Little Errors, Big Distractions. Six Tips to Help Improve Your Business Writing!

Writing for business is a tough thing to do. You've got to come across as intelligent, interesting and rational even when you're writing about the most mundane things. I've assembled 6 tips to help add some polish to your next weekly status report.

If there's a “First”, there's at least got to be a “Second”...

...and if possible, a “Third”, a “Fourth”, etc. I'm not saying the reading public is simple minded or anything, but, if you forget to include at least a “Second” point, the majority of readers will shift focus to finding the “missing” points, rather trying to understand the ideas you are trying to convey. While many will only go off track for a moment or two, even that slight break in flow can have a big impact on how effective your words are.

Proofread the darned thing!

If you're expecting your readers to spend their valuable time to wade through your pearls of wisdom, have the common courtesy to take your valuable time to wade through it first to at least find and correct any grammar, usage, and punctuation errors!

If it's worth taking the time to put it on paper (or into an electronic file), then it's worth taking the time to write it correctly! And that includes, e-mails, text messages, Facebook and LinkedIn messages and every other business communication.

I find that when I force myself to read aloud each word that's on the screen, it's easier to identify issues, clarify confusing expressions and greatly improve the flow and emotional impact of my writing. It you can get someone else to read or listen to you read) your work, that can be a great help, too.

Cut The Cute!

Cute might sell to little girls and Mommies, but it's annoying as hell in business communications unprofessional, too.

If you want your peers to think you're a joke, your boss to ignore you and your customers to think you're a flake and spineless push-over, just start adding an emoticon to every paragraph, dot every “i” with a heart, and include links to sparkly pictures of unicorns, fairies or fuzzy little animals in your signature block.

Cut The Words.

Although it's not always true in fashion, in business communications, brief is beautiful.

I'm a verbose guy – just ask my wife and kids. Knowing this, however, I force myself to do a lot of cutting before I release even a first draft for other folks to read. It's a good idea if you do the same.

You're not a lawyer, don't write like one.

Most lawyers can't even write like a lawyer (should), so what hope is there for you? Big words don't make you look smarter, they make you look pompous and ridiculously out of touch with the real world.

In business communications, write the way you talk, (unless, of course, you talk like a hillbilly, a gansta, or a seven year old girl (see “cut the cute” above). Use correct, “plain” English (or whatever language they're written in).

And if “legalese” is absolutely required, call a lawyer, that's what they're paid to do.

Write Like You've “Got A Pair”.

Take a stand when you write. Be positive and confident. State your case clearly, concisely and right at the beginning! Then support your position with appropriate facts, figures and “expert” opinions.

And remember, there's a difference between confident and arrogant. Don't be arrogant (or obnoxious, or annoying, or even abrasive!).

Follow these tips and you'll be amazed at how much moire effective your writing will be! Remember, though, well written crap is still crap.

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If you need help writing better crap, leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Performance Evaluations - Making The Grade More Palatable

In addition to being a (world class) business consultant and contract negotiator,  I am an educator. A teacher. A college professor, to be exact.

I tell you this not to brag (well, not entirely!), but because being a teacher means that I spend a lot of time analyzing, evaluating, critiquing and rating (grading) other people's work. It's not my favorite part of the job, but it is, unfortunately, a part of the job.

And, as will happen with anything one does for more than 20 years, over the years I've been teaching, I've learned a few things. And one of the least obvious, but most important things I've learned is that for many people, receiving an “objective” performance score (grade) on performance quality standards that include some subjectivity, is a real distraction.

Folks tend to focus first (and longest) on the number you “gave them” and the “points I lost”, rather than on the "points they earned" or the actual quality of their work. They quibble over the minutia of a point or two; ignoring the larger underlying performance issues.  I am more likely to hear “Why did you give me an 84 and not an 86?”, rather than “What do I need to do to earn an “A” next time?”

I've found this is true not only in academic grading systems, but in employee evaluation systems, as well.

It seems the more “objective” we try to make our evaluation systems, the more temptation there is for the student / employee to focus on “the number” rather than the performance underlying the number.

So how do we fix this?  How do we get folks to quit worrying about a point or two and focus on the bigger picture?

That's a good question.  And here are a few things we as individual evaluators can do to help, regardless of the performance evaluation system(s) we're working with:

First, a face-to-face meeting where you can take time to explain the evaluation, to identify specific strengths and discuss areas for improvement before giving the “score” is the most effective way I've found. It's critical here to make sure your verbal comments agree with and support your written comments and that both are consistent with the performance score.

Second, giving them time to read the written evaluation and ask questions / voice disagreements after you've verbally explained the evaluation is critical as well. In the best case, they'll have time to review it immediately following the verbal discussion.

And finally, listen to objections and complaints with an open mind, and be willing to change the evaluation comments or adjust the score when there is a valid reason to do do. None of us is perfect.

And finally, always, always, always make sure that you take the above actions before the evaluation is completed and formally entered into the grading / performance evaluation system. This will go a long way toward letting your students/employees know you're doing your best to be fair and unbiased in your assessments...and that is the biggest thing we can do to get their focus off the minutia and on to the larger issues we need them working on!

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If you need help getting your evaluation system more effective, let me help. Either leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Web 2.0: Separating Fact From Fiction

We hear a lot of talk about Web 2.0 (read “web two point oh”) these days. In the news, in the business press and on the world Wide Web itself. It seems everybody and his brother has a “Web 2.0 compatible” this or a “Web 2.0 capable” that, or can “...help get you working with the latest “web 2.0 aps!”

Like I said, we hear a lot about Web 2.0 these days. Unfortunately, much of what we hear is confusing, conflicting or downright “counterfactual”.

So, let's see if we can't add a little clarity to the discussion.

To start, Web 2.0 is not any single product, company or technological advance. There is no “web 2.0” database”, no “web 2.0” software nor even a “web 2.0 technical specification” to which developers must adhere. Like the terms “green”, “low fat” and “natural”, “web 2.0 is used and abused by anyone who chooses to use it.

Web 2.0 is simply a name used to distinguish one period in the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web from other periods. In a broad sense, “Web 2.0” is an “age” in the same way that “The Middle Ages” and “The Protestant Reformation” are two ages distinct from other periods in history.

The Web 2.0 "age" is currently seen as the period of time during which Internet based information systems moved from delivery systems for "static" information to hosting systems for more fully active and interactive information and communication. 

Although the term has a definite date of birth, the period of time that the term “Web 2.0” describes is much less distinct, with some debate over exactly when (and even IF) the Web 2.0 age started. And on the timeline of all recorded human history, “The Web 2.0 Age” is not much more than a single point in time. 

There are some (most notably Tim Berners Lee, the man widely recognized as the architect of the World Wide Web, though, who believe that the use of the term is premature at best and completely inappropriate at worst. These people point to the interactive Internet we now enjoy as having always been the intent and goal of the initial developers of the Internet and the World Wide Web. 


Many of these folks feel the term "Web 2.0" is little more than marketing hype intended to make it easier for software and system developers to re-package and re-brand tired old products as "the next big thing".

Regardless of which point of view you take, the fact is that the term has entered the lexicon and appears to be here to stay.

Welcome to the "Brave New World**"

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If you need help sorting fact from fiction in your web 2.0 operations, leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

(** the term "brave new world" is from  Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act V, Scene I and was used as the title of an Aldous Huxley book published in 1932)

Copyright 2010 Tom Fawls. All rights reserved.