Writing That Works, 3e_ How to Communicate Effectively in Business - Kenneth Roman [13]
Date your drafts (using the Insert key). The authors would have been totally confused on chapters of this book without dates on every draft. Never ever circulate anything more than two pages long without numbered pages. It’s maddeningly difficult to find a particular place in your document, or refer someone to it, unless the pages are numbered.
3. Give thought to your file names
Newer versions of word processing programs have made it possible to use descriptive titles (not limited to eight characters) for documents in your files. They also made it easy to be clever and get carried away.
As your disk fills up, it gets harder and harder to remember the cute title you gave that letter. And a complicated hunt through everything on your disk will have you longing for the good old days of physically riffling through a file drawer. You should develop a logical and easy-to-remember system for your file names. Professional writers think of their electronic file as a giant drawer with a small number of major folders, each divided into various subfolders, and so on.
For the current edition of this book, WTW3 was the primary folder; e-chapter and c-chapter two of the subfolders for new material on e-mail and computers respectively. In choosing your file names, prefer logic and simplicity to ingenuity. Your file should be a handy tool, not a puzzle or an amusement.
Cautions
“The word processor is an angel but it can’t grant absolution,” says freelance writer David Swift. Because edited work looks so perfect on the screen, it’s easy to be deluded into thinking that it really is.
Proofread — and proofread again. Never send any document without checking everything with your own eyes. It’s a good idea to do your proofreading on a hard copy rather than on your computer screen. We’re not sure why, but when you face a piece of paper like the one your reader is going to see, you become more alert to errors.
Use the spell check program — with care. While it does a good job in highlighting words it thinks are misspelled, sometimes it tries to be too smart and automatically corrects words without asking. That can be dangerous, as one of us found in writing that Savill Gardens outside London had been introduced to him by his friend Stanley Pigott. It was “corrected” to servile gardens introduced by Stanley piglet. Computers are only human, one expert noted.
A cartoon showed this on a PC screen.
I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC;
It plainly marks four my revue
Mistakes I cannot sea.
I’ve run this poem threw it,
I’m sure you pleased too no,
Its letter perfect in it’s weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.
The grammar checker is even more fallible.
Stick to the point. In the cartoon strip Shoe, a character sitting in front of his PC replies to an onlooker who has asked what he’s writing: “Nothing so far. But the computer makes writing a lot easier, I’ll say that. With just a flick of the finger I can write reams of nothing. I call it streams of unconsciousness.”
Resisting streams of unconsciousness may call for a conscious effort. Good writers heed their outlines and stick to the point.
Since even a loose first draft can look crisp and finished on your screen, you can fool yourself into mistaking it for a taut masterpiece. The illusion may be magnified by the satisfying whirrings and clickings of your printer as it seemingly certifies that what you’ve written is all set for publication. Careful writers try not to be fooled by appearances.
Be conservative in your choice of type fonts. The most readable fonts (type faces) are the ones used most often by well-edited magazines and newspapers. Choose fonts that resemble what you see in Time or Sports Illustrated, for example. For anything longer