The Write Stuff - Improve Your Image with Better Writing

Editor's Notes

• #12: Which brings me to my last point about writing like a journalist: Take yourself out of the story. Yes, you’re the one that did the six-month research project. Yes, you’re the one that found the memory leak. Everyone gets that. They don’t need a personal narrative of your journey through the debugger and back. That’s background information at best, and it reminds the audience that they’re reading the facts according to this joker. I know, it’s not fair, but sometimes a neutral voice is more believable. <click> Have a look at this example. Ok, there’s valuable information in there, but it’s buried in an anecdote that’s frankly not very interesting. <click> Let’s look at the same information, with the personal narrative removed. Notice how much easier it is to understand what point is being made, and how much more believable it sounds. As a bonus, there’s useful information in there that’s missing in the first account, with fewer words. You’ll notice something, reading the front-page of a good newspaper. (uh, “paper” is another old industry term like “lede”, it has to do with trees and uh.., 2-d printing. Don’t worry about it). Anyway, on the front page of the New York Times, for example, you’ll see there are a lot of stories, with a lot of different authors. But if you don’t read the bylines, it’s very difficult to tell just from the writing, who wrote which story. Part of that is the institutional style and “voice” that each paper adopts and enforces, but a big part of that is in the telling of the story. Look at the examples again. “someone told me x and that made me feel funny, so I did y and found out z after I talked to q” versus “x and z, according to q”. It’s the same basic information, but it’s presented in an objective style and without the personal narrative. Direct, concise writing comes off as confident and assertive. That will look better for you than making the story about yourself.
• #13: That’s tip #1. Write like a journalist. <click> Remember the inverted pyramid, lead, body and background <click> keep your language accessible and professional, <click> and keep the voice neutral and detached.
• #14: Tip number 2 is to learn your grammar and punctuation. <click> Fairly obvious, I know, but again, we’re talking about an approach here. When it comes to grammar and punctuation, we live in a fallen world, and it seems like a lot of people have just given up, but I believe we can get better together.
• #15: Yes, it’s too late to go back and take an English class. But there are good references available in books and online. Listed here are a few good books and websites that can give you quick answers, there are many many others. (don’t worry, I’ll have a link with all of these resources at the end) Some of them are actually fun to read, no, really! It’s not important that you follow perfect Oxford style, or observe every grammar rule that your teachers savagely beat into you in grade school (I went to Catholic school, I don’t know how it went for you)
• #16: The important thing is that you avoid mistakes that make you look careless, <click> and that confuse the meaning of what you’re trying to say. Smart people mess these up every day, and it takes so little effort to reason out the right usage
• #17: As for punctuation, remember that it only exists in the written word, <click> and its only function is to clarify what is written; <click> to make it ‘sound’ right; so you can render in in your mind, and as you read, as coherent speech. <click> It’s not important to master every nuance of the semicolon or whatever. If you can get to where you’re using commas and apostrophes correctly, you’ll be ahead of the game. Every rule of punctuation has its exceptions. <click> When following a rule reduces clarity, that’s when you can set it aside.
• #18: Let’s take as an example the Oxford Comma, a.k.a. the serial comma. The Oxford comma is that last comma before the “and” in a sentence with a list. <click> Yes, of course! The Oxford Comma! Always! I mean it’s got “Oxford” right in the name, that’s pretty smart, right? Here’s a classic example of why you’d want to use the Oxford comma: <click> OK, it’d be pretty awesome if my parents were the President and Betty Ford, but alas, that’s not the case. <click> The Oxford comma here makes it clear that the President and Betty Ford are separate from my parents. That’s still a one in a million selfie right there. Now, until fairly recently I was kind of a Oxford comma purist. But of course you can always create an opposite case. <click> This one is a little tricky. Is my mother both Betty Ford and God?<click> The comma gets in the way here. The sentence would actually read a bit better without it (it still comes off as pretentious but you get the idea) It’s helpful to think about the overall flow of the sentence as well. Sometimes that last comma just creates a pause where none is needed.
• #19: Okay, I think we can leave it at that. <click> There are resources you can turn to to make sure you can avoid simple mistakes. Use them. <click> Punctuation is there to serve you, not the other way around. <click> Focus on the basics. That’s all you really need for clear economical writing anyway. <click> Follow the rules when it makes sense, make exceptions when it makes sense. As the saying goes: “Grammar is not math.”
• #20: Okay, tip number three is to Edit!: <click> Editing is sort implicit with the other tips, but it’s important enough to focus on for a minute.
• #21: Editing is the best way to get better at grammar and punctuation every day: It’s a highly, and tragically, overlooked concept. Take the time to read what you have just written before anyone else does. <click> Even with a short email, IM or tweet, don’t just type and hit enter. <click> Catch that awkward phrase. Catch that mis-spelled word. Catch that incorrect fact. Then you won’t be embarrassed by it later. <click> Spell check can deceive you! Remember about “your vs you’re”. <click> Spell check won’t catch those mistakes for you, and those are the mistakes that make you look careless.
• #22:   Think of it this way. If you write a shell script and it’s got an error, it won’t do what you want it to do. It may do something you don’t want. Bash scripters in the room know that this script is bad news. Run it like it’s written and it will delete all the files in your home directory. Written communication is the same. If your writing is full of errors, it won’t do the job that you want it to. It won’t communicate the information and ideas you’re trying to convey
• #23: It pays to read what you’ve written aloud, <click> That is, if you’re somewhere where you can do it without sounding like a lunatic. <click> It gives you a chance to “hear” errors that your eyes may have missed. <click> If a phrase doesn’t sound clear when spoken, then rewrite until it does. If you can hear yourself stumbling over a passage, your reader will too. Remember, tightly written sentences have greater impact. which raises a central point about Editing:
• #24: When you’re done editing, your document should be noticeably shorter than when you started. If it isn’t, go through it again. There are sentences in there that can be shortened or removed, ideas that can be expressed more clearly, and irrelevant data that can be cut out. Writers call this process “killing your precious darlings”. You may be proud of the clever way you put together a particular sentence. But if that sentence doesn’t belong in the document, cut it.   Don’t worry about making sure that every single last piece of background information makes it in. If a reader wants more depth after reading your document, he or she can ask. That’s called “reader engagement”, and it’s good.
• #25: Time for Tip number 4: <click> Apply this approach to everything you write. I’ve been mentioning this through the entire presentation really. Don’t ‘save’ your writing skills for big important documents like annual reports.
• #26: That’s not the majority of what people see from you. Your typical written interaction with others is in the form of emails, wiki pages, instant messages, tweets, things like that. And all of those interactions are having an effect on how you are perceived by your colleagues and your boss.   So what if you’re writing a technical document that’s only going to be circulated your team? Take the time to write it well anyway. You never know when your internal technical brief will become the basis for end-user documentation. Make someone else’s job easier by giving them a good document to work from, and they will think well of you. They may even starting coming to you when they want an explanation or advice. That’s a good thing, by the way. Not everybody knows that.
• #27: For email in particular, I want to state one of my personal rules, one I wish everyone would observe: <click> “email is not synchronous. But it is permanent”. <click> It’s not like talking to someone on the face to face; the person with whom you are emailing is not sitting there, hitting refresh over and over, waiting for your reply, That is, unless they have a serious personal problem. At the same time, Email may feel like a throwaway medium, but the reality is that most people keep all of their email these days. Somebody out there is still referring to emails that you sent them months or even years ago. You know it’s true. it is perfectly fine to take a while to respond to an email, to make sure you understand any questions, to make sure you’re providing the right answer. Don’t feel the need to always be the first one to respond to an email thread. <click> This isn’t Reddit; there is no “karma” on the line. Time is your friend here; use it to your advantage to make sure you have all the facts and have thought about your reply Especially if you’re busy or distracted or stressed out, take a breath, count to three, and re-read what you just wrote. <click> The same goes for IM, Twitter, SMS, anything. All it takes is a second to avoid an autocorrect tragedy.
• #28: All right! Four pretty simple tips: <click> Write like a journalist. Inverted pyramid, avoid jargon, neutral voice <click> Learn your grammar and punctuation, but say no to dogma and grammar nazis <click> Edit, edit edit! – Edit! <click> And apply these principles to everything you write. Every text-based form of communication and documentation you do, every day
• #29: To tie it all back together, we’re here talking about career development. You know, especially if the social graces don’t come so easily to you (I suspect there might one or two of us here today), writing is such a great way to improve how you communicate. When you get to the point where you just naturally write clearly and concisely, you may find you’re also better at making yourself understood when you’re talking. It’s good to be considered “the writer” on your team or in your organization. What that really means is that you’re the clear thinker and communicator. The one with influence. This is a huge advantage when it comes time to identify the leader.
• #30: At the link above I have URLs for some great writing resources Or you can look me up on twitter, I’ll post a link there as well Or shoot me an email! I’ll be happy to answer any questions I can
• #31: Thank you everybody! Questions?