A Decent Proposal

If you want to know whether your email says what you’re trying to say, or your speech drives your point home, the answer is always “no.” And my recommendation is always, always to be clearer. 

Poor communication is the root of so many conflicts, from work to home to relationships. And poor communication is made worse because most people don’t realize that they’re poor communicators, so they never work on communicating better.

Here’s the truth: if you think you’ve been clear, try again. If any part of your message is “implied” or “they know that already” or “well that part’s obvious,” well...you’re not communicating clearly. 

And when you DO communicate clearly - when you’re completely transparent about every part of your messages - then you’ll suddenly find that people trust you more. And when you’re trusted, your relationships - personal and professional - improve.

“To be successful...”

is not as strong as 

“To succeed...”

“t's not about knowing needlessly fancy words (but it's often hard to know if the fancy word is needless until after you learn it). Your vocabulary reflects the way you think (and vice versa). It's tempting to read and write at the eighth-grade level, but there's a lot more leverage when you are able to use the right word in the right moment.

Some things are better spoken face-to-face:

- Quitting a job (but leave a formal letter behind)

- Sales presentation (don't just email your proposal - present it)

- Marriage proposal

- Request for a raise (but bring notecards with your key points)

Have you been correcting non-errors? Test your knowledge in the 10 items below. Only two sentences contain an error in grammar or usage. Can you recognize which two? Do not edit for style--focus on true errors. Choose the two sentences...

If someone asked you how to do something, would you act it out, using no words at all? Of course not. Yet, in our increasingly post-literate world, it seems like organizations are afraid to use prose. It doesn't cost anything,...

I've said it before, but it's a Monday morning and I'll say it again:

When you are going to write something (email, document, web content, whatever), always ask what the goal is before you start.

Why are you writing that email?

Why did your boss ask you to write that document?

Who is going to read what you're writing, and what do they need to know?

A solid primer on some commonly confused words.  I have only one issue with the post: she refers to the twelfth word as a "bonus word," but is it really a bonus if your title states that the list is 12 items long?

Use it.  Every time.

I don't care how good you are, how many spelling bees you won as a child, or where you went to school.  Typos are everywhere.  

An excellent and succinct post by the great Seth Godin on why not to use clichés (e.g., "References available upon request") on your resume.  

Actually, both are correct, so feel free to use either one.  But pick one and be consistent.  No need to distract your reader and prompt them to ask the same question.

UPDATE:

A fellow writer pointed out that AP and APA style guides prefer "toward" over "towards."  And while "towards" is still used in Britain and Australia, "toward" is the preferred term in the U.S.  

"We provide recommendations for improving your bicycle design."

This sentence isn't very long, but it is longer than it needs to be.  It is also less interesting than it could be.  Let's try it again:

"We recommend improvements to your bicycle design."

The culprit, in this case, is the unnecessary addition of the verb "provide."  Extra words add unnecessary weight to a sentence and bury your key words (the words that REALLY describe what you're doing or offering - in this case "recommending improvements").  And while my example is just one sentence and may not seem like a big deal, an entire document full of these errors is exhausting and boring to read.