Improve Your Writing Skills By Absorbing The Language

Greetings yet again. In case you didn’t know, I’m from Maine. It’s been a fine and lovely place to live for reasons that have nothing to do with this newsletter (it’s also a bit of a hassle because by far most of my training business is outside Maine). For our purposes here, it’s the home of Stephen King, who’s given some thought to what it takes to write well.

One of his key points goes something like this, paraphrasing from memory: “To be a good writer, you have to write a lot and you have to read a lot.”

That says it all. Writing is not a finite body of knowledge that you can learn from a “sage on the stage” who passes out nuggets of grammar and organizational expertise. Work at it, submit what you write to critical self-editing -- editing by others is even better -- and read, read, read. Consuming everything from newspaper journalism to novels to biographies to the spare word usage in good poetry is sure to sharpen your writing skills, if only by osmosis.

(I’d rather not discuss what “texting” is doing to the younger generation’s grasp of our native tongue, but I’m sure it concerns most of us.)

King also said this, displaying the link between brevity and clarity: “The adverb is not your friend.” In other words, why “walk slowly” when you can “amble” or “stroll” or “saunter?” Why “run fast” when you can “dart,” “dash,“ “sprint,” “scurry” or even “flit?” Simply put, the heart and soul of the language is the active verb.

Is Anyone Out There In The Email Ether, Fer Cryin’ Out Loud?

Email, for all its blessings, can also be a source of annoyance and frustration. While hosting a writing seminar last month for U.S. Dept. of Energy mid-level managers chosen for senior executive training, I saw unmistakable evidence that email has yet to evolve, at least in parts of that bureaucracy, as an efficient form of business communications. Too often, the byproducts are confusion, impatience and resentment.

Two things struck me. First, some people fail to see how email is a vast improvement over telephone voice mail when it comes to getting a timely response after you hit the “send” button. To explain: How many times have you left a voice mail and waited around for someone to get back to you? Have you been tempted to leave another message to convey the importance of what you want? If you have, you know that waiting time can be an awkward and anxiety-inducing interlude.

Now switch over to email. If I ask you for some information, and you can’t get to it right away, all you have to do is hit “reply” and say something to the effect of, “Got it. I’m swamped now, but I’ll get back to you by close of business tomorrow.” So without having to pick up the phone, you tap out a few words and the sender is satisfied, knowing that the original email got through. Fail to send back that simple acknowledgement, and the irritation mounts.

Second, email has a serious limitation. Your notion of the recipients’ immediate reaction is nonexistent when you can’t see their expressions and other cues, as you would in a face-to-face encounter or tone of voice over the phone. Lacking those signs, you may not be cautious about injecting too much emotion (anger) or levity (sarcasm about a colleague) into your message. And remember: Email can be forwarded to addresses unknown to you, and it can be stored in someone’s file for a long, long time.

So, we decided at the Energy Dept. seminar, when in doubt get up out of your chair and make it an in-person conversation. Don’t let high-tech electronic communications take the place of the direct give-and-take that has sustained the workaday world for many years.

A Perhaps Too Timely Addition To The Language Hall Of Shame

-- Drill down: This one’s been popping up to signify you’re about to go deep into a problem and find the cause beneath layers of…what? The implication, I take it, is that the driller will peel away all those layers. Another possibility -- likely often the case with the Hall of Shame -- is that “work hard” or “address the problem” just don’t suffice when you can unthinkingly ape someone else’s clever turn of phrase…over and over and over and over.

Enjoy your summer.

Dave

Rebirth of a Blog

Back and forth I’ve gone on all this “social media” business, and I’m a long way from making up my mind. Somehow the notion of “tweeting” hasn’t quite penetrated my thinking when it comes to serious and productive marketing. But I am reintroducing my blog. Why I let it slip I don’t know, but I do recall that it made for relaxed and stimulating conversation. Please join me at http://www.businesscommunications.wordpress.com, and react by sounding off on anything touching on business communications, presentation skills and writing skills, and all their promise and pitfalls. I'll continue to share what I know about the news media and how you can gain from press encounters, as well as writing and public speaking for success.