Better writing can result in proposals that
win contracts, advertisements that sell
products, instruction manuals that users
can follow, billboards that catch a driver’s attention, stories that make us
laugh or cry, and letters, memos, and reports that get your message across to
the reader. Here are some tips on style and word choice that can make writing
clear and persuasive.
1. PRESENT YOUR BEST SELF
Your moods vary. After all, you’re only
human. But while it is sometimes difficult to present your best self in conversation,
which is spontaneous and instant, letters are written alone and on your own
schedule. Therefore, you can and should take the time to let your most pleasant
personality shine through in your writing.
Be especially careful when replying to an
e-mail message you have received.
The temptation is to treat the message as
conversation, and if you are irritated or just outrageously pressured and busy,
the tendency is to reply in a clipped and curt fashion — again, not showing you
at your best.
The solution? Although you may be eager to
reply immediately to e-mail so you can get the message out of your inbox, a
better strategy for when your reply is important is to set it aside, compose
your answer when you are not so time pressured, and read it carefully before
sending.
A Tip: Never write a letter when angry. If
you must write the letter when angry, then put it aside without sending it, and
come back to it later. You will most likely want to throw it out and start
over, not send it at all, or drastically revise it.
Remember, once you hit the Reply button, it
is too late to get the message back. It’s out there, and you can’t retrieve it.
Same thing when you drop a letter in the mailbox.
(it’s actually a felony to reach into the
mailbox and try to retrieve the letter!).
2. WRITE IN A CLEAR, CONVERSATIONAL STYLE
Naturally, a memo on sizing pumps shouldn’t
have the same chatty tone as a personal letter. But most business and technical
professionals lean too much in the other direction, and their sharp thinking is
obscured by windy, overly formal prose.
The key to success in business or technical
writing? Keep it simple. I’ve said this
before, but it bears repeating: Write to
express — not to impress. A relaxed, conversational style can add vigor and
clarity to your letters.
3. BE CONCISE
Professionals, especially those in
industry, are busy people. Make your writing less time-consuming for them to
read by telling the whole story in the fewest possible words.
How can you make your writing more concise?
One way is to avoid redundancies — a needless form of wordiness in which a
modifier repeats an idea already contained within the word being modified. For
example, a recent trade ad described a product as a “new innovation.” Could
there be such a thing as an old innovation? The ad also said the product was
“very unique.” Unique means “one of a kind,” so it is impossible for anything
to be very unique.
Many writers are fond of overblown
expressions such as “the fact that,” “it is well
known that,” and “it is the purpose of this
writer to show that.” These take up space but add little to meaning or clarity.
4. BE CONSISTENT
“A foolish consistency,” wrote Ralph Waldo
Emerson, “is the hobgoblin of little
minds.” This may be so. But, on the other
hand, inconsistencies in your writing will
confuse your readers and convince them that
your information and reasoning are as sloppy and unorganized as your prose.
Good writers strive for consistency in their use of numbers, hyphens, units of
measure, punctuation, equations, grammar, symbols, capitalization, technical
terms, and abbreviations. Keep in mind that if you are inconsistent in any of
these matters of usage, you are automatically wrong at least part of the time.
For example, many writers are inconsistent
in the use of hyphens. The rule is: two words that form an adjective are
hyphenated. Thus, write: first-order reaction, fluidized-bed combustion,
high-sulfur coal, space-time continuum.
5. USE JARGON SPARINGLY
Many disciplines and specialties have a
special language all their own. Technical
terms are a helpful shorthand when you’re
communicating within the profession, but they may confuse readers who do not
have your special background. Take the word, “yield,” for example. To a
chemical engineer, yield is a measure of how much product a reaction produces.
But to car drivers, yield means slowing down (and stopping, if necessary) at an
intersection.
Other words that have special meaning to
chemical engineers but have a different definition in everyday use include:
vacuum, pressure, batch, bypass, recycle, concentration, mole, purge,
saturation, catalyst. A good working definition of jargon is, “Language more
complex than the ideas it serves to communicate.” Use legitimate technical
terms when they communicate your ideas precisely, but avoid using jargon just
because the words sound impressive. In other words, do not write that material
is “gravimetrically conveyed” when it is simply dumped. If you are a dentist,
do not tell patients you have a procedure to help “stabilize mobile dentition”
when what it really does is keeps loose teeth in place.
