Editing as Quality Control (Or How to Avoid
Looking Like an Idiot)

Papa Hemingway was honest enough to acknowledge that he wouldn't have emerged as one of the 20th century's most distinctive and popular prose stylists without help. He had Maxwell Perkins. You have colleagues and bosses and even subordinates who can help you exert quality control on your writing. You also have yourself.

Remember: Just because you've typed the last word doesn't mean you're finished. Assume you've misspelled at least several words. Assume you've dropped words as your fingers flew over the keyboard. Assume you've fallen into the "sentence fragment" and "comma splice" habits. DON'T assume that spell-check is enough.

Here are some fine examples from notes written to school by parents in Charleston, W.Va.:

• "Please excuse Gloria from Jim today. She is administrating."
• "My son is under a doctor's care and should not take P.E. today. Please execute him."
• "Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was his father's fault."
• "Sally won't be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend her funeral."

Keep this in mind: That's YOU who signed the note or wrote the email or report. That's YOUR name on the poorly edited -- or unedited -- piece of writing. And that's a terrible impression of you and your business or agency or nonprofit.

Building a Bridge to the Press

If you've ever watched one of those Sunday morning shows where the late, lamented Tim Russert and his like question seasoned politicians and top Administration appointees and glib foreign leaders, you're familiar with the thrust and parry of the sparring. Having been a reporter in Washington (national security correspondent for Business Week magazine), I can tell you that the "non-answer answer" is about as frustrating as it gets -- particularly when we know that the public already finds the press obnoxious and pushy. But it's an occupational hazard and we have to live with it.

What those guests are doing is "bridging" from the import of the potentially embarrassing question to the "spin" that they want to leave in viewers' minds. Handled shrewdly, bridging gets them through the half-hour untouched and perhaps even looking sharp and self-confident.

They come in with a message. If they don't like the questions, they can deploy such bridging phrases as:

• "What's important to remember, however..."
• "That's a good point, but I think you'd be interested in knowing..."
• "Let me put that in perspective."
• "What that means is..."
• "Yes, but that's not a fair comparison. We do things differently because..."

Put Power Point In Its Place

Two things happen during a Power Point show -- the lights go down and the speaker loses eye contact with the audience. Neither one helps you get your message across, particularly if you're constantly looking over your shoulder at the screen and referring your listeners to one dense slide (too many words in too small a space, or yet another boring chart) after another.

Just a few weeks ago, I spent three days running a writing seminar for seven Navy SEALs who, between overseas assignments, are doing staff work at the Naval Special Weapons Development Group in Virginia Beach, Va. To a man, they slammed Power Point for expecting too much of the audience. "You see a Power Point, and you're expected to be proficient," one SEAL said of the classroom training they often have to sit through. "But it's not enough."

So we worked on presentation training without Power Point. Each one practiced traditional communication, looking from listener to listener as the rest of us played the roles of the generals and admirals and ambassadors and foreign dignitaries who SEALs brief around the world. They went to the whiteboard to highlight key points with a magic marker, maintaining that vital audience contact throughout. They learned to be concise and leave enough room for the questions that any effective presentation is sure to inspire. In other words, they communicated.

A Blog Is Born

http://www.businesscommunications.wordpress.com

Please visit my new blog and let me hear from you on anything dealing with communications and all its promise and pitfalls. I'll share what I know about the news media and how you can gain from press encounters without hiring a pricey PR firm, what I call "writing for success," and presentation skills that will turn you into a confident public speaker.

I'll be listening, which hasn't always been one of my strong points. Like many people, I'm much more eager to yammer on and show how clever or smart I am. So I particularly appreciate email. Compared to a spontaneous conversation, it gives you time to really hear and understand other points of view before you respond and hit the "send" button.

Once more, Hemingway had it right when he said, “I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”

I look forward to hearing from you.

Dave