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Business Writing and Editing for Professionals Key Terms
Term Definition Introduced In
Active Voice Active voice is when you construct your sentences so that the subject of the sentence is doing the action, rather than being acted upon. Marge ate the carrots is in active voice. Module 1
Audience As a writer, your audience is whoever is likely to read your document, whether they are your intended readers or not. Write to your intended readers, but consider who else might receive your document as a forward or by happenstance. Module 1
Benefits While features describe an item's or an idea's properties, benefits show readers why they should act or believe. Benefits are the selling points. They show readers what's in it for them if they buy into what you have to say. Module 1
Call to Action A call to action is when you try to persuade your readers to take action, either with a direct plea to get them to do something or with more subtle persuasive wording. Module 2
Cause and Effect The cause and effect organizational pattern shows the relationship among actions or events and their consequences. Module 3
Chronological Order The chronological order organizational pattern presents thoughts in the order in which they happened. Use this technique to present a history of events or tell a story. Module 3
Compare and Contrast The compare and contrast organizational pattern analyzes and evaluates two or more things, showing either differences or similarities. Module 3
Concise To be concise is to express key information clearly and in as few words as are necessary. Module 1
Inverted Pyramid The inverted pyramid is a journalistic writing technique that puts the most important pieces of information up front, with supporting information in subsequent sentences or paragraphs. Module 3
Mindmap A mindmap is a prewriting technique that visually outlines information around a central key word or phrase. The writer links, via lines, the key word or phrase to its supporting ideas or concepts and then breaks each supporting idea or concept down further into subpoints. Module 2
Outline An outline is a prewriting technique in which the writer plans a document. The final document's purpose generally serves as the title for the outline, and each supporting idea and its subpoints is listed in a linear fashion. Module 2
Passive Voice Passive voice is when you construct your sentences so that the subject of the sentence is acted upon rather doing the action. The carrots were eaten by Marge is in passive voice. Module 1
Purpose Your purpose as a writer is to get your reader to act or to impart information to your reader. A clear purpose is critical to an effective document. Module 1
Step-by-Step Order Step-by-step order is used to present steps in a fixed order, as in to present instructions. Module 3
Storyboard A storyboard is a graphic representation of a document's eventual layout. It is a prewriting technique that allows the writer to visualize the parameters of a longer document, noting where text will fall, where graphics are required, etc. Module 2
Style Guide A style guide is a reference tool that provides guidelines for creating effective written documents. Module 5
Tone Your tone is your attitude about what you are writing. With your word choice and your overall approach to a document, you convey how you feel about the topic, the people to whom you are writing, and even yourself. Module 4
Writer's Block Writer's block is a psychologically based inability to start or continue working on a document. Module 1
Business Writing and Editing for Professionals Module 1: Is Writing the Best Way to Communicate? Most of us have had the following experience or have gone through
something similar. You get an email from someone, and after you wade through
the message, you are left with more questions than answers. So, you respond to
the sender, asking questions to clarify what you are supposed to do with the
information in the email. The sender writes back an even LONGER email,
elaborating on the original message, but not actually addressing your questions.
You think, "Well, I didn't really need more detail about what you already said . . . I
STILL don't know what I'm supposed to do." So, you write back, and you
rephrase your questions, italicizing key points to be sure the sender pays
attention this time. Your phone rings. It's the sender, and he says, "I decided it
was just easier to call and explain what I meant in the email." Within a minute,
you know exactly what you are supposed to do, and you can move forward.
Frankly, writing isn't always the best way to communicate. Now, some
personalities prefer writing to talking -- introverts or people who don't like to be
interrupted when they're concentrating, for example. But whether you prefer to
communicate in writing or not, some things flat-out should not be dealt with in
writing. You should never discipline someone or address a sensitive subject in an
email. You can follow up with an email after a personal conversation, but some
things are better handled face to face. If a topic is complex and you know it will
raise questions and concerns, speak about it in person rather than trying to
communicate in writing.
Face-to-face communication -- on a webcam or in person -- offers several
advantages. Most importantly, it lets you make eye contact with the other person,
and in our culture, eye contact is crucial to respect and mutual understanding.
Face-to-face communication also allows you and your message's recipient to see
each other's body language and hear each other's tone of voice -- how you are
delivering and how they are receiving your message, whether they are
comfortable with what you are saying . . . Some specialists say that as much as
97% of a message is conveyed via nonverbal communication. That means that
when you put something in writing -- relying solely on words -- you are missing
the 97% of the message that comes from nonverbal communication. You are
delivering only 3% of the total message! No wonder you eventually have to pick
up a phone or drop by and talk face-to-face! Face-to-face or telephone
communication lets you ask clarifying questions as soon as you receive
someone's message, so there's no lag time with the two of you writing back and
forth, trying to understand the original message's intent.
But, written communication has its advantages, too, despite the limitations
I just cited. Written communication allows you to repeat someone's exact
message. This is handy in daily business, but it is particularly crucial from a legal
standpoint. Anything you commit to writing on the company's behalf is considered
a record, and it can be subpoenaed for a trial. Another advantage, both in
business and in the case of a lawsuit, is that you can retrieve someone's exact
message after an extended period of time. So, even though your brain might not
remember all the facts, they are etched in time in that written document.
Another advantage of writing is that you can reach a large and widely
scattered audience. You can send the exact same written message to thousands
of people worldwide, if you wish. Of course, those thousands might then interpret
the same message in a thousand different ways . . . which is exactly why you
must strive to instill the 4 Characteristics of Effective Business Communication
into everything you write.
The 4 characteristics are that all business communication must be clear,
concise, concrete, and crucial. What does each of these characteristics mean?
Well, clear means that you must have a well-defined purpose before you create
your message. Your point must be clear from the moment your reader starts
reading. Concise means that you deliver your message in the shortest manner
possible, to save your recipients time and to lessen the likelihood of confusion.
Concrete means that you stick with need-to-know, pragmatic content rather than
going off on unnecessary tangents. And crucial means that you have considered
whether it is necessary to deliver a message at all -- that what you have to say is
a must-have piece of communication for your recipients, not just an exercise in
wasted time.
To guarantee clarity and simplicity in your writing, follow the 5 Simple
Rules That Guarantee Clarity and Simplicity.
The first essential step goes back to that Crucial characteristic I just
mentioned -- you must know what you are writing about and why you are writing,
and it must be for a legitimate reason.
Second, you must know your audience. Envision the person or people to
whom you are writing. Consider their personalities, their background knowledge
about the subject at hand, their preferred communication style, and how much
detail they need or like.
Third, know what you want your audience to do. Do you want them to act
in some way after reading your message? Or do you just want to inform them, so
they're not caught off guard?
Fourth, know how to reach your audience. Find out how they prefer to
communicate -- whether it's via email, texting, formal reports, blogging . . . or
perhaps they prefer to talk in person or on the phone. The best way to deliver a
clear message is to deliver it in your recipient's preferred communication style.
The fifth simple rule is to know how to influence your audience. Whether
you are asking the audience to act or you are just informing them about
something, you still want to influence them -- you want them to believe what you
have to say, see you as credible, and recognize you as the go-to person on the
subject. That all takes some persuasion. Consider the tone you should use for
your purpose. Can you infuse a lighthearted bit of humor? Or would that affect
your credibility or be inappropriate for the topic? Identify the benefits to the
reader in reading and believing what you have to say. Tie the benefits to the
consequences of acting or not acting -- or knowing versus not knowing. For
example, "Use the attached form for check requests and you will be paid within
five days (that's the benefit). If you continue to use the old form, it will be up to
thirty days before you receive payment (that's the consequence of not acting)."
This might seem like a lot to consider before you even put pen to paper --
or fingers to keyboard.
But you really can go from start to finish in 5 easy steps: prewrite (or plan),
draft (get your ideas down without worrying about grammar), revise (this is when
you consider grammar and structure), proofread (to be sure your writing is
correct and that it conveys a professional image), and publish (this is when you
hit "Send" or deliver a final, printed version of your document to your audience).
Prewrite, draft, revise, proofread, publish. Five easy steps, and you've gone from
Module 2: Prewrite Even professional writers face "blank page paranoia" -- where they sit and
stare at the computer's blinking cursor, wondering what to type next. But
professionals have some tools up their sleeves to keep them going, because
their livelihoods depend on getting words written. Let's take a look at some of
their techniques right now.
Most of us have brainstormed at one time or another, in our heads, on our
own, or as a group with some coworkers.
Brainstorming is a great way to get ideas out -- to follow your brain down a
path of discovery. But brainstorming by itself doesn't lead to a document. It needs
some structure to make it a particularly useful practice. That's where
mindmapping comes in.
A mindmap, true to its name, is like imposing a map on brainstorming.
Rather than just spewing ideas in a randomly created list, you start with your
purpose in the center of the page, and from there you branch out to logical main
points.
Imagine that you are in charge of planning the company picnic. So, you
write "Company picnic" in the middle of the page. From that central point -- that
purpose -- you branch off to "date and time," a second branch leads to
"location," a third branch leads to "food," a fourth branch leads to "entertainment."
Then, from each of those branches you link to subpoints -- let's call them "twigs" -
- that address each of the branches. Under location, for example, you might type,
"shelter in park," "Bob's ice cream parlor," "grassy area behind the south office" --
anything that the word "location" triggers.
"But, how does that plan a document?" you might ask. Here's how. You
now have your purpose (to convey information about the company picnic) and
your main points (here's when the picnic is, here's where the picnic is, here's
what we're eating, here's what we'll have for entertainment). From there you can
add as much detail about each main point as you think your audience needs.
A mindmap adds structure to your thoughts, and from the mindmap, you
can create a more formal outline, if that's how you prefer to write, or if that's what
your boss prefers you to do.
In this example, company picnic is your outline's topic. Date and time are
point 1. Location is point 2, and
subpoints under point 2 might be what the location offers, how to get to it, and
where to park. Food might be point 3, and your subpoints will describe the food
and drinks that will be offered at the picnic. Entertainment might be your fourth
point, and your subpoints will describe the entertainment options -- the band
that's playing, the games available for the kids, etc. You get the idea.
Another way to impose some structure on your mindmap is to write each
main point and its subpoints on sticky notes. This method is useful for more
complex or abstract topics that don't have clear-cut main points and subpoints.
When you're sitting there thinking, "Well, I could cover this here, but it kind of fits
here, too . . ." you can use the sticky note method to move ideas around until
they click into the most logical order. Cutting and pasting on the computer does
the same thing, but you can't always see the full document on the computer
screen. The sticky note approach lets you see all of the points you have to cover
all at one time, and that can make it easier to consider what should go where.
Another approach that professional writers use is called a storyboard. You
might have heard of storyboarding in advertising or marketing -- or in animation
or filmmaking. A storyboard is a pictorial map of, in our case, a document. It's a
graphic organizer, meaning that you hand draw what each section of your
document will look like, including graphs, charts, photographs, headings and
subheadings, and the like. Or, you can use one of many storyboarding software
programs to graphically organize your document.
If most of what you write is emails or memos, you probably don't need to
storyboard. But if you create manuals, training workbooks, or reports,
storyboarding can help you envision the big picture, and you can see at a glance
whether you have added visual interest, appropriate white space, the correct
photos, etc.
So, those are a few methods you can try to overcome writer's block. Let
me give you a few more ideas to get past the roadblocks.
This might sound counter-intuitive, but step away from the document for a
while. Go do something completely unrelated -- something menial. Believe it or
not, your brain will still work on the problem, even though you're not consciously
focused on it. You might be carrying the recycling bin to the shredder when --
EUREKA! -- a brilliant idea comes to you.
Another helpful thing to try is a walk. Walking -- even just around the block
-- releases serotonin into your system, which cuts your stress and relaxes you.
The extra oxygen in your system helps, too, and you just might see something
while you're out that triggers a thought or idea you hadn't considered.
Sometimes, just rewording the problem can help. Instead of thinking of the
topic exactly as it was assigned to you, try rephrasing it so that you make it your
own and internalize it. Put the problem into your own words rather than trying to
wedge someone else's words into your brain. It can make a big difference in how
your mind processes the problem.
Getting a drink or something to eat can help you come up with ideas, too.
Taking your mind off the assignment and focusing instead on the physical
nourishment can trigger thoughts you haven't yet had.
Listening to music can help, too, though if you're trying to concentrate,
then go with Classical or smooth jazz. If you turn to a station that's playing songs
with words, you're likely to consciously or subconsciously focus on those words,
which can make it challenging to write your own words.
A final idea to help you overcome writer's block is to ask around. Talk with
coworkers, family, friends -- even try saying something on Facebook. "Writing a
report about copiers. Can't figure out where to start." You'll get the "better you
than me" comments, but you'll also get some helpful suggestions from people
who've been there or who know a contact who might be able to help.
Once you have overcome writer's block and gotten your prewriting done,
you can focus on drafting your document.
Module 3: Draft
After you have generated and organized your ideas, it's time to draft your
document. Now, keep this in mind. A draft is NOT a final version.
It can have grammatical errors, mistakes, and be completely off the wall --
because this is a test, and only a test. This is not the version you will publish for
all to see.
Why am I emphasizing this point? Because too many people get hung up
on the mechanics of writing rather than focusing on their good ideas. They worry
so much that their spelling is wrong or their punctuation is incorrect that they
can't even get their thoughts out. This is the biggest hurdle for many writers, and
it leads to poorly formed ideas covered in gobbledygook, meaningless language.
So, let's look at how to write a focused, engaging draft of your document.
First, state your objective clearly and concisely. I literally mean "state" --
as in, say it aloud, in one sentence. State what you want your reader to do --
"I want my reader to use the right requisition form from now on." Or, state
what you want your reader to know --
"I want my reader to know why I went with the blue logo instead of the
black one." Again, envision the recipient as you write, which will help you with the
next point, which is that you need to think and write in active voice, as if you are
speaking directly to your audience.
Active voice means that the subject of each sentence is doing the action in
the sentence, rather than being acted upon. For example, take this passive voice
example: "All health forms should be turned in by employees to their managers
before Wednesday." Who is supposed to turn in the health forms? The
employees are, and presumably the message is being sent to the employees.
So, let's move the employees to the front of that sentence. "Employees, please
turn in all health forms to your managers before Wednesday." It's shorter and
clearer this way. It's more engaging to read. Passive voice is unclear, wordy, and
it feels stodgy. Active voice evokes action.
To be sure you are using the active voice, watch out for the word "by."
Note in the passive example I just gave,
"All health forms should be turned in by employees." The "by" is a red flag
that the sentence is in a passive form. Also pay attention to past-tense verbs. In
this sentence "turned" is a red flag. Note that in the active form of the sentence,
we make the past-tense "turned" into the present-tense "turn" -- "Please turn in
all health forms."
Keeping active voice in mind as you go, next, consider the best way to
organize what you have to say. There are a few different ways you can organize
your content.
To present a history of events, use a chronological approach. This pattern
organizes your thoughts in the order in which they actually happened. Use this
pattern to tell a story or to relate the back story of a decision you made or an
action you want to take.
If you need to present ideas in a fixed order -- like to tell someone how to
do something -- use the step-by-step pattern of organization. This approach, as
its name suggests, requires you to list each step in the order in which it should
occur. If you're making a sandwich, for example, step one might be, "Decide
what type of sandwich to make," step two might be, "Choose either white or
whole-wheat bread," etc.
Another organizational method is compare and contrast. Use this
approach to analyze and evaluate two or more things, showing either differences
or similarities. This is a great method to use when you are trying to illustrate how
one choice is better than another. For example, "While both copiers can print
100 copies per minute, the Acme copier costs two-hundred dollars less and uses
biodegradable toner."
Next, there is the cause and effect pattern for organizing content. Cause
and effect shows the relationship among actions or events and their
consequences. This technique is ideal for calling readers to action. "If you donate
$500, three children will live." In this case, donating $500 is the cause, and three
children will live is the effect.
Another organizational method to consider -- one that journalists use most
frequently -- is the inverted pyramid method. The inverted pyramid method puts
the most important pieces of information up front. In journalistic terms, this is
called the lead. The great thing about putting your most important information up
front is that your readers are more likely to read and remember the must-know
information, because it's right there, at the start of the document. Whether or not
your reader continues deeper into the document, he or she will have the gist of
your entire document based on your opening few words. After your lead, you
move into the body. This is where you put additional benefits, evidence,
background, details, arguments for and against, consequences, etc. You expand
on and support your lead.
To get your reader to continue into the body of your document, you must
give him or her a reason to continue reading. Using a logical organizational
pattern will assist with this, but so will a strong hook or opener -- the lead in itself
isn't always enough to stimulate the kind of interest that will keep someone
reading. Sometimes, you have to help the lead along, no matter how important
the information in it might be. Grab your audience's attention with a startling
statement, a quotation, a rhetorical question, or a challenge . . . Or make your
lead a call to action. This is particularly effective in brief messages, like emails.
"Please turn in time cards before 3pm or I cannot pay you on Monday."
From there you could add details, "Accounting changed the due date for time
cards and invoices. If you have any questions or concerns, please call me."
One last important point about the drafting step of the writing process:
your first draft will not and should not be your only draft. Even one-line emails
need planning and rewriting in order to be as effective as possible in delivering
your intended message. The longer or more complex the document, the more
time you can expect to spend in the drafting - revising - drafting cycle. Drafting
and revising go hand in hand.
Module 4: Revise
Prewriting and drafting lead naturally into revising. If you have done a solid
job in planning and sequencing your content, your revisions will be relatively
straightforward.
Start your revisions with the 3-step quick assessment to help you hear
your message.
First, read your document aloud, focusing on the content and tone.
See how the words roll off your tongue. Does the content feel natural and
conversational? Or are you stumbling over passive constructions and
cumbersome business-speak? Do you sound sincere and professional? Or
sarcastic and snippy?
Imagine your readers as they read the content. What might their facial
expression be? Will the content make sense to them? What questions might they
have?
Finally, have someone else read your document to you. Close your
eyes and listen to just the words, so the reader's body language doesn't affect
the written message. Consider the word choice, the tone, and whether or not you
conveyed your purpose.
This last point is the bottom line. While you're listening to someone
else read your document, think about how you would rewrite for clarity. You want
the opening sentence to grab the reader's attention -- a good hook -- or to at
least have a strong lead that gets to the point immediately, giving readers the gist
and making them want to read more.
As you assess your document -- and this is easier when someone else
is reading it to you -- pay attention to places where you might have gone off on
an unnecessary tangent. Remember, if the material doesn't support or further
your point, take it out. This will save your reader time, frustration, and confusion,
and it will make your document more concise and on point.
As you read through or listen to your document, think about whether
the material makes sense as it's currently presented. It might have made sense
to you when you drafted it, but as you re-evaluate, pay attention to whether the
organizational pattern you chose is really the best way to convey your purpose.
Transitions are easier to hear when someone else reads the document
aloud, too. If a transition isn't smooth, you will feel jarred -- as if you bounced
from one subject to another without preparation. Remember, transitions are like
road signs. They warn you that a new route is coming, and then they tell you
which way to turn to follow that route. Help your readers to your next point. Usher
them from one topic to the next. Make each sentence build on the sentence
before -- each idea relate back to the topic sentence of the paragraph -- each
paragraph relate back to the purpose of the document.
Consider, too, whether your account is accurate. If you have a niggling
feeling that the story you recounted might not be quite right, double-check with
others to get your facts straight. Double-check times and names and facts and
figures.
The last thing to check when rewriting for clarity is the call to action.
Did you call the readers to action near the start of the document? Did you repeat
the call to action during a longer document and then again at the end? When you
wrote the calls to action, did you provide all necessary information so the readers
know exactly what to do next? If your entire purpose is to get the readers to do
something, your call to action must be emphatic.
When assessing your call to action, and the rest of your draft, keep an
eye out for red flag words and phrases. These are the words that might offend,
alienate, or confuse your readers -- or that could damage your credibility as a
communicator. The words "always" and "never" and phrases "should have" and
"would have" can come across as accusatory. "You always ask for the
conference line at 10am. If you wanted it at 8am, you should have let me know."
See how these words sound like finger-pointing and blame?
Weak words and phrases like "very" and "really" or "sort of" and "kind
of" take away from your document's punch. Rather than coming across as
confident, they make you seem uncommitted and uncertain. "I really liked the
factory. It kind of reminded me of the one on 5th Street." These words make your
writing wishy-washy and non-specific. If you liked it, be precise about what you
liked. If it reminded you of something else, tell what aspects made you compare
the two. "The layout of the factory is well-planned, efficient, and obviously
focused on worker safety. I expect productivity and morale to be as high as at the
factory on 5th Street."
The phrase, "to be honest" has crept into the English language and it
won't go away. It sends a subliminal message to your readers. It tells them, "I'm
not usually honest, but this time I'm going to be honest with you . . ." We'd like to
assume that you are always honest with us. Don't make us doubt you from this
point forward!
"Due to the fact that," "on account of," and "the reason why is because"
are all wordy ways of saying something straightforward. Instead, say, "since" or
"because."
"Irregardless" is not a word. People say it. Some people write it, even
though their computer puts a squiggly red line under it as a warning. Just be sure
you aren't one of those people. "Utilize" is a word, but it's too often written in
place of the plain old, shorter and much clearer word "use."
To keep yourself accurate, consistent, and up-to-date in your writing,
try these ideas. First, research online. While you can't trust everything that's out
there, searches will offer you multiple sources and opinions, and you can
eliminate any that seems suspicious or questionable. You will find reputable
online dictionaries, Thesaurauses, encyclopedia, writing labs, journals, websites,
blogs, and more that can help you perfect your documents. Also, keep copies of
your boss's documents, so you are sure to cite your organization's most up-to-
date information, terminology, forms, and tools. Find, keep, and emulate other
people's examples of good business writing, too.
If you write the same types of documents over and over, reuse
previous, similar documents as templates -- just change names and dates and
update the content. It's easy to revise your previous documents into fresh, new
content -- and doing so will give readers a sense of consistency and increase
your likelihood of accuracy, since you are not reinventing the wheel every time.
Module 5: Proofread and Publish
The last two steps in the 5-step writing process are proofread and publish.
How you publish depends on the types of documents you produce -- whether you
send an email or send a final draft to a printer. But there are certain steps you
must take before you publish your documents, whether those documents are
electronic or hard-bound.
I highly recommend, if your company doesn't already have one, that you
use a style guide to streamline communications across the organization. Style
guides create consistency in formatting, so customers -- internal and external --
and vendors know what to expect from any of your company's written
communication. Your organization's image is at stake any time you send or
publish a document, so you want to convey the best possible impression.
Style guides can also help you avoid offending your readers. The guides
offer suggestions for how to write courtesy titles, how to avoid gender-based
pronoun issues and other potentially inflammatory issues, and how to come
across as courteous and professional.
Another bonus of a good style guide is that it will provide you with good
examples. Most style guides show you how to format an email, a memo, multiple
types of business letters, reports, charts, graphs . . . and more. They even show
you how to write an effective complaint letter, how to take minutes at a meeting,
and how to write for online publication.
If your company doesn't have its own style guide, take a look at the
Franklin Covey Style Guide, The Gregg Reference Manual, The Chicago Manual
of Style, or the AP Stylebook. Your industry will determine what will work best for
your company, but any of these guides can provide guidance on style issues.
Style guides are valuable throughout the writing process, but they are
particularly useful when you are proofreading and you need to double-check
punctuation and grammar rules -- or to find out how much space you need
between a period and the next word.
To publish error-free documents, the first thing to do is to run Spell Check.
Now, keep in mind, though, that Spell Check won't catch all mistakes. For
example, if you type, "and" -- A, N, D -- instead of "an," -- A, N -- the Spell Check
will not flag it for you. It also will not differentiate among the forms of to, there,
and whose. It is likely to catch accidentally transposed letters, as long as the
transposition creates a non-word. But if you accidentally transpose the letters
and the resulting word is still a word -- for example, if you type "dad" instead of
"add" -- Spell Check will not catch the error. So, yes, it is a helpful tool to an
extent, but you will still need to do a thorough check to catch all of the mistakes.
As you proofread, pay attention to mistakes that you seem to make all the
time. We all have words that trip us up or punctuation that we find challenging.
Write your stumbling blocks down on a sheet of paper and keep the list in your
desk as a job aid for future proofreading sessions.
If you can afford the time, wait a day before you try to proofread your
document. When you are too close to the content, your brain will autocorrect
mistakes and you won't notice that they're there. If you leave and come back to
the document a day or two later, though, your short-term memory will have
forgotten what it was filling in and correcting, and you will see the mistakes you
previously missed.
As you look at a document, scan it first. Just run your eyes over it, from
the upper left to the lower right in a Z pattern. If it's a hard copy, turn it upside
down and look at the white space. This will help you spot where you accidentally
added extra spaces or failed to indent.
Read the document aloud as well as silently. This makes your brain speed
up and slow down at different places within the text, which will make it more likely
that you will catch errors.
If you've spent a lot of hours writing and rewriting the document, ask a
talented coworker to proof it for you. He or she will catch things you might
overlook, since you are so invested in the existing content.
Always check content against the original draft, and ask other
proofreaders to do the same. In longer documents, especially, it's easy to
accidentally move or delete text along the way as you revise the content. To
ensure that everything is included in the final version, double-check against the
original.
Numbers can cause major problems in proofreading. Triple-check them.
Check their alignment. Calculate any mathematical equations and be sure the
answers are accurate.
Finally, check all captions -- the captions under photos, graphs, charts,
and other visuals. Since they are not a part of the body of the document, it's easy
to forget about them, and embarrassing mistakes often lurk in these tiny
segments of text.
As you can see, you really can go from start to finish in 5 easy steps.
Good writing starts with solid prewriting and planning. Get those great
ideas on paper without worrying about spelling and grammar. Then, add some
structure to your thoughts, grouping main points with their supporting information.
From there, create your first draft -- still not worrying about spelling and
grammar -- just focusing on your singular purpose -- a purpose that you can state
in one sentence. "I want my reader to know this or to do that." As you draft,
consider whether you are writing in active voice -- making your subjects do the
action -- and whether the organizational pattern you are using makes the most
sense for the topic.
After each draft, assess your document's clarity and eliminate red flag
words and phrases that might confuse or offend your readers. And, as a last
step, double-check your document against a style guide -- your company's or a
reputable outside guide. Run Spell Check, have someone else proofread your
document for you to catch errors you might miss, check those numbers and
captions, and take one last look at the final product before you distribute it.
While you might never find writing fun, following a step-by-step process
from start to finish can at least make it a manageable task. Thank you.