So many words, so few writers.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of businesspeople, from CEOs to VPs to managers to assistants, create written business communications. Yet only a handful of these communications are written—or even reviewed—by individuals whose specific expertise and responsibility is to ensure the message is crisp, clear, and accurate. That is, a writer. Why? Because, whatever their department or position, they all possess the ability to write. Why involve anyone else?

Mr. Diamond wasn’t grading your bottom line.

Most of us put more thought into writing that paper, back in Mr. Diamond’s high-school English class, just to get a good grade, than we today put into our business writing, with the far greater task of creating effective communication. And why not? By now, we’ve all written countless words for countless documents—from yesterday’s homework assignments, term papers, essays, and tests to today’s letters, sell sheets, proposals, and reports. We’re accustomed to writing, and therefore believe we can do it acceptably well because we’ve been doing it all our lives with no apparent side effects.

Ability is not synonymous with skill. 

Just as the ability to hear doesn’t make one a good listener, the ability to write words on paper doesn’t make one a good writer. It’s moving beyond a basic ability and consciously, continuously developing it into a true skill, a true craft, that does. We all have the basic ability—with millions of words under our belt—but most of us don’t develop the craft by working for the grade like we used to. Which is disturbingly ironic, because we are, in fact, being graded more today than ever.

Your invisible report card.

Back in high school, when Mr. Diamond gave you only a B on your biography about your grandfather, you knew instantly that the job you did was less than less-than-perfect, but still acceptable. Today, however, you’re writing for business, and your customers and coworkers grade your writing every day—even though neither you nor they really realize they’re doing it. 

Instead of not giving you an A for a less-than-perfect job of written communication, customers and coworkers give you a different type of report card. They don’t respond to your mailing. They don’t buy from your catalog. They inaccurately perceive your organization’s culture. They don’t understand your processes. This is the pervasive yet insidious stuff that attacks your organization’s effectiveness, and, ultimately, its bottom line. 

The scale against which your audience grades your business writing is, at the same time, difficult, impactful, and invisible, and far less forgiving than Mr. Diamond’s. Simply put, the weaker the writing, the poorer your results—and no second chance to raise your grade to an A for implementing Mr. Diamond’s suggested revisions.

How to make the grade.

For business writing to make the grade, it only requires two little things: time and talent. In most organizations today, time is at a premium, particularly as you gaze up the corporate ladder. Talent in an organization generally displays itself as a specific functional disciplines (e.g., marketing, HR, training), not necessarily on writing effective communications within that discipline. 

That is, marketing people may be good at marketing, but not necessarily at writing hard-hitting promotional copy that sells and creates a positive image. HR people may be good at HR, but not necessarily at writing engaging employee communications that increase job satisfaction and productivity. Training people may be good at training, but not necessarily at writing consistent documentation and materials that are clear and concise. 

Leave the writing component to someone whose specific education, experience, and passion gives him or her the time and talent not to simply write, but to write well. Meanwhile, let your people make the most optimal, productive use of their time and talent by focusing on their specific disciplines. The result is the difference between a passing grade and high honors.

What makes good business writing?

Good business writing is far more than just good grammar. It invites. It guides. It grabs. It stirs. In so doing, it generates interest. It creates understanding. It persuades. It calls to action. Good writing is not inherently creative, flowery, flashy, nor formal. Good writing doesn’t necessarily call attention to itself. Rather, it might simply “feel right.” Less-than-good writing, on the other hand, is not necessarily blatantly “bad.” It might simply feel neutral, like it’s missing something. 

Good writing accomplishes what it is intended to accomplish. And then some. Let’s start making great accomplishments together.

The lost art of proofreading.

There is a significant, growing problem with the electronic spelling and grammar checkers. As they become increasingly more sophisticated, the user becomes less sophisticated, at least in terms of proper use of the English language. The problem is that these tools have created the false sense of security—or, rather, of quality—that whatever words pass the tools’ tests is good to go. 

Not true. 

Thanks for the good intentions

The tools’ good intention of improving our accuracy has resulted in the undesirable side effect of sloppiness, overreliance, and just plain laziness. Just look closely at an ad or brochure or Web page, and it’s obvious that most companies no longer take the time to truly proofread, neglecting the human attention to detail that such important communications deserve. The electronic tools are limited by being just that: tools, not final solutions. 

Worse on the Web.

There are an awful lot of less-than-perfect communication pieces out there. And, with the exponential growth in the number of Web pages, a growing awful lot. Web pages are even sloppier than printed materials, since a found error can be corrected quickly and inexpensively, without requiring a printing rerun. Inexpensive, that is, unless you count the lost sales opportunities and long-term damage to the company image. 

The ultimate impact.

At their very best, of course, communications with errors can still be marginally successful. Yet they probably don’t reach their maximum effectiveness because they simply don’t read as well as they should. Fewer readers are motivated to buy, probably without consciously knowing why. At their very worst, however, communications that are blatantly less-than-perfect damage a company’s image beyond repair. If a company shows such a lack of attention to detail in its communications, it is perceived to have a lack of attention to detail in its products and services. No sale. 

See for yourself.

If you don’t believe the extent of the limitations of electronic spelling and grammar tools, and how easily grammar, usage, and style errors can pervade your written communications, visit the “How Good Are You?” page to test your eye for detail. It guides you to a document with 34 errors in it, only three of which were flagged by Microsoft’s spelling/grammar checker. It’s a guaranteed eye opener, and comes with a special introductory offer. And, for a listing of the most common errors in print, and how to avoid them, visit the “Most Common Errors” page. 

Moreover, it’s important to recognize that even a grammatically perfect document must still be visually appealing and deliver meaningful written messages in order to effectively tease, persuade, motivate, inform, and sell. For the former, we have art directors and graphic designers. For the latter, we have writers, and I’d be delighted to show you and your staff what a difference a writer, particularly one who takes quality assurance seriously, can make.