Part 1 (1/2)

The Truth About the New Rules of Business Writing.

Natalie Canavor and Claire Meirowitz.

Foreword: A new way to think about writing.

Do you wonder why your messages don't work the way you want, and whether there's a better way to write them? There is. And we're going to show you exactly how to do it.

This book's goal is to make you a good business writer.

What do we mean by business writer? Not someone who earns a living as a writer, but anyone who writes for business purposes. You might turn out e-mails, letters, and reports as part of your everyday work in the corporate, nonprofit, or government worlds. You might be an entrepreneur or a professional-perhaps a lawyer, accountant, educator, scientist, artist-who writes proposals or articles as well as e-mails and marketing materials and blogs.

Whoever you are, writing can give you a powerful compet.i.tive edge. It can help you achieve your goals, work more efficiently, and persuade other people to your viewpoint. Even more: Good writing will help you be a better leader.

The strategies that The Truth About the New Rules of Business Writing demonstrates are based on the best ideas about practical writing, recast to work in today's fast-paced digitized world. Learn these ideas, and you're ready to write successfully not only for today's print and electronic media, but for whatever new communication vehicles emerge in our evolving business world.

On the Web.

Visit this book's Web site at /t.i.tle/9780137153152 to register this book and access bonus material, including reference sections on formatting, style sheets, and resources.

Acknowledgments.

The authors gratefully acknowledge Neil Salkind of Studio B for his empathy, steady support, and publis.h.i.+ng savvy.

And we thank our editors at Pearson-Jennifer Simon, who understood our intent and made this book work, and the whole editorial team that helped create a better book.

And, thank you, International a.s.sociation of Business Communicators. This a.s.sociation brought us together, gave us the means to sharpen our thinking, and provided the forum for our ”Working Words” columns, which led us to write this book.

About the Authors.

Natalie Canavor has worked as a journalist, magazine editor, corporate communicator, and copywriter. She is currently a communications consultant and business writer whose publications, articles, Web sites, and video scripts earn international awards. Her features have appeared in a wide range of print and online media, including The New York Times. Earlier she created four national magazine start-ups and served as executive director of communications for New York State's largest educational agency. She also auth.o.r.ed a successful book on marketing for photographers and leads workshops on writing for results.

Claire Meirowitz, princ.i.p.al of Professional Editing Services, manages projects and edits print, e-letters, and Web materials for a nationwide client base in information technology and banking, among others. She is also a writer and publication editor who cofounded and edited several journals in the labor relations field and award-winning newsletters for the education industry. She formerly directed publication and community relations for SUNY College at Old Westbury, where she oversaw production of more than 400 publications annually.

Together, Natalie and Claire own C&M Business Writing Services, providing writing, editing, and project management to organizations. They also present business writing workshops and write a column on writing and editing for the International a.s.sociation of Business Communicators' online magazine, distributed internationally.

Introduction.

Good Writing: What's in It for You?

Good writing is a big advantage in today's business world. You know that or you wouldn't be reading this book. But much more than you might imagine, effective writing can be your personal key to success.

Look around your own work environment: You'll likely find that good writers tend to get promoted, whatever their field. You may also observe that many business leaders write powerfully. That's not an accident-writing is a leaders.h.i.+p skill, and can be just as important to success as good face-to-face skills.

When does good writing make a difference? Always. Every message you send matters.

Good writing is the road to more credibility, better professional image, and successful results. That can translate into more clients, enhanced relations.h.i.+ps, bigger profits, and promotions. Because more and more of our work is accomplished through writing rather than in person, we depend on our writing skills to persuade, collaborate, manage, and lead.

Good writing works. In fact, this is a useful way to define good writing in the business environment: It accomplishes what you want it to do.

So how can you gain the advantage of writing well, a skill that few of us were lucky enough to learn in school or on the job? Use the tools we're sharing with you and absorb the ideas. We promise this will transform your writing, and your att.i.tude toward writing.

Our decades as professional writers and workshop presenters have taught us that most intelligent people need only two things to write successfully: * First, you need a clear idea of what good writing looks like and sounds like today-not according to outdated 20th-century models.

* Second, you need a system to think through any writing challenge you're faced with, from e-mails to proposals, reports, Web site copy, blogs, and much more. Based on our combined experience as journalists, corporate communicators, and editors, we've created a step-by-step strategy that takes you from the very beginning to the end, guiding you to produce a piece of writing that accomplishes exactly what you want-without any agony.

This book is written expressly for adults in the business world, and it's based on methods that have nothing to do with traditional ways of teaching.

Here's the inside story on good writing: You don't have to spend days or weeks or years drilling on grammar, punctuation, and spelling. If you want to play baseball, mastering the rules is useless if you can't catch the ball or hit it. Writing is not about rules either-essentially it's about thinking.

The importance of good writing isn't something that gets talked about a lot. Most people don't notice the quality of the writing they see-they simply react positively, negatively, or not at all. They may not read the piece, or may skim it. They may fail to understand the message, or find it unpersuasive.

That's why there is growing recognition that writing is an essential business skill. Poorly written communications fail to explain a company's products, values, and messages-or worse, describe them in a negative manner. Compet.i.tive advantage is lost, and so are opportunities to connect with customers, colleagues, and collaborators. Business efficiency is sacrificed.

Don't think American industry hasn't noticed. A few years ago, a blue-ribbon group called the National Writing Commission surveyed top business leaders and found that poor employee writing is such a big problem that companies spend more than $3 billion per year trying to improve it. Their report was called, ”Writing: A Ticket to Work...Or a Ticket Out,” and doc.u.mented the importance of writing in decisions to hire and promote, especially in high-growth industries.

What does that mean to you? Opportunity. We invite you to take advantage of all the writing experience and expertise that we've built into these pages. They'll equip you to write powerfully for today's business media and help you succeed in today's compet.i.tive business environment.

Part I: The truth about what makes writing work.

Truth 1. Most people aim for the wrong target.