SMART WRITING AT WORK
Viewing entries tagged
editing
In this connection economy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKXZgTzEyWY), nothing is more important than…connecting. So, when we write, we need our writing, above all, to connect with the reader. Here’s my “how to” for making sure your writing connects with your readers.
I admit it. I’m a tad S-L-O-W sometimes. It has taken me over 35 years to figure out the very simple answer to a question I get a lot: What’s so different about the way you teach writing?
The college students in my writing classes are, by now, digital natives. Writing, for them, is something done on a phone…or maybe a tablet/laptop. These students clearly don’t know the standard comma rules. The evidence shows that they know what a comma is, and they obviously see them in some of the more officiated writing online. We know they know what a comma is because they usually sprinkle them, sparingly, through the college essays they’re required to write. But they were not taught the standard comma rules, as I was in the second half of the 20th century, and they don’t care. Should they? Should we?
If you learn to punch up your punctuation, proofreading, and paragraphs; spit-shine your sentences; and touch up your typing, you may feel better about your writing, but until you go up in your helicopter and get a panoramic view of what writing really is, your writing may not become much more efficient or effective….
Lots of people think they know all they need to know about writing. But do they really know how to KISS? ....
I claim that workplace writing is 90% about content and 10% about presentation, in the same way a cargo ship is 90% about the cargo and only 10% about the ship. Of course, if the ship itself (the 10%) sinks, the 90%—that valuable content—is lost. Our conversations, by the way, are also 90% about content.
You should totally be checking your documents for adequate content before you worry too much about the particulars of presentation. So, what criteria/standard should you use to evaluate the adequacy of content in any workplace document?
There is just SO much information/advice out there on writing, by many experts, who mean well and have their own approaches to teaching others to write well, approaches they swear by, approaches backed by rhetorical theory or possibly the latest brain research from neuroscientists.
However, I find myself on an island, all alone, with an idea about writing and teaching writing that's different, perhaps idiosyncratic, and pretty much iconoclastic. Not everything I have to say about writing is new and out of the blue, but my whole approach is certainly unlike the others.
Students tell me they love it. Those in the workplace I've trained over 30+ years tell me they love it. But academics are skeptical and tend to tune me out. So what makes me an expert in writing and teaching writing?
Most people think of writing as just the sentences, the grammar, punctuation, spelling. But it's way bigger than that.
We judge writing the way you'd judge someone at a speed dating event...holistically...by the CONTENT that's immediately apparent, by the FLOW of information, by the APPEARANCE, and by the overall STYLE....
First impressions matter! When you read any kind of workplace writing, print or on-screen, you should start judging it holistically simply by considering your "level of interest" and your "level of effort"...
