The A to Z of Plain Text

Monthly Archives: November 2009

Z – ZEN: MINIMALISM IN SENTENCES

By timadmin | Published: November 30, 2009
The business world is notorious for ignoring one of the best ways to keep writing readable: short sentences. Take this fictional, yet typical, opening sentence of a press release: “Anycompany, a leading developer of best-in-class hardware solutions for business-to-business supply-chain optimisation, today announced a strategic partnership with leading retail systems integration [...]
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Y – YANKS: UK AND US ENGLISH

By timadmin | Published: November 30, 2009
There are no writing topics of any substance that begin with the letter ‘Y’. So under the colloquial title of ‘yanks’, let’s discuss the two variants of English most commonly used in business writing. Although many think it so, there is no qualitative difference between American English and British English. [...]
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X – EXACTITUDE

By timadmin | Published: November 30, 2009
Okay, it doesn’t begin with X. But exactitude, or accuracy, is a crucial aspect of business writing: Spelling mistakes – Although spellcheckers should never be relied on as the sole way of checking documents, their ubiquity means there is really no excuse for basic spelling errors. [...]
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W – WEB, WRITING FOR

By timadmin | Published: November 30, 2009
The world wide web is a fantastic publishing medium. Anyone, anywhere, with a web browser can access it; it’s easy to update materials; quick and cheap to publish; and adding links to other pages enhances the value of your own. But the web [...]
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V – VAGUENESS

By timadmin | Published: November 30, 2009
If your reader has to guess what you mean, you’ve failed as a communicator. “Pedestrians are requested to proceed with caution on these steps during inclement weather” Perhaps the council’s signwriters, who crafted this example, are paid by the letter. “Slippery when wet” or “These steps may be hazardous [...]
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U – UNNECESSARY WORDS

By timadmin | Published: November 30, 2009
“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter”. (Seventeenth century philosopher Blaise Pascal) Concise writing is hard to produce. The trouble with some words is that they are, basically, overused and unnecessary. To all intents and purposes, they are redundant. The end [...]
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T – TELLING STORIES

By timadmin | Published: November 30, 2009
Much writing in business assumes that readers are more interested in a lengthy explanation of, say, a product’s features than an interesting narrative explaining why it is good. So we get sentences like this: ‘X’s core product suite delivers an open, robust, cross-platform scalable [...]
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S – SPEECHES AND PRESENTATIONS

By timadmin | Published: November 30, 2009
Business people spend a great deal of energy and time preparing, delivering and listening to speeches and presentations. This is not always enjoyable: presenters struggle to get complex slides and notes together and audiences fight to stay awake. However, if you follow some simple rules, giving and receiving [...]
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R – RELEVANCE

By timadmin | Published: November 30, 2009
What’s happening and why is it important to me? Whether it’s a new business letter or email, a press release, or a brochure, it’s vital to explain relevant information quickly. Your time-pressured audience may not be reading your copy out of choice. They will swiftly reject anything that seems irrelevant. So [...]
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Q – QUOTATIONS

By timadmin | Published: November 30, 2009
Get someone else to do your selling for you. Quote them. “Since installing X’s sales management product, we’ve seen a significant increase in orders.” (A Customer) A third-party endorsement or reference is the best way to add credibility to promotional materials. Work hard to get a concrete statement like the one above, [...]
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