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The Best Writing Tip Ever Part II: The BWTE Strikes Back

May 28, 2009  |  Posted in: Competitive Writing, General Writing, The Best Writing Tip Ever  |  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,   |  
If you're not separating the wheat from the chaff, you're obscuring your point--and testing your reader's patience.

If you're not separating the wheat from the chaff, you're obscuring your point -- and testing your reader's patience.

 

“Just give me the time; don’t tell me how they made the watch.”

Translation: Get to the point! And when you get to it, stay on it, don’t stray from it, and don’t camouflage it with a bunch of unessential information.

This relates to virtually every form of business communication, and yet the vast majority of writers consistently ignore it: leave all of the non-essential information, especially non-relevant background materials, out of your main piece.

If you have information that supplements your document well, but it drags down the readability because it’s too long or bulky, include it in an appendix. Or use footnotes. Or provide it separately.

Remember, today’s readers don’t want to waste a lot of time. They want to know what you’re getting at and how it relates to them. If you want to impress them with your bona fides, stick to those that are the only most important and relevant. No one cares if you have 10 years of field work in geology if you’re applying for a grant to open a day school.

If the background is not necessary to achieving your core purpose for writing the document, you should leave it out.

No one should need a CSI team just to read your printed copy

May 25, 2009  |  Posted in: Fundraising, General Writing, Nonprofits, Public Relations  |  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,   |  

"...After three days, your introductory 1.9% APR jumps to 99.9%. Also, we get to eat your dog."

"...After 10 days, your introductory 1.9% APR jumps to 99.9%. Also, we get to eat your dog."

They always warn you to read the fine print. What if it’s so fine you literally can’t read it?

If you can’t read the text above, we understand. Here’s a tip not everyone knows: to quickly enlarge scalable type on a website, hold down the Ctrl key and tap the + [plus] key. (To shrink it back down, do Ctrl and - [minus].)

It works on every major web browser. Try it now if you like. (Take your time. We’ll wait.)

But you shouldn’t have to do that. With printed copy, you can’t do it. That doesn’t keep many writers from using copy so small it’s unreadable.

Maybe you have 20/20 vision, or even better. Not everyone does. Older readers, especially, struggle with reading small font sizes. That doesn’t just mean the elderly: eyesight begins to decline around the age of 40. Do you really want to restrict your readership solely to people under 40?

We see this problem a lot, most particularly — and most unfortunately — in fundraising brochures and letters.

Think about it: funrdraising materials are (most often) targeted to older readers, those with the most acquired wealth or chief executives. Few are intended for recent college graduates or people on the south side of middle age.

Many prospective benefactors wear bifocals because they can’t read small print. Some wear “cheaters,” magnifying glasses which they put on and take off and frequently lose.

It is not unusual for farsighted persons, frustrated at not being able to decipher tiny text and angered at the “thoughtlessness” of the writer, to discard the document within minutes (or even seconds) of picking it up. You very well might lose a potential donor forever.

Of course, one can go overboard with font sizes. You don’t want your font text to be so large it reads “obnoxious” or feels like its shouting at the reader. You have to find a happy medium.

At We Write For You, we have had to ask graphic designers to enlarge — and sometimes even change — fonts for readability.

Sure, sometimes we’d like to have the latitude to use smaller fonts for various aesthetic purposes. But we generally will never use a font size that can’t be read by virtually all readers.

Remember the ultimate purpose for writing a document: to have it read.

The Best Writing Tip EVER.

May 23, 2009  |  Posted in: Competitive Writing, General Writing, Public Relations, The Best Writing Tip Ever  |  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,   |  

Okay, we’re just kidding with that title. Actually…  kidding isn’t quite right. We do have a great writing tip for you today. And it is one of the best writing tips ever. To certain people–maybe even you–it might well be the best writing tip ever.

We’ll have many more writing tips for you to check out if you read this blog regularly. But if we had to choose a Top Ten, this would be in there. It’s probably in the Top Five. And though it sounds obvious, this is the one big rule we see people screw up all the time:

Write with your audience in mind.

It rather sounds simple and obvious, but writers botch this one constantly. All we’re saying is that for whatever you’re writing, you need to identify who comprises your target audience. Then, make sure everything you write is focused on connecting with that type of person.

This is true in virtually every type of writing. It’s true in business writing (sales letters, website copy, news releases, blog posts and plenty more) and in creative writing (manuscripts, screenplays, treatments, outlines, query letters and plenty more).

Yes, it's a rather generic audience shot. It's not always easy coming up with images for a writing blog, you know. At least it's more exciting than the "hyphen" image from the last post, right?

Yes, it's a rather generic audience shot. It's not always easy coming up with images for a writing blog, you know. At least it's more exciting than the "hyphen" image from the last post, right?

It’s even true in personal writing (emails, thank-you letters, love letters and–you guessed it–plenty more).

If you’re writing for an audience more likely to be compelled (to action, to understanding, or whatever you’re going for) by a warm, lighthearted tone, don’t write in a cold, clinical style.

If you’re writing to a CEO you know has little time on her hands, don’t waste time with a cutesy introduction–get to the point.

Want to sell something to people who are given to purchase luxury items? Make sure the tone of prestige and class informs everything in your sales copy. Targeting buyers on the other end of the spectrum? Focus on the themes of value and high return on investment throughout.

Remember, it’s up to you to orient your writing to the reader’s needs–not the other way around. People don’t have the time or the patience to jump through those hoops; they’ll move on to something that grabs their interest without any extra effort. Be that writer, and reap the benefits.

Check back here at the We Write For You blog (wewriteforyou.com) for more Best Writing Tip Ever installments.

Hyphens still have many grammatically-critical uses: for example, you just read one

May 21, 2009  |  Posted in: General Writing  |  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,   |  
Don't leave me! You need me! Really!

Don't leave me! You need me! Really!

Many of our friends and associates readily admit they are baffled by hyphens. Others, including those who consider themselves virtually “perfect” writers, contend hyphens are going out of style.

Don’t believe the hype. While it’s true that some terms can be written “correctly” with or without a hyphen – email/e-mail, for example – hyphens are absolutely necessary in many instances.*

Everyone agrees hyphens are needed to split a word at end of a line of copy (still seen in newspapers, magazines and books). Hyphens also are integral to writing the numbers twenty-one through ninety-nine.

But another critical use for hyphens is joining two words that act as an adjective to describe a noun, also known as a single compound modifier.

Consider a real estate advertisement that pitches “five acre lots.” This agent probably is not selling five separate one-acre lots, but that’s what she wrote. If she’s selling lots that span five acres each, she needs to write “five-acre lots.”

Regarding compound nouns, style keeps changing, so it’s a good idea to subscribe to a regularly-updated style guide (you can do so online) to keep up.

For example: a few years ago, correct style dictated that “fund raising” was two words. Some people also have written it as “fund-raising.” But current AP style is to write it as one word, “fundraising.”

See how much difference a hyphen makes? This British newspaper meant to communicate a "new risk-free pill," but the missing hyphen (and unfortunate line break) communicates what amounts to a terrifying "new risk": free pill!

See how much difference a hyphen makes? This British newspaper meant to communicate a "new risk-free pill," but the missing hyphen (and unfortunate line break) communicates what amounts to a terrifying "new risk": free pill!

Hyphenated words can make your writing more colorful and can more accurately express an idea in just a few words. There is room for even “perfect writers” to improve if they can get beyond a little “hyphen-hate.”

To learn more on when to use hyphens, there are some good online sources here and here. And remember: your writing is your image.

(* To be clear, current style for “email” is, as in this sentence, to not use a hyphen. You’re not technically incorrect if you still write “e-mail,” but it’s best to get accustomed to the most up-to-date style.)

Don’t get held back in Old School

May 18, 2009  |  Posted in: General Writing, Old School  |  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,   |  

We have a buddy we’ll call Old School Dave. (Yes, names have been changed to protect the guilty.) He’s a great writer, but it’s been a Herculean effort trying to get him to adopt even the simplest technological advances.

For Dave, the electric typewriter had too many bells and whistles. If he could do so profitably, he’d probably write with a quill.

Good for propping up your monitor... and not much else.

Good for propping up your monitor... and not much else.

So leave it to Dave: the other day he asks to borrow our Roget’s Thesaurus. For anyone unfamiliar with the book, it’s the world’s most-widely used compendium of synonyms and antonyms.

It’s also, in the 21st century, largely obsolete. If you have a dedicated connection to the internet, as even Dave has, just go to Thesaurus.com, where you can easily input a term and get synonyms and antonyms in seconds.

Also, if you just need a couple of quick options and you’re working in Microsoft Word, just highlight the word and right-click: the software provides several synonyms (for most common words), and if none of those work, you can open Word’s internal thesaurus from there.

Several other word processing applications also have internal thesauruses. And there are other good online thesauruses at Merriam-Webster and The Free Dictionary, among others.

As for the big Roget book, we haven’t tossed it in the recycling bin yet. It’s still quite handy–mostly for squashing bugs.

Should my donor-driven organization use an annual report as its sole PR instrument?

May 17, 2009  |  Posted in: Fundraising, Nonprofits, Public Relations  |  Tags: , , , , , , ,   |  

You represent an organization that depends on private fundraising. Should you use your annual report as your primary public relations document instead of circulating a separate brochure? Does this approach save you money?

We say: no, and no. Here’s why:

PR brochures and annual reports serve two different functions. A brochure is disseminated widely to engage interest in your organization. An annual report “preaches to the choir,” telling stakeholders what has been done with their money over the past year.

Annual reports are too large and expensive to distribute widely and still be cost-effective. If an annual report is the document you leave behind on a fundraising visit, its length and its lack of donor-focus make it unlikely the recipient will give it a good read.

Both documents are important for your fundraising program. The PR brochure not only tells your reader who you are and why your existence matters, but also (with their support) what you can become. A good PR brochure is an introduction and a promise. An annual report speaks to what you have accomplished rather than what you will accomplish.

An annual report, by its very nature, is fixed on what has happened and can’t be changed. A public relations brochure can be responsive to a specific audience’s concerns and wishes.

Also, a brochure doesn’t have to be the exclusive means of attracting a donor’s interest: it can include information on how to obtain the most recent annual report. Those who then request the annual report have now self-identified as being interested in your organization and open to a follow-up contact.

An organization will increase its fundraising success by finding means to circulate both annual reports and PR brochures. (Watch for future posts on writing both types of publications here at wewriteforyou.com.)

Don’t let email habits infect your business writing

May 15, 2009  |  Posted in: General Writing  |  Tags: , , , , , , , , ,   |  

Email is a blessing. It provides rapid, written communication and gives us a way to send documents and photographs to destinations all over the world.

Many among us, however, treat our e-mail messages as very rough drafts that are never edited before being disseminated. I’ve known administrators of large organizations to send typo-ridden emails that require extra time for readers to decipher.

Writers who are careless with seemingly internal email communication forget that email messages are often forwarded to external recipients. When those emails are read by potential clients or other individuals with influence, the image of the email-writer’s organization can be seriously damaged.

More and more we are seeing the careless email-style of writing creep into other communications. I recently had the honor of judging nominations of persons whose volunteer work would be recognized with a prestigious award. Each written nomination was submitted on behalf of the nominee by someone else.

Unfortunately, some of these nominations were written entirely in lowercase (as often seen in emails); one even lacked periods to delineate sentences, and several had typographical errors and misspellings.

My dilemma, as a judge, was how much (or even whether) to let the nominator’s lack of care as a writer cause me to question the contributions of the nominee. I felt sorry for the good nominees whose opportunity to receive the award was imperiled by the very person who wanted them to win.

Welcome to the WeWriteForYou.com blog

May 14, 2009  |  Posted in: Competitive Writing, General Writing, Public Relations  |  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,   |  

Hi. Welcome to the first post on the WeWriteForYou.com blog!

This blog’s purpose is to share our decades of experience with you. At We Write For You, we believe good writing is critical to everyone’s personal and professional success. We also believe that clear communication helps bring the world together.

What can you expect from this blog? We’ll discuss all sorts of communication, particularly related to the written word. We’ll talk about how people’s means to communicate is changing rapidly in the 21st century.

We’ll talk about specific types of business and personal writing, such as tips for writing resumes and cover letters, press releases, website content, search engine optimized (SEO) copy, blogs, annual reports and other subjects.

Because our director, Barbara Gershman, is an expert in grants, we’ll also provide tips for people interested in how to create and format grant proposals,  requests for proposals and so on.

Don’t be surprised if we occasionally branch out into other areas such as creative writing and anything else related to creating and communicating. And please feel free to contact us with questions you’d like answered here and ideas for future posts. We look forward to hearing from you!


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