Copyright © Shaun R. Fawcett
During my 30-yr profession in a spread of professional positions in each the non-public and public sectors I have written literally lots of letters and memos and masses of reports. If I had to boil–down the whole lot I’ve found out approximately sensible daily writing for both private and commercial enterprise functions into 10 key factors, this would be my “Top 10 List".
1. Preparation Is the Key
Do all your studies first, before you start to write. Even a letter usually calls for a few minor studies inclusive of making a few cellphone calls or reviewing a file. It’s also very crucial to prepare your self mentally earlier than writing. So, don’t sit all the way down to write too quickly. Mull it over for some time, sometimes a day or , every now and then an hour or two, relying on the complexity of the process handy. It’s extraordinary how the sub-aware mind will work on the trouble “backstage” and whilst you in the end do begin writing, it’s going to go with the flow.
2. Always Use a Sample
For me, this is essential. No count number what I write, it helps exceptionally if I have a few visual stimulation. If I’m writing a letter I put up a replica of a comparable letter, or the only I’m responding to, someplace in my direct line-of-sight. It allows me awareness and keeps my mind at the situation handy, minimizing the tendency for my mind to wander. No depend what it is, I always make a factor to find some preceding paintings or a pattern of labor much like what I’m doing. It clearly stimulates the creative writing process and increases productiveness considerably.
Three. Shorter Is Always Better
Whether you’re writing a record or a letter, look for approaches to cut it down in period. Concentrate on conveying the crucial message. If something you’ve written does not decorate the core message, or doesn’t add price, do not forget cutting it. These days, you have to be “brief and to the point” to get your message study.
Four. Use Concise and Appropriate Language
Your letter or file ought to use simple trustworthy language, for readability and precision. Use brief sentences and do not allow paragraphs exceed three or 4 sentences. As a lot as viable, use language and terminology familiar to the supposed recipient. Do not use technical terms and acronyms without explaining them, except you’re certain that the addressee is familiar with them.
5. “Be” Your Addressee
A key technique to apply while writing some thing is to really “visualize” your target audience. As you write, try to imagine to your mind’s eye the specific character(s) to whom your written product is directed. I regularly consider that I am sitting across the boardroom desk from my addressee, trying to give an explanation for my points in person. Make an effort to see the situation from the opposite individual’s angle. What could you be trying to see if you had been the recipient of the letter or file?
6. Do the Outline First
Even if it’s a one-page letter, it doesn’t hurt to put in writing a few quick notes on the main points which you need to cover. This system forces you to think logically approximately exactly what you need to cowl and it helps making a decision in which order you may technique your subject. For a letter this is beneficial. For a report, this is without a doubt essential. In reality, I trust that you must force your self to undergo the entire questioning process this is required to broaden a entire draft Table of Contents, earlier than you begin to write any file.
7. Write and Then Rewrite
No depend how a whole lot practise I do, I always find that I can improve on the primary draft. That’s partly because after I’m writing that first version, my essential awareness is to get the essence of my thoughts down on paper. At that degree I don’t worry about perfect phrasing, grammar or logic. My foremost challenge the first time through is to make certain that I seize the essential words and terms that shape the core that means of what I need to speak. Then I can do the quality-tuning in the last skip.
8. Format Is Important
Whatever you are writing, make sure it seems professional. This is where proper formatting is available in. Your credibility, and/or that of your enterprise, is on the line; along with your file or letter serving as your representative. If it is not professionally formatted, it will mirror negatively on you, even supposing the content is ideal and it’s miles well-written. Rightly or wrongly, the price of your work will lessen in human beings’s eyes if the formatting of your file is shoddy or amateurish searching. On the alternative hand, susceptible research and/or writing will appear better than it virtually is that if the formatting is good.
Nine. Read It Out Loud
Some people who haven’t tried it may chortle once they read this, but it simply works. At any factor in the course of the drafting procedure, but honestly at the draft final degree, read your document or letter to your self “out loud”. It’s wonderful what one selections up after they really “pay attention” their words as if they had been being spoken to them as the addressee. I discover this enables me the maximum in selecting up awkward phraseology and useless repetition of words or terms.
10. Check Spelling and Grammar
Last, however a ways from least, make sure you double take a look at the spelling and grammar on your record. These days, with spell-checkers constructed into phrase processing packages there’s without a doubt no excuse now not to do that. Once again your record is a right away reflection of you and/or your business enterprise. If it is riddled with spelling mistakes and obvious grammatical mistakes, it’s going to seem unprofessional and your credibility will go through. Watch out for the words that sound the identical but have completely extraordinary meanings that a spell-checker gained’t pick up. Words consisting of “4” and “fore”, as an instance. Your very last read-through out loud need to capture any of these.
Whether you are writing a letter, a memorandum, a report or an essay, observe the above tips and also you might not cross wrong.