Communication

Why Bother with Traffic Lights When Writing?

Punctuation in writing is like traffic signs when driving. If we do not know the rules or do not follow the rules then we do so at our risk.

When you write do you revise and proof read your work? If you don’t then you may be severely jeopardizing your professional reputation.

Why Bother?

If you send someone a letter that is poorly written then what does it say about you and your professionalism. If you send written material with spelling errors or mistakes in grammar or punctuation then what does it say about how you view the importance of that written material? What does it say about how you view the importance of the person you are sending the material to?

Good writing is respectful of the reader’s time. Poor writing states “I do not care about you”. A rambling report or a poorly punctuated e-mail or a grammatically incorrect letter says “I don’t care about your time.” Why would someone want to do business with you after that?

Here is an example of a real e-mail I received after visiting a website. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Dear gary Horsman,

We noticed that you visited the Pet Rock Association website and registered for our newsletter. We noticed that you did not register for the up-coming convention. If you would like to register then please click on the link http://www.registernow.com. If you do not wish to register then there is no need to contact us.

If you wish to register in the future then please go to www.registernow.com and follow the links to register.

Thank you,

PRA Registrar

This e-mail was composed by, I suspect, a human. I feel it was sent to me by an auto-responder. The creator of this e-mail did not think very much about the content of the message. The creator did not do a test mailing and has left me with a very unfavorable impression of their organization.

If someone had proofed this message they would have said “Whoa!” “Do I really want to sound like that?” Did “PRA Registrar” do any proof reading? The purpose of the message was certainly not to impress me with their lack of professionalism.

When you write like this the reader does not know what to make of it. Perhaps you do not care. Are you illiterate? Are you just sloppy? The reader must make a decision and I think that “PRA Registrar loses no matter what the conclusion.

When we write we can draft a letter, edit the letter and then polish it and arrange it so that we look brilliant and professional. There is no excuse for poor work. We set our own standards and we decide to uphold them or to be sloppy.

I like these two quotes:

“The beautiful part of writing is that you do not have to get it right the first time, unlike a brain surgeon.” - Robert Cormier

“What makes men (and women) great is their ability to decide upon what is important and then focus their attention on it.” - Goethe

The art of writing is a three-step process.

1. You must analyze to determine why you are writing, define what you want to say, establish what you intend to accomplish and then explain the next step.
2. Then you must be creative to put into nice words all the items from step one.
3. Fnially, revise, proof read and polish your work.

You cannot skip any of these parts and be successful at writing and today I receive a great deal of material that shows me that many of us are skipping part three. Do so at your own risk.

Gary Horsman is the President of Presentations That Talk. Visit the website of Presentations That Talk at http://www.PresentationsThatTalk.com. This site is full of advice and educational material to help you with your online presentations and communications.

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