30-days-to-better-business-writing.pdf

(1804 KB) Pobierz
337271096 UNPDF
30
WoUldN’T IT BE GREaT If EvERyThING
yoU WRoTE WaS moRE INTERESTING,
cREdIBlE aNd EffEcTIvE? ImaGINE BETTER
WEBSITE copy, BRochURES, EmaIlS,
DAYS
lETTERS, pRopoSalS, BloG poSTS, pRESS
RElEaSES. ..
to
BETTER
BUSINESS
WRITING
BY MATTHEW STIBBE
337271096.010.png 337271096.011.png 337271096.012.png 337271096.013.png 337271096.001.png
Bad LANGUAGE.NET
30 DAYS TO BETTER BUSINESS WRITING
CONTENTS
Foreword
1
Day 25: Invent great names
94
Day 26: Write a great presentation
99
Introduction
2
Day 27: Find time for writing
102
How to use this book
6
Day 28: Break writer’s block
106
Day 29: Working with pro writers
109
Day 30: Final exercise
113
Day 1: Be a reporter
7
Day 2: Interview someone
10
Day 3: Ask the right questions
17
Day 4: Find the story
20
Day 5: Find the angle
23
Day 6: Pick the right structure
25
Day 7: Analyse bad writing
28
Day 8: Analyse good writing
31
Day 9: Write like a human being
33
Day 10: Write for readability
36
Day 11: Learn to concentrate
40
Day 12: Play buzzword bingo
44
Day 13: Eliminate the passive
47
Day 14: Use shorter words
49
Day 15: Use fewer words
52
Day 16: Manage your writing
54
Day 17: Get the right tools
58
Day 18: Write a proper brief
62
Day 19: Give good feedback
65
Day 20: Write a great case study
68
Day 21: Write a great press release
72
Day 22: Write a better email
80
Day 23: Write a blog post
84
Day 24: Write readable web copy
90
337271096.002.png
Bad LANGUAGE.NET
30 DAYS TO BETTER BUSINESS WRITING
FOrEwOrD
“You’re
alreadY
Wouldn’t it be great if everything you wrote was more interesting, credible and effective? Imagine
better website copy, brochures, emails, letters, proposals, blog posts, press releases...
You are already a better writer than you think. This book builds on what you already know with
some techniques used by professional writers and some guided practice.
a better
writer
My name is Matthew Stibbe. I am Writer-in-chief at Articulate Marketing , a marketing agency. I
write for clients including Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, eBay and HM Government. Before that, I was
a business and technology journalist. Before that, in the dawn of the internet age, I ran my own
software company.
than You
think”
This book draws on that experience, my blog and the writing seminars I run for my clients, to try to
give you a 30-day course that you can use to improve the way you write.
This is not a book of grammar and I’m not going to make you go back to school. If you want
guidance on basic written English, I highly recommend Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style
and the Economist Style Guide is also excellent. Instead, I want to help you take the basic building
blocks and recombine them in a more interesting, compelling and readable way.
Mainly, I’m writing for people in business. Perhaps you work in marketing or PR. Perhaps you work
in sales and write proposals all day. Whatever you do, you probably write emails, reports and pres-
entations. If you want to improve your writing, this book is for you.
Matthew Stibbe
READ MY BLOG
1
337271096.003.png 337271096.004.png 337271096.005.png 337271096.006.png 337271096.007.png
Bad LANGUAGE.NET
30 DAYS TO BETTER BUSINESS WRITING
INTrODUCTION
“if we
Good writing is a competitive advantage
don’t find
The ability to communicate effectively is a competitive advantage. Yet, in business, good writing is sur-
prisingly rare. We experience bad writing every day:
something
pleasant,
•
Power corrupts, but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
•
Jargon,wafle,hype,verbiageandconventionalitygetinthewayofrealmeaning.
•
Emails don’t get to the point or make it too brusquely.
at least
•
Websiteswafleandwasteyourbandwidthandreaders’time
we’ll find
In short, business suffers from bad writing. Consequently, deals fail, careers stumble and money is
wasted.
something
new”
The Bad Language manifesto
This is my manifesto. I think these truths are self-evident, but the consequences are not. This is what
compels me to write this book and what drives the requirement for better business writing.
- VOLtAIRE
•
They are already as busy as you are. That’s not all. The
market for information is becoming more and more competitive. There are more TV channels, more
magazines, more newspapers, more emails, more newsfeeds and more websites than there were
iveortenyearsago.Asaresult,readersspendnearlyalltheirtimedoingsomethingotherthan
reading your content. You have to earn their trust, interest and time.
•
To earn your reader’s trust and get their attention, your writing needs
to be clear, simple and direct. Good spelling, punctuation and grammar are a start. Saying what
you mean in the fewest, shortest words possible helps. Using the right format, stories, examples,
appropriate metaphors and the right document structure helps too.
2
You have no right to your readers’ time.
readability is everything.
337271096.008.png
Bad LANGUAGE.NET
30 DAYS TO BETTER BUSINESS WRITING
•
First, be relevant. Too much writing is about the
writer, their company and their problems. For example, most marketing campaigns are about what
the company wants to sell, not what the audience wants to buy. Second, unless you can see the
world through your readers’ eyes, you aren’t going understand the problems they want to solve, the
objections they might raise and the things that are going to excite them.
•
“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities,” said Shunryu Suzuki, a Zen
Buddhist priest, but “in the expert’s mind there are few.” We are all experts in our own world and the
only way to get past that is to become professional beginners. Editors talk about ‘self-sourcing’, which
is where a journalist uses their own experience or ideas as the source for an article. Bad journalists
self-source. Good journalists are good reporters. They talk to people. They ask questions. It’s the same
for writers.
•
Thoseblankpagesneedtobeilled.Allthosewebpagesneedcopy.Because
most people can write, they think that writing is a commodity. Something that can be left until later.
Something that is a low priority. By analogy, most people can kick a football, but not everyone is David
Beckham. Any time you see “lorem ipsum” placeholder copy, it’s a sign that the person in charge
doesn’tthinkwritingisimportantenough.Yetsomehowthosepagesgetilled.Writinghappensand
you always pay for it whether you do it yourself or you get an agency to do it.
•
Substituting good writing for bad writing is free. You
always pay for writing. Your time costs money even if you don’t get an agency bill for it. However, you
can choose where and how you spend your money. You can get your agencies to write better copy.
You can hire a professional writer (Yay! Me!). You can improve your own writing skills. You can change
the way you manage writing.
•
On the other hand, making no choices is also a kind of choice. The default
option in most cases is bad writing. This has a real business cost. Get it wrong and you confuse readers,
borethem,losetheirtrustandwastethemoneyyouspentgettingthemtoreadyourstuffintheirst
place.
3
See the world from your readers’ perspective.
Be a reporter.
writing happens.
Good writing costs the same as bad writing.
Bad writing is expensive.
337271096.009.png

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin