Writing That Works, 3e_ How to Communicate Effectively in Business - Kenneth Roman [8]
Most Americans are taught that the written language and the spoken language are entirely different. They learn to write in a stiff, formal style and to steer clear of anything that sounds natural and colloquial.
Stiff Natural
The reasons are fourfold There are four reasons
Importantly The important point is
Visitation Visit
Notice how often somebody will say “It sounds just like her” in praise of some particularly effective writing. What you write should sound just like you talking when you’re at your best — when your ideas flow swiftly and in good order, when your syntax is smooth, your vocabulary accurate, and afterward you think that you couldn’t possibly have put things any better than you did.
A first step in achieving that effect is to use only those words and phrases and sentences that you might actually say to your reader if you were face-to-face. If you wouldn’t say it, if it doesn’t sound like you, why write it? (Some people, we’ve noted elsewhere, write the way they talk, but their talk has become impenetrable. They can safely ignore this section.)
The tone of your writing will vary as your readers vary. You would speak more formally meeting the President of the United States for the first time than to your uncle Max. For the same reason, a letter to the President would naturally be more formal than a letter to a relative. But it should still sound like you.
11. Strike out words you don’t need
The song goes, “Softly, as in a morning sunrise” — and Ring Lardner explained that this was as opposed to a late afternoon or evening sunrise. Poetic license may be granted for a song, but not for expressions like those on the next page.
Don’t write Write
Advance plan Plan
Take action Act
Equally as Equally
Hold a meeting Meet
Study in depth Study
New innovations Innovations
Consensus of opinion Consensus
At this point in time Now
Until such time as Until
In the majority of instances In most cases, usually
On a local basis Locally
Basically unaware of Did not know
The overall plan The plan
In the area of Roughly
With regard to About
In view of, on the basis of Because
In the event of If
For the purpose of, in order to To
Despite the fact that Although
Inasmuch as Since
12. Use current standard English
Some years ago, a copywriter wrote this sentence in a draft of an advertisement to persuade more people to read the New York Times.
He always acted like he knew what he was talking about.
Musing over the use of “like” in place of “as though” or “as if,” someone at the Times said: “Yes, I guess that use of ‘like’ will become standard in ten years or twenty, but I don’t think the New York Times should pioneer in these matters.”
The pioneers have multiplied since this book first came out, but we’d advise you on principle to be among the last to join them. New usage offends many ears; established usage offends nobody. Had the copywriter written, “He always acted as if he knew what he was talking about,” it would have seemed both natural and literate.
The old rule is simple: Don’t use “like” in any case where “as if” or “as though” would fit comfortably.
Nothing will call your literacy into question so promptly as using “I” for “me,” or “she” for “her.” Many people, though they have degrees from reputable colleges, make this illiterate mistake: “He asked both Helen and I to go to the convention.” Try the pronoun alone. You would never write, “He asked I to go to the convention.”
13. Don’t write like a lawyer or a bureaucrat
Lawyers say that they have to write to each other in language like this.
BLANK Corporation, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of New South Wales, wishes to permit holders of its Ordinary Shares who are resident in or nationals of the United States, its territories or possessions (“U.S. Holders”) to participate in the Dividend Reinvestment Plan (the “DRP”) on essentially the same terms as those available to