professional writing service.

But for day-to-day business communications, internal memos, reports for upper management, spec sheets, internal newsletters, or email communications with prospective clients, writing just shouldn't be that intimidating.

Just remember to be clear and concise, keep an eye on content and be considerate of other people's time.

Clear Writing gets muddled when we try to present too many ideas at once.

Separate ideas and list them individually, in separate paragraphs or bullet point lists.

Use familiar words rather than industry jargon, use short sentences and keep your subject matter simple.

Avoid falling back on shorthand ways of expressing yourself spell out what you mean.

Ask yourself what questions your reader is apt to ask.

What information are you trying to convey? If you're setting up a meeting, list all the pertinent details time, date, location and expectations.

For a product specification sheet, address each of the solutions the product offers in clear, precise language.

Avoid repetition and utilize lists.

Use a friendly, accessible, conversational style.

Stuffy, formal writing is off-putting.

Use contractions normal speech uses contractions and without them writing sounds stilted.

And while you're trying not to be overly formal, don't be overly informal either.

Don't kid around in your written communication; it can come out sounding goofy or rude and definitely unprofessional.

Concise Brevity is the soul of wit, so get to the point.

When it comes to the written word, less is often more.

Say what you need to say to get your point across clearly, then move on.

Faced with more than a page of text, many of us lose interest.

Promotional postcards that fill every square inch with type get tossed.

Most of us don't have the time or patience to read through excess verbiage to find the message.

Don't hide your message under needless words and phrases.

Look for ways to shorten content.

"As well as" translates easily to "including." Cliches slide from consciousness quickly; say what you really mean.

"Thinking outside the box" has been so overused that using it no longer constitutes doing it.

Eye to content Getting your point across is the whole reason for written communication.

Before you start to write, determine who your audience is and what you want them to do with the information you're about to give them.

Answer your readers' questions in the first paragraph.

Borrow from journalism and create a lead that answers the five Ws in the first paragraph: who, what, where, why and when.

Make sure you can clearly identify the subject of the communication, why it's important and what you want the reader to do about it.

Borrowing again from journalism, craft your sales letter or report or memo with an inverted pyramid format.

Start with the absolute most important information you want to convey, including your five Ws, then begin narrowing your topic and adding the information that's less important as you move through the document.

Don't include anything specious that doesn't need to be there respect your reader's time.

Present your facts, and get out of the way so the reader can act.

Organization falls under content.

Keep similar topics together and transition from one topic to the next in a way that's easy for the reader to follow.

Usually this is nothing more complicated than simple logic, but if you find yourself referring back to items mentioned earlier, rearrange your presentation.

Don't tell the reader to refer back to paragraph 3, go back and insert the information that belongs there yourself.

You want your reader to read your letter, or contact your company, or buy your product, or answer your questions and it's up to you to make that process as simple as possible for him.

And last but not least, a little repetition doesn't hurt.

While you don't want to say the same thing over and over, you can follow the formula of tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, tell 'em, and tell 'em what you told 'em.

For example,"This product specification sheet will present the benefits of the (product)." And then the bulk of the text does just that, and at the end,"To summarize," and you cover what was included in the text in a couple short, simple sentences.

Today's business world is overrun with information.

To break out and get your written communication noticed, you need to get your point across quickly, clearly, concisely and with an eye to content.

Jennifer Rachel Baumer of Reno is a principal in Ink Communications, a business writing agency in northern Nevada and the San Francisco Bay area.

Jennifer@inkwriters.com