Posts Tagged ‘writing tip’

If you think using big words will impress, you are wrong.

Daniel Oppenheimer’s 2006 study “Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly,” (which won the Ig Nobel Prize) concludes that people who use complicated language when simple words will do tend to be viewed as less intelligent than those who use a more basic vocabulary.

This doesn’t mean you should forget all those big words you know. “I think it’s important to point out that this study is not about problems with using long words, it’s about problems with using long words needlessly,” Oppenheimer explains. “If the best way to say something involves using a complex word, then by all means do so. But if there are several equally valid ways of expressing your ideas, you should go with the simpler one.”

Here is an example of two sentences used in the study. Readers were asked to rate the intelligence of each writer.

“The primary academic goal I have set for myself is to use my potential to the fullest.”

“The principal educational aspiration I have established for myself is to utilize my capabilities to the fullest.”

The results: When people read simpler language, they actually rate the author’s intelligence higher than they do those who write using large words and a more complex sentence structure. Oppenheimer suspects people link intelligence with simpler language because we like to read things that are easy to understand.

So if we see others who use simple language as more intelligent, why do so many feel they are demonstrating their own intelligence by using big words?

Sometimes our participants ask for a simple, concrete way to measure the readability of their writing. The Fog Index, below, is one such measurement tool. It was developed by Robert Gunning in the 1950s. Here’s how it works:

Find the average number of words per sentence. Use a sample of at least 100 words. Divide the total number of words by the number of sentences. This gives you the average sentence length.

Count the number of words of three syllables or more per 100 words. Don’t count

• Words that are capitalized
• Compound words made by combining short easy words, like bookkeeper
• Verbs that are made into three syllables by adding ed or es, like created or trespasses

Add the two figures above and multiply by 0.4. This will give you the Fog Index. It corresponds roughly with the years of schooling a person must have to read a passage with ease and understanding.

Please keep in mind that readability is about more than getting an appropriate score on your Fog Index. It also depends on

• knowing your reader’s prior knowledge and needs,
• creating a bond by choosing an appropriate tone, and
• reviewing what you write and seeing it from the reader’s point of view.

Gunning himself writes,

“You can’t make rules about writing, because rules are a substitute for thought – and you can’t write without thinking. Therefore, don’t try to write by formula alone….The way to write clearly is to apply principles, not rules, of clear statement.

At a recent Effective Reading course I learned techniques to improve my reading speed, comprehension and retention.

Effective readers use the following strategies:

• First scan the document, looking for key words that interest you. For example, we can’t resist anything with the words ‘writing,’ ‘email,’ or ‘communication’ in the title.
• If something passes the scan test, it merits a quick skim. Check the front material, including author, title and table of contents. Then quickly flip through the document to get a general idea of its structure, purpose and scope.
• For a more careful reading, you need to find the structure. Look for the thesis statement, or bottom line. Review the headings and sub-headings. Look for an executive summary. Review the first and last paragraphs in each section. Decide which parts you want to deep read.

It quickly became clear to us that readers can only use these strategies on clearly structured, well-written documents. Here are some writing strategies that will help your reader read effectively:

1. Put your bottom line up front.
2. Write an executive summary that satisfies your reader’s need to know the gist and key facts of your document. In a very short document, your executive summary is the first paragraph.
3. Make your title meaningful.
4. If your document is long, provide a table of contents that tells a story.
5. Use industrial or departmental conventions – your readers expect them.
6. Use information-rich headings and sub-headings throughout.
7. Ensure each paragraph or section starts with a topic sentence.
8. Read your body text aloud to ensure your sentences are clear, precise and logical.

Thanks to the Internet and email, customers can reach you from all over the world. If you write emails to your global customers in English, it’s a good idea to avoid using idioms – words or phrases whose meanings are not understood from the individual words themselves.
For instance we understand what “spread ourselves too thin” means, but someone not familiar with this expression, or idiom, might be confused by it. Other examples of idioms include:

24/7
give the green light
a win-win
on the go
across the board
rain check
bend over backwards
right up our alley
brand new
think outside the box
fall through the cracks
touch base

Instead of using idioms, substitute a more literal expression.

For instance, instead of writing or saying, “I agree the session was Mickey Mouse,” write “I agree the session was poorly run.”

Responding to complaints is one of the most challenging writing tasks; it’s difficult to be cool, rational and positive when faced with a customer who might be furious and insulting.

It helps to remember that when customers take the time to complain, they’re doing you a huge favour. First, they help you identify services or procedures needing improvement. Second, by voicing their problem, they give you a chance to fix it. And this is the real opportunity: solving your customer’s problems is a great way to develop and strengthen your relationship with them.

Here are a few tips to help you respond positively to your customers:

• Approach the letter or email by putting yourself in the customer’s shoes. Imagine how he or she perceives the problem. Remember: it’s not personal.
• Acknowledge the problem. Admit when the customer is right. Don’t try to cover up or create an alibi.
• Avoid providing all the details of an error—focus on how the error was corrected.
• Say you’re sorry, but don’t overdo it.
• Avoid using negative trigger words like ‘complaint’ and ‘error.’
• Let your anger cool before you start writing.

If well written, these letters can make the difference between a customer who is your greatest advocate and one who’s lukewarm and open to competitive offers.

Most of us would agree that trying to manage conflict through email can be disastrous. Instead of helping to solve problems, email can cause disputes to escalate.

According to a study by Raymond Friedman and Steven Curral, some of the benefits of email are responsible for its tendency to escalate conflict.

• Email is asynchronous, which means you can read and reply to messages at your convenience. But reading in isolation, without the corrective feedback and clarification we’d get in a telephone or face-to-face exchange, means misunderstandings can easily arise. When this happens, the latter parts of a message are read in the context of these misunderstandings, and conflict is created.
• Email is a great equalizer—everyone is accessible. Email exchanges depend less on the awareness of status and social ties than on pure logic and ideas. Also, because we write email in isolation, it’s an asocial activity. This makes it easy to forget the humanness of our recipient. Consequently, email style tends to be more serious and less friendly, more aggressive and less polite.
• Email is reviewable and revisable. We can thoughtfully review emails we receive and revise ones we send. But knowing a writer has thought through a message we perceive as negative can make a problem seem bigger. And when we carefully craft our response, we tend to have greater psychological investment in our arguments and become more entrenched in our positions.

When conflict arises, it’s far better to talk things out on the phone or face-to-face. If this is impossible due to space or time restraints here are some reminders:

• Be aware that some perceived insults are unintended. The other party may be acting without feedback or social cues, and with too much time to ruminate.
• Watch for enhanced aggressiveness and check your own responses.
• Remember that your responses can also be interpreted as being more aggressive than intended – reread before sending and anticipate your reader’s reaction.
• Remind yourself of your relationship with the other party. Include in your message reminders of this relationship.
• Avoid being hyper-rational. Remember that differences are resolved using emotion and relationships – not just logic.

Thanks to Rita Vine who sent us this article. Read the original study.

Grammar and spell checkers are handy to have. Just make sure you remember who’s in charge—they are notorious for giving terrible advice. The best way to use them is to have enough grammar knowledge to know when to override them.

Here are two examples of grammar checker advice we’ve been given that will make you cringe:

Before: Your premium is calculated by averaging your results for the last two years and blending these results with the results of the carrier’s pool.
Grammar checker’s suggested rewrite: Averaging your results for the last two years and blending these results with the results of the carrier’s pool calculate your premium.

Before: The future application of the late payment penalty policy should be considered by the Board in the Acme Gas rates application.
Grammar checker’s suggested rewrite: Board in the Acme Gas rates application should consider the future application of the late payment penalty policy.

Here’s the best grammar advice of all and the rule of thumb we follow here at Bruner Business Communication: If in doubt, rewrite. If you suspect that your sentence might be ungrammatical, it probably is. So if a sentence starts to get away from you, simplify it. It’s far better to be simple and correct than complex and ungrammatical.

No matter how good you are at what you do, documents with grammar mistakes will erode your corporate and personal credibility.

Proofreading is challenging for a couple of reasons. First, the mind tends to substitute correct words, “seeing” what was intended or what should be there instead of what is actually there. This tendency accounts for errors such as “She’s form Britain.”

Second, most of us tend to read far too quickly to spot all errors on a line of text. When we read at a normal pace, we fixate on a line of text in three or four places. We can only really see about six characters with each fixation, and everything else is picked up with our peripheral vision, which gets less and less accurate the further it is from the centre.

Here are seven strategies from our one-day Grammar and Proofreading course that will help you improve accuracy:

1. Cultivate a healthy sense of doubt. If there are errors you typically make, always double check for those. In general, it’s a good idea to doubt every word to help you catch every mistake.
2. Proofread very slowly. Remember you can only really see one word at a time, so patiently fix your eyes on every word on the line – twice on the longer words. Remember to really look at the word and resist sliding over it.
3. Proofread aloud. This helps because it both forces you to slow down and lets you hear what you’re reading so you can spot missing or repeated words.
4. Use a spell checker and grammar checker as a first screening, but don’t depend on them!
5. Proofread with a buddy. It’s twice as difficult to proofread something you’ve written yourself.
6. Proofread important documents several times. Have a strategy for each proofread, and create a checklist of things to look for in every read.
7. Spend a half-hour each month reviewing grammar rules.

by Jody Bruner

Here’s a tip that will dramatically improve your writing, especially when you are writing to a reader you don’t know  or to a large number of unknown readers.  In these situations, the message is often hard to understand because we tend to assume too much prior knowledge on the reader’s part and there is no personal connection.

The tip is simple–conjure up an ideal reader and write to that person. The writing will flow more easily and you will be more aware of the assumptions you make about the reader’s prior knowledge. Your message will be more easily understood and you will make a personal connection.

The best kind of ideal reader is someone you know, but who is not an expert in your field. I have two ideal readers, for different situations. My first reader is my neighbour Erin. She is a busy mom with three small girls. She is bright and has no time for beating around the bush. I think of Erin when I write emails or short letters. Picturing her in my mind helps me get to the point and explain everything clearly and concisely.

My second ideal reader is my friend Selma. Selma is an academic. I know she has a deep curiosity about just about everything and a great deal of patience. She is willing to dig deep into a topic, however technical it is. Selma is very smart, with very specialized knowledge. I know I have to be careful about assuming too much prior knowledge. I need to explain things thoroughly. I think of Selma when I need to write something technical or complex.

When you are writing to many readers, even thousands, it’s important to remember that each reader is an individual. Conjure up the face of your ideal reader and you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to write and at how easy it is to strike a friendly, engaging tone.

Who is your ideal reader?

First of all, is there a meaningful difference between these words?

Assist means to give help or support, especially as a subordinate or supplement; aid: The clerk assisted the judge by looking up related precedents. Her breathing was assisted by a respirator. An assist is also a mechanical device providing aid.

Help is a synonym of assist without being associated with subordination or mechanical devices.

So, while they are mostly interchangeable, there is a small difference. In a strict sense, assistance implies a subordination of the assistant in a way that help does not.

Webster’s describes the difference in this way: “HELP carries a strong implication of advance toward an objective (every little bit helps)…. ASSIST distinctively imputes a secondary role to the assistant or a secondary character to the assistance (a deputy assists rather than aids his superior).”

I’m not a big fan of assist. In fact, it made our list of Ten Words We’d Like to See Less Of. People use assist in their business writing because they think it makes them sound professional. They believe assist shows more respect than help, that somehow help implies a degree of uselessness on the part of the person being helped.

But preferring assist to help out of deference to the reader is misguided and comes at too great a cost. Overall, the benefits of using help far outweigh the respectfulness of assist.

First of all, in 95% of business writing the subtle difference in meaning is lost. Okay I made that statistic up. Still, while assist points to the subordination of the assistant, using help is far from disrespectful.

Secondly, help is a more connective word, and if your purpose is to build or strengthen your relationship with your reader, help is the better, more conversational choice. Face to face you’re more likely to say, “Can I help you?” than “Can I assist you?” And I personally would much rather have your help than your assistance. Your helpfulness brings you closer to me and connects us on an human level. Assistance is more abstract and creates a distance between us.

Thirdly, the oldest words are always the best, and help is older than assist. Help comes from Old English, while assist is from Middle English via Old French and Latin.

Finally, the word assist often causes secondary problems when used by writers who adopt a formal style with the intention of sounding professional. Consider this sentence: “Easier access to productivity statistics would assist management in the monitoring of staff performance and the distribution of work.”

It’s turgid and bloated, full of noun phrases that weigh it down. It’s easy to lighten it by changing assist to help. With that tiny adjustment it becomes natural to turn the noun phrases (monitoring of staff performance, distribution of work) into verbs.

The sentence becomes ”Easier access to productivity statistics would help management monitor staff performance and distribute work.” Fewer words, more vigorous verbs and a more conversational tone. There’s no loss of meaning or respectfulness and it makes for a stronger sentence overall.

Please do your bit: Make the written world a warmer, livelier place by replacing assist with help whenever you can.