The chief purpose in communication is to be read. Whether it\u2019s emails, texts, tweets, blog posts, letters, memos, or proposals\u2014we want people to read what we\u2019ve written. Good writing is clear, readable, and audience appropriate. It attracts the reader to the message. On several occasions, I have read a book review in the Wall Street Journal and within the hour left my house and bought the book\u2014Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss was one of them. That\u2019s effective book review writing.<\/p>\n
Every word you use or misuse sends a powerful message about you and your business. And it\u2019s a perception that cannot be easily deleted if you don\u2019t take time to proofread your copy, fact check your statistics, or use concise language. This includes our tweets and blog posts. If we become so consumed with the volume of our information on Twitter and forget that the language in our tweets sends the first impression of us, we need to slow down. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an example from IABC\u2019s Communication World\u2019s Cringe Collection, and it\u2019s an actual global company\u2019s advertorial: “Given the limitations on current storage management technology imposed by heterogeneous storage infrastructure, achieving nominal capacity allocation and utilization efficiency is nothing short of a black art.”
\nWhat do you think that nugget of incomprehensible writing cost the company? Perhaps more damaging than a loss to its bottom line is the damage to a company\u2019s reputation when poor writing is published. A company\u2019s significant investment in professional graphic design, marketing, printing, and a Web presence is doomed when the words can\u2019t be read and understood. <\/p>\n
Whether you\u2019re composing a media release, a blog post, an email to a prospective client, or a tweet, the following five easy steps will help you write clear, effective communication: <\/p>\n
1. Use language tools to help you write strong copy. Need a good word? Check out www.thesaurus.com and www.dictionary.com. Buy Strunk and White\u2019s The Elements of Style and reacquaint yourself with the elementary rules of usage. For a refresher on possessives and apostrophes, read Eats, Shoots & Leaves.<\/p>\n
2. Write sentences in simple subject-verb-object format. If you want consumers and clients to read your marketing communications, \u201cwrite to express, not to impress\u201d (Bob Bly).<\/p>\n
3. Increase your writing fluency by increasing your reading. An excellent place to start is the daily reading of The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n
4. Keep your average sentence length under 20 words when possible. <\/p>\n
5. Proofread your writing, and then ask a colleague to proofread it too\u2014especially with Web-related copy and information that is posted on the public timeline. For instance, commenting on the Nobel Peace prize and accidentally writing Nobel Piece prize may attract attention you don\u2019t want. <\/p>\n
In today\u2019s business world, mastering the power of language is a must for success, and it\u2019s one of the most cost-effective changes you can make to gain a marketing edge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The chief purpose in communication is to be read. Whether it\u2019s emails, texts, tweets, blog posts, letters, memos, or proposals\u2014we want people to read what we\u2019ve written. Good writing is clear, readable, and audience appropriate. It attracts the reader to the message. On several occasions, I have read a book review in the Wall Street … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[92,93,91],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annedgallaher","tag-marketing-edge","tag-power-of-language","tag-write-to-be-read"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions\/160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}