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Five Writing Tips to Help You Write Like a Pro

Guest post by: Jim Schakenbach

Article Overview: Does the thought of having to write an email, news release, blog entry, or other document fill you with dread? This article offers five easy writing tips that will help you write with confidence, regardless of your job, title, or function.

Five Writing Tips to Help You Write Like a Pro

Not everyone is comfortable writing. Email, blogs, and other digital media have forced many non-writers into the unenviable position of having to crank out prose on a regular basis. If you'd rather have a root canal than face a blank text screen, here are some tips that will have you writing like a pro in no time: 1. Short sentences are your friend.

Anyone can string together a lengthy, unclear, and ineffective sentence. Many people are afraid that short sentences make them look stupid. But the more you struggle to add phrases, lengthen a sentence, and try to look smart, the worse it gets. Instead, relax and write as simply as possible. Once you embrace brevity, it is remarkable how much clearer you can write.

2. Banish the exclamation point.

Many people mistake the use of an exclamation point as a way to express the importance of something. In reality, it just makes you sound shrill. Avoid it. Exclamation points - especially in business documents - look amateurish, over-excited, and irritating.

3. Use quotation marks correctly.

Quotation marks are used by many for emphasis or to identify a statement or phrase, such as a tagline or slogan in business. Both are wrong. Quotation marks are for identifying the exact words spoken by someone; for example: "This year's fourth quarter sales figures are significantly better than last year's," stated Acme Corporation's vice president of corporate sales. It's simple - if the specific words did not come from a person's mouth (or keyboard), do not stick them between quotation marks.

4. Stop random capitalization.

Nothing is more distracting or confusing than random capitalization - the irrational sprinkling of capital letters throughout an article, white paper, sales report, or news release. The only time initial capital letters should be employed is to abbreviate a longer name or phrase or to identify proper nouns such as the name of a person, place or thing (John, Texas, General Electric, Congress) or someone's title (Senator Mary Smith). Do not capitalize a job function (vice president of corporate sales, technical manager, senior engineer) unless it precedes a person's name as their specific title and do not capitalize generic products. An electronics company might manufacture circuit boards, but not Circuit Boards.

5. Avoid obfuscation.

Huh? I'll bet some of you Googled for a definition, right? My point exactly. Stop needlessly torturing the English language. If you're reaching for a twenty-five cent word when a five-cent word will do just fine, you're unnecessarily complicating things (which, of course, is the definition of obfuscation). Even worse, you're probably just confusing your audience. Is that what you really want to do?

I'll let you in on one final little secret to good writing. If you haven't noticed it already, all five points above have one thing in common: simplicity. Good writing is simple - that's what makes it both hard and easy at the same time. If you strive to simplify your writing, you'll be well on your way to becoming a better writer.

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Article Tags: clearer writing, good writing, sales, slogan, tagline, writing clearly, writing tips



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Business Tips - How about: Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively? Tips on how to deal with difficult customers? Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers? The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else. Chris
Re: Quote of the Day - "Have the courage to follow your heart an - [quote="GT Bulmer":102twzd2]Hi, Evan: I haven't yet managed to capitalize on the longings of my heart as successfully as Jobs did[/quote:102twzd2] Hi GT - I woke up thinking about this post and I have a challenge for you for May if you're up to it. Here it is: Write the blog post / article you were born to write. Write something that you can pour your heart and all your passion into. Write something where you can change the life of the person reading it. Write something where if you look back in 10 years you'll be really proud of what you created. Can you do that? I'd love to read it (and I bet a lot of others will too!)
Re: What Do You Outsource Mostly? - Writing, Article Spinning, Backlinking.
Re: Will 2009 be the year you write your book? - Writing a book takes time but its sure rewarding! Thanks for the info.
Can a biz website help? - Tara, A website is just another vechicle to deliver your message and keep in touch with your customers. How? well for one your email address will have your web address in it - people judge your professionalism at that level too. Some uses my clients have found beneficial when they thought it wouldn't: 1. Disseminating repetitive information to clients e.g. portfolios, FAQs. 2. Send out newsletters that link back to your webpage (costs practically nothing via email) 3. Writing articles for your industry. These articles will do two things: 1) establish your expert status. 2) Search Engine Optimize your site. 4. Run cheaper ads in print publications by directing them to your Sales message on to a page on your site. 5. Write a special report on "Logo branding" for business owners to download. You capture their email info as you have to email it to them or their mailing address and send them the report. After they have read it they will still be inclined to use your service even if you divulge every step it takes to create a logo brand. The psychology is that they fear they may still mess up and you won't. I did this with my old Web design business as a test (gave them step by step what they needed to do to setup a website) and I still got their business. I installed Trust in them that I could do it best. Those are the major ones.


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