Writing That Works, 3e_ How to Communicate Effectively in Business - Kenneth Roman [2]
Their judgment of you specifically includes the evidence you give them in the e-mail you dash off. It comes as a surprise to many people that readers of e-mail do not abandon their standards just because they are looking at a screen rather than a piece of paper.
“Because it’s just e-mail,” says Christie Hefner, CEO of Playboy Enterprises, “people think they don’t have to be grammatical or spell things right or take the trouble to write well. It’s very annoying.”
Slapdash comes across as slapdash, wordy as wordy, and poor spelling and grammar as signs of ignorance or sloppiness.
It is best to stick to standard English usage and to observe the conventions of spelling and punctuation. We advise this not out of academic fussiness but from observing how things are. If you write “it’s” with an apostrophe to signify the possessive of “it” (wrong), instead of the contraction of “it is” (right), not all readers will detect your lapse. But those who do may be the ones who count. There still seems to be some correlation between literacy and seniority.
Important matters are usually examined in writing — either in a paper to be studied privately, or in a formal presentation. It isn’t enough that you know all about your subject. You must make yourself clear to somebody who has only a fraction of your expertise. Above all, you must express your point of view persuasively. We have seen hundreds of papers that assert a point of view with energetic enthusiasm, but astonishingly few that make a persuasive case. Often enough the case itself is a good one. But the writer self-destructs in any or all of the ways we go into later on.
“It is an immutable law of business,” said the former head of ITT, Harold Geneen, “that words are words, promises are promises, but only performance is reality.” By itself, good writing is no guarantee of success. But words are more than words, and poor performance can often be traced to poor communication. Your ability to write persuasively can help you get things done and arrive at your goal — today, this month, or during the decades of your career.
Making time to write well
Writing better does not mean writing more. There is paper enough in our lives now — despite the computer and e-mail — and precious little time to read it. This book suggests some of the ways that improving your writing can save time for other people. But what about your time? While you respect the time of others, you must also protect your own.
It takes time to write well. People are wrong when they say there are only twenty-four hours in a day, observes management guru Peter Drucker — there are actually only two, perhaps three, that you can use productively, and the difference between busy executives and effective ones is how they use that time. Effective means picking your spots, concentrating your energies on a major document or project or speech that will make a difference.
The biggest time waster is shuffling things from one pile to another while you drown in a sea of indecision. Effective executives try to handle paper only once — hard to do, but it works. They delete or respond to e-mail on the spot. They decide quickly whether to answer, file, or toss out. They respond to easy matters instantly — by return e-mail or through comments written directly on letters and memos and returned at once. Or send short handwritten notes (or e-notes) of direction, praise, or criticism.
Major papers, on the other hand, require study. Read them actively, get to the principal arguments, and decide what must be done. Consider a “maturing file” for knotty problems. Many disappear if given time. Others call for more thought.
There is no rule that says you must answer or file everything that is sent to you. Fortune columnist Stewart Alsop became so swamped with the flood of e-mail that he first