Writing That Works

your writing is you. It reveals how your mind works. Is it forceful or fatuous, deft or clumsy, crisp or soggy? Readers who don’t know you judge you from the evidence in your writing.

not all readers will detect your lapse. But those who do may be the ones who count.

People seldom act on what they cannot understand. Good results are even less likely if you flood the reader with information that isn’t organized to lead to an action or isn’t relevant to a grasp of the subject.

When you write anything longer than a few paragraphs, start by telling the reader where you are going.

Had the copywriter written, “He always acted as if he knew what he was talking about,”

The only way some people know you is through your writing. It can be your most frequent point of contact, or your only one, with people important to your career — major customers, senior clients, your own top management. To those women and men, your writing is you. It reveals how your mind works. Is it forceful or fatuous, deft or clumsy, crisp or

If you have distilled your thinking to its essence, you will probably be able to express it in simple words.

Yet another advantage of the active voice is that it tends to push you to decide precisely what you want to say, to be more specific.

One executive suggests a discipline — putting down first what you want the reader to do, next the three most important things the reader needs to understand to take that action, then starting to write. When you’re done, he suggests asking