Putting Business Communications On A Diet, and Media Training That Calls On Your Writing Skills

Putting Your Business Communications On A Diet

"Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them." ~John Ruskin, 19-century British critic

  I recall many years ago returning to the Kansas City Star newsroom after covering a bizarre, ritualistic cattle-slaying incident in northwest rural Missouri. I had a notebook full of great quotes from the DA and many others, and a photo of one very nervous principal dealing with nasty rumors flying around his high school.

  My editor was holding front-page space for the story, and he wanted it now if not sooner. It was a busy news day, so he told me to keep it to a modest 10 inches. "But," I protested, "I don't have time to keep it short."

  "Too bad," he said with a shrug and turned away without a backward glance.

  Somehow I distilled a tight story that left no questions unanswered from all those notes, but it was a struggle. It would have been much less stressful to let it run and use up all the juicy quotes, adding detail about the small town, its inhabitants and the way those cows had been eviscerated. And therein lies a lesson central to the business communications training I offer to government agencies, nonprofits and private companies: It's much easier, but not better, to let it roll.

  As I've noted before, the writing challenge helps us think. To cite that marvelous quote from author Joan Didion: "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means." Right. Now if that thinking is reader-focused, as it must be, the result is a solid connection between brevity and clarity.

  To take it a step further: Putting the readers foremost shows that you respect them and understand that they're successful enough to be busy at what they do. Crucial among their needs is the desire to cut through all the clutter that awaits them every time they check their email. So keep it short. Write tight. Get their attention with your central point, support it in a few paragraphs (no more than three to five sentences per graf) or bullet points, and get out.

  When I help professionals sharpen their communication skills, they learn to read each others' work critically via peer review and trim the fat that so often blurs the message or annoys the reader. That's you out there on the written page or the email. If your language is pompous, long-winded and full of insidey jargon, that's you in the reader's eye.

  Remember: Write to edify, not impress.

 Self-Promotion Doesn't Have To Come At A Price

"Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once." ~Cyril Connolly, British literary critic and writer

  With Connolly's observation, I'm sticking to the clarity theme that I mentioned in the preceding article. What I want to add is how you can put everyday English to use to benefit your nonprofit, agency or company -- getting your message out there publicly without spending a dime on a fancy PR agency or space in a local newspaper or magazine.

  Take a look at your daily or weekly newspapers. Somewhere you'll find a section (perhaps several spots) full of announcements about businesses and nonprofits. That's where you can take advantage of a newspaper's need to fill "white space" or the "news hole" -- what's left after the ads are placed. With the Internet and cable TV making national and international news so instantly accessible (and often way too noisy), local editors know their newspapers' very survival depends on hometown news.

  You'll see brief stories about promotions or awards won or conferences attended, often accompanied by little "thumbnail" photos. When I travel to do training -- media training and presentation skills with the new CEO of the VA hospital in Detroit, or writing skills seminars for Navy SEALs in Virginia -- I send a brief announcement to my local daily. Then, for weeks afterward, friends and business acquaintances ask me about what they read, and I've gotten free publicity.

  Try sending one in yourself. Model the writing on what you see in the paper, throw in a pithy quote from your CEO or someone like that, and keep your press release brief, no more than one page. Editors are way too busy to wade through ponderous writing. Don't forget to send a photo. And smile.