Writing That Works

Bad writing slows things down; good writing speeds them up.

First you must know where you are going yourself. Make an outline of your major points, placing supporting details in their proper position. Then, in your paper, use your outline to signal the major points for your reader. Underline and number each important section heading. This serves the same purpose as chapter titles in a book. End with a summa

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.

Take the time to boil down what you want to say, and express it confidently in simple, declarative sentences.

The old rule is simple: Don’t use “like” in any case where “as if” or “as though” would fit comfortably.

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

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

Effective means picking your spots, concentrating your energies on a major document or project or speech that will make a difference.

Most people “write badly because they cannot think clearly,” observed H. L. Mencken. The reason they cannot think clearly, he went on, is that “they lack the brains.” We dare to assume that you, as a reader of this book, are brainy enough to think clearly. You know how to organize your thoughts into a coherent order. Now you must make that organiza