Considering the examples of bad writing in Monday’s and Tuesday’s posts it’s obvious that much of the problem comes down to a lack of clarity.

No surprise there, but other than confusing everyone, bad writing easily morphs into no writing, which can be a disastrous to product development, especially in tech.

As the image above shows, lack of writing skills impact every part of a sale, but lack of documentation is probably the worst.

Think about it. Things go wrong with equipment all the time and when it does you go to the manual to see how to fix it.

Software is even worse.

With minimal-to-no documentation, fixing bugs, iterating and keeping legacy software running is extremely difficult, especially if the primary developers leave the company.

No matter your education or experience, if you can write coherently you will have a serious edge over other candidates.

Image credit: Jhayne

Does writing matter? Do capitals matter? Does punctuation matter? Does reviewing what you wrote matter?

Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes.

We’re not talking about becoming the next Tom Clancy or winning a Webby.

This is about sounding professional and respecting your reader, whomever they may be.

There are a lot of things that go into good writing, but the most important thing is that it makes sense, not how many multi-syllabic words are used. Obviously, this Fortune 500 company manager didn’t believe that when he described his job.

“It is my job to ensure proper process deployment activities take place to support process institutionalization and sustainment. Business process management is the core deliverable of my role, which requires that I identify process competency gaps and fill those gaps.”

Additionally, it requires using the correct words, as I said in another post.

“Are most people loosing their minds, while I am losing mine?

Years ago KG sent me a memorable reminder of the importance of capitalization. I used it then and here it is again.

“Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.”

A missing comma cost Oakhurst Dairy a lawsuit for overtime — they lost.

Finally, it takes very little time to review what you wrote; the best way is to read it out loud.

CB Insights shared a hilarious example from a resume they received.

P.S. We’ve been asking folks about their job interviewing and resume reading tips. Here’s a pointer for candidates: think carefully about your wording when submitting a CV. We received this earlier this week:

Enough said.

Image credits: thewritingreader and CB Insights

Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

Bad writing isn’t age related. Bad writing spans all ages and keeps getting worse. You deal with it daily in email, web content, hardcopy marketing material, resumes, and, the worst, information and instructions from the boss. Decoding bad writing is not only time-consuming, but can also be downright scary if a design change or product launch depends on it.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

Bosses, business coaches, academics, bloggers and many others bemoan the lack of communications skills in Gen Y, especially written communications, but they have plenty of company in preceding generations.

Not just bad writing, but opaque writing, the kind that leaves readers scratching their heads wondering what they are missing.

Of course, I shouldn’t complain, since one of my company’s most popular products is Clarity RE-writing, which involves using the fewest possible words to present even the most complex information in the most understandable way.

Who are the worst writers?

Granting that many of Gen Y don’t understand the difference between writing and texting, I find lousy writing much more offensive when it comes from those who (should) know better.

And while the more lofty their position the more offended I am, I save my greatest reaction for those old enough and senior enough to know better who work in the field—in other words, they are, or should be, professional communicators.

Charles H. Townsend, the chief executive of Condé Nast Publications, which includes Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, is such a one. He recently sent a 500 word memo to his staff, here is a sample from it.

“…a consumer-centric business model, a holistic brand management approach and the establishment of a multi-platform, integrated sales and marketing organization.”… “To optimize brand revenue growth, we will shift responsibility for single-site, digital sales and marketing to the brand level. Publishers can now fully leverage their offerings across all platforms.”

Don’t feel badly if you aren’t sure what he is trying to say, his staff wasn’t sure, either.

If you want to write clearly here is some quick and basic guidance.

• • • Avoid jargon;
    • shun multi-syllabic words;
    • use short, simple sentences;
    • pass on large blocks of text, especially on the Net;
    • spell check everything; and, most importantly,
    • never forget that most people scan and don’t actually read.

Image credit: Karin Dalziel

As you’ve probably already guessed, Ryan is leaving Mapping Company Success.

His writing time was squeezed with his new job, but adding a new kid to the mix made its impossible.

I’m sorry to see Ryan go, I think he contributed a lot.

His take on culture has been interesting, since he is a leading edge Millennial, a former Marine and has six years of work experience under his belt.

But anytime something ends it opens opportunities for new things to start.

I’ve been talking to a pair of tail-end Millennials about becoming contributors and they’ve decided to do it. Yea!

I’ll be introducing them next week. I hope you’ll give them a warm welcome.

Image credit: Randstad Canada

Pretty much everyone I know responds to my emails (yes, emails) on their smartphone.

They respond to email because they know I don’t text.

As a result, I am inundated with emails that not only respond to the subject at hand, but provide me with constant comedic content.

They don’t need to try and be funny, because their phone’s autocorrect takes care of that.

And gives me the opportunity to make (as a Brit friend says) smartarse comments.

That said, I’m taking this opportunity to show I really do understand the difficulty they are facing.

It’s not their fault.

They are all much too busy to review their emails before hitting “send.”

Image credit: Language Log

Yesterday’s post about BS jargon seemed to be replayed in a pictorial of the atrocious, say-nothing advertising that graced the booths, many of which gave no hint as to the product.

Quartz reporter Mike Murphy summed it up nicely.

It’s like these companies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure booths at CES, and then forgot to pay anyone to actually market whatever they were selling.

This is one of the most jargon laden.

You can check out the rest here.

Murphy was wrong on one point.

The companies probably spent as much, possibly more, on message creation.

And advertising companies don’t give refunds.

Image credit: Quartz

For better or worse I earn my living wordsmithing content, such as websites, blog posts, presentations, etc.

Today was definitely worse.

That’s because so many senior business people believe that stringing together trendy, multi-syllabic words spotlights their intelligence and impresses their target audience — whether investors, employees, or customers.

The presentation I’m working on is so loaded with jargon that I wonder if they didn’t use some equivalent of the The Corporate B.S. Generator I read about on CB Insights (the last item in the Blurb).

While I would never use a real excerpt, I used the BS Generator to create a bit of content similar to what they sent.

We at Opaque Inc. work hard to dramatically foster efficient technologies for our clients in an effort to globally customize specific integrated methodologies. Our goal is to overcome intervening challenges and quickly restore compelling value.

Are you impressed?

Do the ideas presented increase your confidence and enhance your desire to become a stakeholder?

Or are you more likely to walk away scratching your head and wondering what they actually do?

Image credit: Wikipedia

Yesterday’s post focused on the importance of good writing when in a professional setting.

Pure coincidence, but an article today in the International Business Times talks about the negative effect of using smiley faces in business emails. (Emphasis mine.)

According to the study, while smiling during face-to-face communication was perceived as warm and indicated more competence with regards to the first impressions created, a text-based representation of a smile in computer-mediated communication did not have the same effect.

“Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence,” said Ella Glikson, a post-doctorate fellow at the BGU Department of Management, Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management.

Definitely something to share with your team.

What else can writing do?

Free up your creativity.

But only if you put down the keyboard and pick up a pen or pencil.

Anyone can benefit from penmanship’s cognitive benefits, whether you’re taking notes at a meeting or just trying to figure out what you think.

Put another way, writing by hand engages your brain, while keyboarding does not.

Brain scans during the two activities also show that forming words by hand as opposed to on a keyboard leads to increased brain activity (pdf). Scientific studies of children and adults show that wielding a pen when taking notes, rather than typing, is associated with improved long-term information retention, better thought organization, and increased ability to generate ideas.

Writing by hand forces you to turn off distractions, whether smartphone, computer, or music.

Writing by hand forces you to focus.

Writing by hand forces you to really listen; it makes you process what is being said and be more selective in what you record as opposed to running on autopilot.

If you never learned to write by hand, or have forgotten how, there are classes.

And if you don’t believe it works, try it.

You may find yourself very much surprised.

Image credit: Mike’s Birds

It’s amazing to me, but looking back over more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies are a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.

Eight years ago I wrote for a blog network called b5media (the posts are archived here). Since then I’ve waited in vain for writing to improve, but guess what — it hasn’t. Even professional writing, Is pretty bad. I read Business Insider daily and the errors I see make me cringe; not subtle grammatical errors, but the obvious kind that tell you that the articles wasn’t even spell checked. In other words, just plain sloppy. I get asked all the time, does anyone care? The answer is a resounding yes. People “feel” when something’s off, whether they can explain it or not. Often, it’s not even conscious, just a subconscious itch they can’t track, but makes then squirm. We’ve all seen business casual dress carried too far; business writing shouldn’t be carried at all.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

Wally Bock left a comment today on a post at Leadership Turn. In part it said,

“When I was responsible for hiring management trainees years ago, I discovered that grades and degrees and schools didn’t tell me much. What I looked for where two things. Could a prospect write? If not, there was no need to go farther. The other thing I looked for was actual work experience.”

Wally would have trouble hiring anyone these days considering the atrocious stuff written by students and grads who are so busy texting that they can’t be bothered to learn to write readable, coherent, English.

It’s a good thing that writing isn’t most managers make-or-break or offers would be few and far between—and I don’t just mean new grads.

I don’t have a great desire to be forced to decipher hip-hop, Valley Girl, Ebonics, Spanglish, Country-Western, 18-wheeler or all lower case with no punctuation in order to communicate.

None of these may matter in private life, but they don’t contribute a whole lot in the context of what it takes to make it today.

Several years ago I wrote Good writing fast—an oxymoron and last year I asked, “Are most people loosing their minds while I am losing mine? during another minor rant.

I’m not a total dinosaur, if all that’s wrong in most communications is a misplaced semi-colon or an occasional preposition at the end of a sentence who cares?

People don’t realize that, consciously or not, they’re judged by what they write, just as they are by what they wear or drive or went to school—even people whose own writing is terrible will downgrade others for the same thing.

If you can’t write and want a future take classes; if you’re people can’t write send them for training.

And if you won’t/can’t do that, there is one simple thing you can do to improve your writing.

Read. Turn off the computer and the TV; take off your iPod and turn off your phone; pick up a well-written book and READ. It doesn’t matter if it’s great literature, a biography, mystery, or hilarious chic lit.

Read every chance you get and make more chances; pay attention and you’ll be amazed at how fast your writing improves.

Image credit: sxc.hu

It’s amazing to me, but looking back over nearly a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written. Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time. [This particular post is a follow-up to last Thursday. Sadly, I’ve already seen resumes and business emails that are almost as bad as the imaginary cover letter below.] Read other Golden Oldies here

I harp a lot on the importance of clarity in written communications and the lack of good writing skills, especially in Gen X and Y. I’m not the only one, B-schools and corporations are spending time and money trying to improve them.

I think part of the problem is that these generations grew up on TV and the Net instead of on books. Obviously, not all, but too many.

Reading helps good language usage sink in—people who read absorb how to put words together without even realizing it.

It doesn’t matter what you read; it doesn’t have to be classed as ‘worthwhile’ or ‘good’ literature as long as you enjoy it. Whether it’s adventure, biography, fiction, mysteries (my favorite), fantasy (another favorite) or science fiction you’ll get a ‘feel’ for how words work.

If writing skills keep deteriorating then in twenty years when Gen Y is the bad old establishment a cover letter may look like this—

Subject: Resimay

To hoom it mae cunsern,
I waunt to apply for the job what I saw in the paper. I can Type real quik wit only one finggar and do sum a counting.
I think I am good on the phone and no I am a pepole person, Pepole really seam to respond to me well.
Im lookin for a Jobb as a reporter but it musent be to complicaited.
I no my spelling is not to good but find that I Offen can get a job thru my persinalety. My salerery is open so we can discus wat you want to pay me and wat you think that I am werth,
I can start imeditely. Thank you in advanse fore yore anser.
hopifuly Yore best aplicant so farr.
Sinseerly,
PAT