How to Edit for Structure, Flow and Readability You’ve chopped through writer’s block; you now have your first draft ready. Great. It’s time to bring out the ruthless editor. Don’t assume what you’ve written is final just because it appears on the screen. Take a critical look at issues such as excessive wordiness, passive verb style, repetitive sentence structures, dense paragraphs and improper grammar/spelling. Take this opportunity to reorganize ideas, sentences and paragraphs to improve flow and readability. Here are some parameters of powerful writing to check against your … [Read more...]
Chopping Through Writer’s Block
February 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Writer’s block usually occurs for one simple reason – people are not ready to write. Many think if they clear their schedule, get a coffee and sit down at the computer, this will grant them magical powers of inspiration. Instead, frustration is often the result. The two biggest enemies of effective business writing are (i) procrastination and (ii) impulsiveness. Procrastination involves writers spending long hours thinking about something they should be composing. To avoid getting started or perhaps from the worry that what they first write must be instantly correct, they stall and move on … [Read more...]
How Do You E-Mail?
January 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I sometimes come across e-mail messages that seem discourteous. I often know the people sending these missives – they don’t strike me as impolite. Yet their e-mails send a certain vibe: “I communicate like a robot, not a human.” There is no greeting, such as “Hi, Craig,” or salutation, like “Regards” or, to get crazy, “Thank you.” Instead, the message is abrupt, even clipped. I think the “disembodied” nature of the e-mail medium is partly to blame (I won’t even address texting or twitter here; that is for another time). You are not communicating directly with a person, but a screen. E-mail … [Read more...]
