These 10 points about writing were distributed this month by Free Pint (the UK newsletter about using the Internet, http://www.freepint.com/index.html). Although the title is "How to Improve Your Business Writing" I found that the tips apply just as well to course management modules, online discussions, and weblogs. JH____
How to Improve Your Business Writing
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1. Establish your core statement - imagine you are going on TV for a
three-minute interview. Could you sum up the value of your topic in
three minutes? Write yourself a short piece (fewer than 30 words)
that you could use as a memory aid to help you sell your topic to
the interviewer. Try using it to clarify your thoughts on the issue
while speaking to a colleague. This will help you keep the main
message in mind when you're doing the writing itself.
2. Put your reader first - do they know much about the topic? Will
they understand your jargon or acronyms? How important is this
information to them? How interested are they in it? Are there any
grammatical or style features you should consider if your reader is
based outside the UK?
3. Make your beginning memorable - if you don't grab your reader at
the beginning of the document, you are wasting your time. Getting a
reader started is the most difficult part of writing, but there are
techniques you can use. Try starting with a surprise statement for
instance, or contrasting how things were in the recent past with
how they are now (in two or three sentences).
4. Go out with a bang - good endings are almost as important as good
beginnings. The last thing you want to do is leave the reader with
the impression that you've just run out of things to say. Useful
techniques are: looking to the future, repeating a major issue or
summarising. But be careful with the last one: keep that summary to
two or three sentences.
5. KISS - keep it short and simple. Write to express, not to impress.
No flowery language. Good ideas come across much better in plain
English.
6. Write in the active voice - that means: write the person or subject
before the verb. 'The researcher received the company archive' is
better than 'The company archive was received by the researcher'.
7. Make your sentence structure logical - say what the sentence is
about straight away, before you add in extra information. Say
what's happening, before you say why.
8. Use graphics where possible - we all learn in different ways. Some
people like written explanations, while others are more 'visual'
and prefer graphics and illustrations. Pictures are therefore a
great way of drawing visual people into your document. (Be careful
with clip art, though as this can look tacky). So, use a graph
rather than a table of data, for example.
9. Stick to two fonts - use one serif font (e.g. Times) for the body
text and one sans serif font (e.g. Arial) for headings and
subheadings.
10.E-mail - limit messages to one screen and use attachments for
longer messages.
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