91视频

While good writing is valued, it鈥檚 also in short supply. Many of us weren鈥檛 educated to be strong writers. It can be time-consuming to write something great. And it鈥檚 always easier to recycle something from the past.

In helping clients turn out more effective proposals, letters and marketing copy, here are the most common problems I encounter:

鈥� Pointless, rambling sentences that fill space but don鈥檛 actually say anything.

鈥� Lack of relevant details that illustrate you can do the work

鈥� A reliance on jargon and complex terminology.

鈥� Clich茅s such as 鈥淎-team,鈥� 鈥渟tate-of-the-art,鈥� 鈥渉igh quality,鈥� 鈥渃ollaborative鈥� and 鈥渂est practices鈥� that are so overused that they鈥檙e meaningless.

鈥� Boilerplate language that either doesn鈥檛 fit the format or doesn鈥檛 speak to the audience.
There are simple strategies that can help you write better and engage your readers.

Know your audience
Before you begin, take out a piece of paper and jot down everything you know about your intended audience. What are their concerns? What is their level of education? How formal are they? How much do they need to know about your business or industry?

Understanding your audience is the first step in creating the right mindset for writing. Determine what the audience cares about most. Ask yourself why the audience should care about what you are saying.

Content comes first
You need to know what you鈥檙e going to say before you start writing. List your top two or three selling points first. Find supporting evidence and then sketch out an outline that has a beginning, middle and end.
Journalists are trained to state the most relevant information first. Traditional newspaper leads will answer the basics 鈥� who, what, when, where, why and how 鈥� in the first few sentences of a story. For example, when reviewing a client鈥檚 proposal, I follow a simple process of carefully reading the RFP to learn what鈥檚 most important to cover. Then I state the top three selling points in the very beginning of the letter. This sets the stage for greater elaboration later in the proposal. Don鈥檛 鈥渂ury the lead鈥� by mentioning key information for the first time on page 45.

Be specific and pointed

On Your Feet is a consulting group of former actors who use improvisation and storytelling to help business professionals communicate more colorfully. When coaching people to become better storytellers, they direct them using only two terms: 鈥渃olor,鈥� which means add more detail to the story, and 鈥渁dvance,鈥� which means move the story along. Good writing strikes a balance between 鈥渃olor鈥� to provide information and 鈥渁dvance鈥� to keep it short and to the point. Start with lots of detail and then cut it down to the most essential. Use case studies and examples to illustrate a challenge you encountered, what you did to resolve it, and the result.

People love stories, so share them whenever you can. Stories do a better job of selling by 鈥渟howing鈥� your capabilities instead of 鈥渢elling鈥� how great you are.

While detail is good, too much is, well, too much. Somewhere in high school, we learned to fill the page with words without really saying anything. That鈥檚 because we didn鈥檛 have much to say. We wanted to sound intelligent by using long sentences and big words. Effective writing is more like natural conversation. It鈥檚 direct and personable. Many writers believe that linking complex thoughts together in a chain of clauses creates an impression of higher intelligence and an understanding of larger concepts and, subsequently, the belief that they will bring greater comprehension and insights to the project. That was tough to wade through, huh? Shorter sentences are easier to understand than longer ones.

Dress for the occasion
It鈥檚 not just what you say, but how you say it. The tone and formality of your writing should reflect your relationship with your audience and your purpose. A 20-page Statement of Qualifications will be more conservative and less lively than copy for a Web site, for instance. Refer back to your notes about your audience and the key points that resonate most with them. Visualize the audience in front of you. Read your draft aloud to get a feel for how others may read it. Replace imprecise words. Vary sentence construction and punctuation. Use active verbs and simple language. Explain complex or foreign terms. Proofread your copy for grammar and spelling. Ideally, your writing should be reviewed by someone most like your intended audience.

Above all, write for clarity and connection with your audience. Your high school English teacher wasn鈥檛 fooled by poor attempts at sounding important. Why repeat those painful lessons?

Leo MacLeod is a strategic marketing and new business consultant. He writes a blog at www.mainspringmarketing.com/blog. Contact him at [email protected].