I struggled with writing when I joined the workplace. It was such a shift from academia, where I had mastered the art of showing my understanding of specific subject material to my professors in 10 to 15 page increments. Now, I had a boss who regularly ripped my work to shreds. He seemed gleeful when cutting out all of my unique insights and carefully crafted phrases. In a few short months, I was convinced that I had made a horrible career choice and was doomed to return to living with my parents. However, I eventually swallowed my pride and began to realize that my boss, while still a jerk, not only knew more about writing than I did, but was actually trying to show me how to be successful.
Why Do We Dread Writing At Work?
- Writing at work can be tedious. It’s often not creative.
- Writing can also be intimidating, especially for many of us who secretly suffer from the imposter syndrome. We worry about being judged by our colleagues and supervisors. The pressure of deadlines ramps up the intimidation factor.
- The fear of looking stupid and the pressure of deadlines can often lead us to rely on jargon to appear more sophisticated.
We’re not in academia or the military anymore
Most of my clients learned how to write either in college or in the military–joys of living and working in the Washington DC area. These two fields are not known for clear and concise writing.
- Academia: Student use writing to prove to their professors their mastery of specific subjects. Writing becomes a journey of discovery. Students often pick up bad writing habits to stretch their work to meet page length requirements.
- The Military: Military writing appears based on the premise that cumbersome wording makes the author sound sophisticated. Just read anything from DOD if you doubt this 🙂
The Workplace Is A Different World
- You don’t need to prove your expertise. Your company wouldn’t have hired you if they thought you were an idiot.
- Your reader is busy. S/he doesn’t want to go on a journey of discovery. Your writing is one more thing on the to-do list.
- You probably want your audience to take some sort of action.
Pause Before You Start Writing
- Identify the purpose of your writing: are you providing a regular update, flagging a new development, or warning
- Think about your audience: how much detail do they need; where are they in the decisionmaking process; and what actions do you want them to take?
What To Include And Exclude Roadmap
Include what’s important
- What is happening now?
- What factors contribute to this development?
- How will the likely outcome of this change affect the audience?
- What can be done to mitigate or enhance this change?
Exclude what is interesting, but not critical.
- Background into previous decisions can be put into an appendix.
- Follow the rule of three: provide no more than examples or pieces of evidence. Anything more is overkill for the busy reader.
Let’s look at an example.
- Let’s say you want to warn your team that the new design program is preventing the company from meeting customer deadlines.
- First describe how bad the delay is.
- Then explain how the new program is causing the delay.
- Next, detail how the probable outlook for this delay is likely to affect your reader. For example, the delay, which will probably worsen in the next two months, could cause us to face contract penalties for missed deadlines
- Outline what can done to mitigate this delays. Perhaps more training for the team or working with IT to address any technical issues.
- Interesting, but not critical details should be excluded or moved to an appendix. For example, the background on why the firm chose this specific design program. or how the new program is affecting the billing office.
Now Start Writing
- Use your “include and exclude roadmap” as an outline for your writing
- Start each paragraph with a strong, analytic topic sentence
- Remember writing in the workplace isn’t a journey of discovery. Many of your readers probably will only skim your writing. Robust topic sentences ensures they will get they key points you’re conveying.
- Follow the fractal rule: One key thought per sentence. One overarching key thought per paragraph. The more complicated you make your sentences and paragraphs, the more likely you are to bore or lose your reader.
Tips to Avoid Clunky Writing
- Try to limit most of your sentences to 30 words. The average leader tends to lose focus after that. Most of subvocalize, that is we silently say the words in our heads when we read.
- Stick with active voice as much as possible. This subject verb construct leads to shorter, more direct sentences.
- Avoid filler phrases like in order to.
- Limit the use of adjectives and adverbs. You can often replace them with better word choices. Negatively impacted vs hurt.
- Minimize multiple verbs. Select the most important action. Compare Susan designed, tested, and deployed the new program vs Susan designed the new program.
- Stick with Germanic derived words. Use vs utilize. Help vs facilitate.
- Avoid repeating the same word or derivations of in a single sentence. We went to the French restaurant because my friend loves French cuisine. vs We went to the French restaurant because my friend loves the cuisine.
- Limit use of jargon or trendy phrases. Ask yourself if all of your audience will be familiar specific phrases. Business cliches risk alienating your audience and smack of inauthenticity. I tell my clients that leverage is this decade’s pro-active. Other eye-rolling inducing phrases include think outside the box, expect the unexpected, and I don’t have the bandwith.
Spellcheck Is Not Your Only Friend
- Self-edit your work.
- Spellcheck is great, but it won’t catch missing words or properly spelled, but wrong words such as asses vs assess.
- Print and read your writing out loud.
- Ask a colleague to provide a sanity check.
- Consult a writing coach. I can be reached at nextchaptercoachllc@gmail.com