Business Writing and Editing for Professionals Key Terms

Term Definition Introduced In

Active Voice Active voice is when you construct your sentences so that the subject of the sentence is doing the action, rather than being acted upon. Marge ate the carrots is in active voice. Module 1

Audience As a writer, your audience is whoever is likely to read your document, whether they are your intended readers or not. Write to your intended readers, but consider who else might receive your document as a forward or by happenstance. Module 1

Benefits While features describe an item's or an idea's properties, benefits show readers why they should act or believe. Benefits are the selling points. They show readers what's in it for them if they buy into what you have to say. Module 1

Call to Action A call to action is when you try to persuade your readers to take action, either with a direct plea to get them to do something or with more subtle persuasive wording. Module 2

Cause and Effect The cause and effect organizational pattern shows the relationship among actions or events and their consequences. Module 3

Chronological Order The chronological order organizational pattern presents thoughts in the order in which they happened. Use this technique to present a history of events or tell a story. Module 3

Compare and Contrast The compare and contrast organizational pattern analyzes and evaluates two or more things, showing either differences or similarities. Module 3

Concise To be concise is to express key information clearly and in as few words as are necessary. Module 1

Inverted Pyramid The inverted pyramid is a journalistic writing technique that puts the most important pieces of information up front, with supporting information in subsequent sentences or paragraphs. Module 3

Mindmap A mindmap is a prewriting technique that visually outlines information around a central key word or phrase. The writer links, via lines, the key word or phrase to its supporting ideas or concepts and then breaks each supporting idea or concept down further into subpoints. Module 2

Outline An outline is a prewriting technique in which the writer plans a document. The final document's purpose generally serves as the title for the outline, and each supporting idea and its subpoints is listed in a linear fashion. Module 2

Passive Voice Passive voice is when you construct your sentences so that the subject of the sentence is acted upon rather doing the action. The carrots were eaten by Marge is in passive voice. Module 1

Purpose Your purpose as a writer is to get your reader to act or to impart information to your reader. A clear purpose is critical to an effective document. Module 1

Step-by-Step Order Step-by-step order is used to present steps in a fixed order, as in to present instructions. Module 3

Storyboard A storyboard is a graphic representation of a document's eventual layout. It is a prewriting technique that allows the writer to visualize the parameters of a longer document, noting where text will fall, where graphics are required, etc. Module 2

Style Guide A style guide is a reference tool that provides guidelines for creating effective written documents. Module 5

Tone Your tone is your attitude about what you are writing. With your word choice and your overall approach to a document, you convey how you feel about the topic, the people to whom you are writing, and even yourself. Module 4

Writer's Block Writer's block is a psychologically based inability to start or continue working on a document. Module 1

Business Writing and Editing for Professionals Module 1: Is Writing the Best Way to Communicate? Most of us have had the following experience or have gone through

something similar. You get an email from someone, and after you wade through

the message, you are left with more questions than answers. So, you respond to

the sender, asking questions to clarify what you are supposed to do with the

information in the email. The sender writes back an even LONGER email,

elaborating on the original message, but not actually addressing your questions.

You think, "Well, I didn't really need more detail about what you already said . . . I

STILL don't know what I'm supposed to do." So, you write back, and you

rephrase your questions, italicizing key points to be sure the sender pays

attention this time. Your phone rings. It's the sender, and he says, "I decided it

was just easier to call and explain what I meant in the email." Within a minute,

you know exactly what you are supposed to do, and you can move forward.

Frankly, writing isn't always the best way to communicate. Now, some

personalities prefer writing to talking -- introverts or people who don't like to be

interrupted when they're concentrating, for example. But whether you prefer to

communicate in writing or not, some things flat-out should not be dealt with in

writing. You should never discipline someone or address a sensitive subject in an

email. You can follow up with an email after a personal conversation, but some

things are better handled face to face. If a topic is complex and you know it will

raise questions and concerns, speak about it in person rather than trying to

communicate in writing.

Face-to-face communication -- on a webcam or in person -- offers several

advantages. Most importantly, it lets you make eye contact with the other person,

and in our culture, eye contact is crucial to respect and mutual understanding.

Face-to-face communication also allows you and your message's recipient to see

each other's body language and hear each other's tone of voice -- how you are

delivering and how they are receiving your message, whether they are

comfortable with what you are saying . . . Some specialists say that as much as

97% of a message is conveyed via nonverbal communication. That means that

when you put something in writing -- relying solely on words -- you are missing

the 97% of the message that comes from nonverbal communication. You are

delivering only 3% of the total message! No wonder you eventually have to pick

up a phone or drop by and talk face-to-face! Face-to-face or telephone

communication lets you ask clarifying questions as soon as you receive

someone's message, so there's no lag time with the two of you writing back and

forth, trying to understand the original message's intent.

But, written communication has its advantages, too, despite the limitations

I just cited. Written communication allows you to repeat someone's exact

message. This is handy in daily business, but it is particularly crucial from a legal

standpoint. Anything you commit to writing on the company's behalf is considered

a record, and it can be subpoenaed for a trial. Another advantage, both in

business and in the case of a lawsuit, is that you can retrieve someone's exact

message after an extended period of time. So, even though your brain might not

remember all the facts, they are etched in time in that written document.

Another advantage of writing is that you can reach a large and widely

scattered audience. You can send the exact same written message to thousands

of people worldwide, if you wish. Of course, those thousands might then interpret

the same message in a thousand different ways . . . which is exactly why you

must strive to instill the 4 Characteristics of Effective Business Communication

into everything you write.

The 4 characteristics are that all business communication must be clear,

concise, concrete, and crucial. What does each of these characteristics mean?

Well, clear means that you must have a well-defined purpose before you create

your message. Your point must be clear from the moment your reader starts

reading. Concise means that you deliver your message in the shortest manner

possible, to save your recipients time and to lessen the likelihood of confusion.

Concrete means that you stick with need-to-know, pragmatic content rather than

going off on unnecessary tangents. And crucial means that you have considered

whether it is necessary to deliver a message at all -- that what you have to say is

a must-have piece of communication for your recipients, not just an exercise in

wasted time.

To guarantee clarity and simplicity in your writing, follow the 5 Simple

Rules That Guarantee Clarity and Simplicity.

The first essential step goes back to that Crucial characteristic I just

mentioned -- you must know what you are writing about and why you are writing,

and it must be for a legitimate reason.

Second, you must know your audience. Envision the person or people to

whom you are writing. Consider their personalities, their background knowledge

about the subject at hand, their preferred communication style, and how much

detail they need or like.

Third, know what you want your audience to do. Do you want them to act

in some way after reading your message? Or do you just want to inform them, so

they're not caught off guard?

Fourth, know how to reach your audience. Find out how they prefer to

communicate -- whether it's via email, texting, formal reports, blogging . . . or

perhaps they prefer to talk in person or on the phone. The best way to deliver a

clear message is to deliver it in your recipient's preferred communication style.

The fifth simple rule is to know how to influence your audience. Whether

you are asking the audience to act or you are just informing them about

something, you still want to influence them -- you want them to believe what you

have to say, see you as credible, and recognize you as the go-to person on the

subject. That all takes some persuasion. Consider the tone you should use for

your purpose. Can you infuse a lighthearted bit of humor? Or would that affect

your credibility or be inappropriate for the topic? Identify the benefits to the

reader in reading and believing what you have to say. Tie the benefits to the

consequences of acting or not acting -- or knowing versus not knowing. For

example, "Use the attached form for check requests and you will be paid within

five days (that's the benefit). If you continue to use the old form, it will be up to

thirty days before you receive payment (that's the consequence of not acting)."

This might seem like a lot to consider before you even put pen to paper --

or fingers to keyboard.

But you really can go from start to finish in 5 easy steps: prewrite (or plan),

draft (get your ideas down without worrying about grammar), revise (this is when

you consider grammar and structure), proofread (to be sure your writing is

correct and that it conveys a professional image), and publish (this is when you

hit "Send" or deliver a final, printed version of your document to your audience).

Prewrite, draft, revise, proofread, publish. Five easy steps, and you've gone from

idea generation to delivery. In the next module, we'll look at the first step --

prewriting.

Module 2: Prewrite Even professional writers face "blank page paranoia" -- where they sit and

stare at the computer's blinking cursor, wondering what to type next. But

professionals have some tools up their sleeves to keep them going, because

their livelihoods depend on getting words written. Let's take a look at some of

their techniques right now.

Most of us have brainstormed at one time or another, in our heads, on our

own, or as a group with some coworkers.

Brainstorming is a great way to get ideas out -- to follow your brain down a

path of discovery. But brainstorming by itself doesn't lead to a document. It needs

some structure to make it a particularly useful practice. That's where

mindmapping comes in.

A mindmap, true to its name, is like imposing a map on brainstorming.

Rather than just spewing ideas in a randomly created list, you start with your

purpose in the center of the page, and from there you branch out to logical main

points.

Imagine that you are in charge of planning the company picnic. So, you

write "Company picnic" in the middle of the page. From that central point -- that

purpose -- you branch off to "date and time," a second branch leads to

"location," a third branch leads to "food," a fourth branch leads to "entertainment."

Then, from each of those branches you link to subpoints -- let's call them "twigs" -

- that address each of the branches. Under location, for example, you might type,

"shelter in park," "Bob's ice cream parlor," "grassy area behind the south office" --

anything that the word "location" triggers.

"But, how does that plan a document?" you might ask. Here's how. You

now have your purpose (to convey information about the company picnic) and

your main points (here's when the picnic is, here's where the picnic is, here's

what we're eating, here's what we'll have for entertainment). From there you can

add as much detail about each main point as you think your audience needs.

A mindmap adds structure to your thoughts, and from the mindmap, you

can create a more formal outline, if that's how you prefer to write, or if that's what

your boss prefers you to do.

In this example, company picnic is your outline's topic. Date and time are

point 1. Location is point 2, and

subpoints under point 2 might be what the location offers, how to get to it, and

where to park. Food might be point 3, and your subpoints will describe the food

and drinks that will be offered at the picnic. Entertainment might be your fourth

point, and your subpoints will describe the entertainment options -- the band

that's playing, the games available for the kids, etc. You get the idea.

Another way to impose some structure on your mindmap is to write each

main point and its subpoints on sticky notes. This method is useful for more

complex or abstract topics that don't have clear-cut main points and subpoints.

When you're sitting there thinking, "Well, I could cover this here, but it kind of fits

here, too . . ." you can use the sticky note method to move ideas around until

they click into the most logical order. Cutting and pasting on the computer does

the same thing, but you can't always see the full document on the computer

screen. The sticky note approach lets you see all of the points you have to cover

all at one time, and that can make it easier to consider what should go where.

Another approach that professional writers use is called a storyboard. You

might have heard of storyboarding in advertising or marketing -- or in animation

or filmmaking. A storyboard is a pictorial map of, in our case, a document. It's a

graphic organizer, meaning that you hand draw what each section of your

document will look like, including graphs, charts, photographs, headings and

subheadings, and the like. Or, you can use one of many storyboarding software

programs to graphically organize your document.

If most of what you write is emails or memos, you probably don't need to

storyboard. But if you create manuals, training workbooks, or reports,

storyboarding can help you envision the big picture, and you can see at a glance

whether you have added visual interest, appropriate white space, the correct

photos, etc.

So, those are a few methods you can try to overcome writer's block. Let

me give you a few more ideas to get past the roadblocks.

This might sound counter-intuitive, but step away from the document for a

while. Go do something completely unrelated -- something menial. Believe it or

not, your brain will still work on the problem, even though you're not consciously

focused on it. You might be carrying the recycling bin to the shredder when --

EUREKA! -- a brilliant idea comes to you.

Another helpful thing to try is a walk. Walking -- even just around the block

-- releases serotonin into your system, which cuts your stress and relaxes you.

The extra oxygen in your system helps, too, and you just might see something

while you're out that triggers a thought or idea you hadn't considered.

Sometimes, just rewording the problem can help. Instead of thinking of the

topic exactly as it was assigned to you, try rephrasing it so that you make it your

own and internalize it. Put the problem into your own words rather than trying to

wedge someone else's words into your brain. It can make a big difference in how

your mind processes the problem.

Getting a drink or something to eat can help you come up with ideas, too.

Taking your mind off the assignment and focusing instead on the physical

nourishment can trigger thoughts you haven't yet had.

Listening to music can help, too, though if you're trying to concentrate,

then go with Classical or smooth jazz. If you turn to a station that's playing songs

with words, you're likely to consciously or subconsciously focus on those words,

which can make it challenging to write your own words.

A final idea to help you overcome writer's block is to ask around. Talk with

coworkers, family, friends -- even try saying something on Facebook. "Writing a

report about copiers. Can't figure out where to start." You'll get the "better you

than me" comments, but you'll also get some helpful suggestions from people

who've been there or who know a contact who might be able to help.

Once you have overcome writer's block and gotten your prewriting done,

you can focus on drafting your document.

Module 3: Draft

After you have generated and organized your ideas, it's time to draft your

document. Now, keep this in mind. A draft is NOT a final version.

It can have grammatical errors, mistakes, and be completely off the wall --

because this is a test, and only a test. This is not the version you will publish for

all to see.

Why am I emphasizing this point? Because too many people get hung up

on the mechanics of writing rather than focusing on their good ideas. They worry

so much that their spelling is wrong or their punctuation is incorrect that they

can't even get their thoughts out. This is the biggest hurdle for many writers, and

it leads to poorly formed ideas covered in gobbledygook, meaningless language.

So, let's look at how to write a focused, engaging draft of your document.

First, state your objective clearly and concisely. I literally mean "state" --

as in, say it aloud, in one sentence. State what you want your reader to do --

"I want my reader to use the right requisition form from now on." Or, state

what you want your reader to know --

"I want my reader to know why I went with the blue logo instead of the

black one." Again, envision the recipient as you write, which will help you with the

next point, which is that you need to think and write in active voice, as if you are

speaking directly to your audience.

Active voice means that the subject of each sentence is doing the action in

the sentence, rather than being acted upon. For example, take this passive voice

example: "All health forms should be turned in by employees to their managers

before Wednesday." Who is supposed to turn in the health forms? The

employees are, and presumably the message is being sent to the employees.

So, let's move the employees to the front of that sentence. "Employees, please

turn in all health forms to your managers before Wednesday." It's shorter and

clearer this way. It's more engaging to read. Passive voice is unclear, wordy, and

it feels stodgy. Active voice evokes action.

To be sure you are using the active voice, watch out for the word "by."

Note in the passive example I just gave,

"All health forms should be turned in by employees." The "by" is a red flag

that the sentence is in a passive form. Also pay attention to past-tense verbs. In

this sentence "turned" is a red flag. Note that in the active form of the sentence,

we make the past-tense "turned" into the present-tense "turn" -- "Please turn in

all health forms."

Keeping active voice in mind as you go, next, consider the best way to

organize what you have to say. There are a few different ways you can organize

your content.

To present a history of events, use a chronological approach. This pattern

organizes your thoughts in the order in which they actually happened. Use this

pattern to tell a story or to relate the back story of a decision you made or an

action you want to take.

If you need to present ideas in a fixed order -- like to tell someone how to

do something -- use the step-by-step pattern of organization. This approach, as

its name suggests, requires you to list each step in the order in which it should

occur. If you're making a sandwich, for example, step one might be, "Decide

what type of sandwich to make," step two might be, "Choose either white or

whole-wheat bread," etc.

Another organizational method is compare and contrast. Use this

approach to analyze and evaluate two or more things, showing either differences

or similarities. This is a great method to use when you are trying to illustrate how

one choice is better than another. For example, "While both copiers can print

100 copies per minute, the Acme copier costs two-hundred dollars less and uses

biodegradable toner."

Next, there is the cause and effect pattern for organizing content. Cause

and effect shows the relationship among actions or events and their

consequences. This technique is ideal for calling readers to action. "If you donate

$500, three children will live." In this case, donating $500 is the cause, and three

children will live is the effect.

Another organizational method to consider -- one that journalists use most

frequently -- is the inverted pyramid method. The inverted pyramid method puts

the most important pieces of information up front. In journalistic terms, this is

called the lead. The great thing about putting your most important information up

front is that your readers are more likely to read and remember the must-know

information, because it's right there, at the start of the document. Whether or not

your reader continues deeper into the document, he or she will have the gist of

your entire document based on your opening few words. After your lead, you

move into the body. This is where you put additional benefits, evidence,

background, details, arguments for and against, consequences, etc. You expand

on and support your lead.

To get your reader to continue into the body of your document, you must

give him or her a reason to continue reading. Using a logical organizational

pattern will assist with this, but so will a strong hook or opener -- the lead in itself

isn't always enough to stimulate the kind of interest that will keep someone

reading. Sometimes, you have to help the lead along, no matter how important

the information in it might be. Grab your audience's attention with a startling

statement, a quotation, a rhetorical question, or a challenge . . . Or make your

lead a call to action. This is particularly effective in brief messages, like emails.

"Please turn in time cards before 3pm or I cannot pay you on Monday."

From there you could add details, "Accounting changed the due date for time

cards and invoices. If you have any questions or concerns, please call me."

One last important point about the drafting step of the writing process:

your first draft will not and should not be your only draft. Even one-line emails

need planning and rewriting in order to be as effective as possible in delivering

your intended message. The longer or more complex the document, the more

time you can expect to spend in the drafting - revising - drafting cycle. Drafting

and revising go hand in hand.

Module 4: Revise

Prewriting and drafting lead naturally into revising. If you have done a solid

job in planning and sequencing your content, your revisions will be relatively

straightforward.

Start your revisions with the 3-step quick assessment to help you hear

your message.

First, read your document aloud, focusing on the content and tone.

See how the words roll off your tongue. Does the content feel natural and

conversational? Or are you stumbling over passive constructions and

cumbersome business-speak? Do you sound sincere and professional? Or

sarcastic and snippy?

Imagine your readers as they read the content. What might their facial

expression be? Will the content make sense to them? What questions might they

have?

Finally, have someone else read your document to you. Close your

eyes and listen to just the words, so the reader's body language doesn't affect

the written message. Consider the word choice, the tone, and whether or not you

conveyed your purpose.

This last point is the bottom line. While you're listening to someone

else read your document, think about how you would rewrite for clarity. You want

the opening sentence to grab the reader's attention -- a good hook -- or to at

least have a strong lead that gets to the point immediately, giving readers the gist

and making them want to read more.

As you assess your document -- and this is easier when someone else

is reading it to you -- pay attention to places where you might have gone off on

an unnecessary tangent. Remember, if the material doesn't support or further

your point, take it out. This will save your reader time, frustration, and confusion,

and it will make your document more concise and on point.

As you read through or listen to your document, think about whether

the material makes sense as it's currently presented. It might have made sense

to you when you drafted it, but as you re-evaluate, pay attention to whether the

organizational pattern you chose is really the best way to convey your purpose.

Transitions are easier to hear when someone else reads the document

aloud, too. If a transition isn't smooth, you will feel jarred -- as if you bounced

from one subject to another without preparation. Remember, transitions are like

road signs. They warn you that a new route is coming, and then they tell you

which way to turn to follow that route. Help your readers to your next point. Usher

them from one topic to the next. Make each sentence build on the sentence

before -- each idea relate back to the topic sentence of the paragraph -- each

paragraph relate back to the purpose of the document.

Consider, too, whether your account is accurate. If you have a niggling

feeling that the story you recounted might not be quite right, double-check with

others to get your facts straight. Double-check times and names and facts and

figures.

The last thing to check when rewriting for clarity is the call to action.

Did you call the readers to action near the start of the document? Did you repeat

the call to action during a longer document and then again at the end? When you

wrote the calls to action, did you provide all necessary information so the readers

know exactly what to do next? If your entire purpose is to get the readers to do

something, your call to action must be emphatic.

When assessing your call to action, and the rest of your draft, keep an

eye out for red flag words and phrases. These are the words that might offend,

alienate, or confuse your readers -- or that could damage your credibility as a

communicator. The words "always" and "never" and phrases "should have" and

"would have" can come across as accusatory. "You always ask for the

conference line at 10am. If you wanted it at 8am, you should have let me know."

See how these words sound like finger-pointing and blame?

Weak words and phrases like "very" and "really" or "sort of" and "kind

of" take away from your document's punch. Rather than coming across as

confident, they make you seem uncommitted and uncertain. "I really liked the

factory. It kind of reminded me of the one on 5th Street." These words make your

writing wishy-washy and non-specific. If you liked it, be precise about what you

liked. If it reminded you of something else, tell what aspects made you compare

the two. "The layout of the factory is well-planned, efficient, and obviously

focused on worker safety. I expect productivity and morale to be as high as at the

factory on 5th Street."

The phrase, "to be honest" has crept into the English language and it

won't go away. It sends a subliminal message to your readers. It tells them, "I'm

not usually honest, but this time I'm going to be honest with you . . ." We'd like to

assume that you are always honest with us. Don't make us doubt you from this

point forward!

"Due to the fact that," "on account of," and "the reason why is because"

are all wordy ways of saying something straightforward. Instead, say, "since" or

"because."

"Irregardless" is not a word. People say it. Some people write it, even

though their computer puts a squiggly red line under it as a warning. Just be sure

you aren't one of those people. "Utilize" is a word, but it's too often written in

place of the plain old, shorter and much clearer word "use."

To keep yourself accurate, consistent, and up-to-date in your writing,

try these ideas. First, research online. While you can't trust everything that's out

there, searches will offer you multiple sources and opinions, and you can

eliminate any that seems suspicious or questionable. You will find reputable

online dictionaries, Thesaurauses, encyclopedia, writing labs, journals, websites,

blogs, and more that can help you perfect your documents. Also, keep copies of

your boss's documents, so you are sure to cite your organization's most up-to-

date information, terminology, forms, and tools. Find, keep, and emulate other

people's examples of good business writing, too.

If you write the same types of documents over and over, reuse

previous, similar documents as templates -- just change names and dates and

update the content. It's easy to revise your previous documents into fresh, new

content -- and doing so will give readers a sense of consistency and increase

your likelihood of accuracy, since you are not reinventing the wheel every time.

Module 5: Proofread and Publish

The last two steps in the 5-step writing process are proofread and publish.

How you publish depends on the types of documents you produce -- whether you

send an email or send a final draft to a printer. But there are certain steps you

must take before you publish your documents, whether those documents are

electronic or hard-bound.

I highly recommend, if your company doesn't already have one, that you

use a style guide to streamline communications across the organization. Style

guides create consistency in formatting, so customers -- internal and external --

and vendors know what to expect from any of your company's written

communication. Your organization's image is at stake any time you send or

publish a document, so you want to convey the best possible impression.

Style guides can also help you avoid offending your readers. The guides

offer suggestions for how to write courtesy titles, how to avoid gender-based

pronoun issues and other potentially inflammatory issues, and how to come

across as courteous and professional.

Another bonus of a good style guide is that it will provide you with good

examples. Most style guides show you how to format an email, a memo, multiple

types of business letters, reports, charts, graphs . . . and more. They even show

you how to write an effective complaint letter, how to take minutes at a meeting,

and how to write for online publication.

If your company doesn't have its own style guide, take a look at the

Franklin Covey Style Guide, The Gregg Reference Manual, The Chicago Manual

of Style, or the AP Stylebook. Your industry will determine what will work best for

your company, but any of these guides can provide guidance on style issues.

Style guides are valuable throughout the writing process, but they are

particularly useful when you are proofreading and you need to double-check

punctuation and grammar rules -- or to find out how much space you need

between a period and the next word.

To publish error-free documents, the first thing to do is to run Spell Check.

Now, keep in mind, though, that Spell Check won't catch all mistakes. For

example, if you type, "and" -- A, N, D -- instead of "an," -- A, N -- the Spell Check

will not flag it for you. It also will not differentiate among the forms of to, there,

and whose. It is likely to catch accidentally transposed letters, as long as the

transposition creates a non-word. But if you accidentally transpose the letters

and the resulting word is still a word -- for example, if you type "dad" instead of

"add" -- Spell Check will not catch the error. So, yes, it is a helpful tool to an

extent, but you will still need to do a thorough check to catch all of the mistakes.

As you proofread, pay attention to mistakes that you seem to make all the

time. We all have words that trip us up or punctuation that we find challenging.

Write your stumbling blocks down on a sheet of paper and keep the list in your

desk as a job aid for future proofreading sessions.

If you can afford the time, wait a day before you try to proofread your

document. When you are too close to the content, your brain will autocorrect

mistakes and you won't notice that they're there. If you leave and come back to

the document a day or two later, though, your short-term memory will have

forgotten what it was filling in and correcting, and you will see the mistakes you

previously missed.

As you look at a document, scan it first. Just run your eyes over it, from

the upper left to the lower right in a Z pattern. If it's a hard copy, turn it upside

down and look at the white space. This will help you spot where you accidentally

added extra spaces or failed to indent.

Read the document aloud as well as silently. This makes your brain speed

up and slow down at different places within the text, which will make it more likely

that you will catch errors.

If you've spent a lot of hours writing and rewriting the document, ask a

talented coworker to proof it for you. He or she will catch things you might

overlook, since you are so invested in the existing content.

Always check content against the original draft, and ask other

proofreaders to do the same. In longer documents, especially, it's easy to

accidentally move or delete text along the way as you revise the content. To

ensure that everything is included in the final version, double-check against the

original.

Numbers can cause major problems in proofreading. Triple-check them.

Check their alignment. Calculate any mathematical equations and be sure the

answers are accurate.

Finally, check all captions -- the captions under photos, graphs, charts,

and other visuals. Since they are not a part of the body of the document, it's easy

to forget about them, and embarrassing mistakes often lurk in these tiny

segments of text.

As you can see, you really can go from start to finish in 5 easy steps.

Good writing starts with solid prewriting and planning. Get those great

ideas on paper without worrying about spelling and grammar. Then, add some

structure to your thoughts, grouping main points with their supporting information.

From there, create your first draft -- still not worrying about spelling and

grammar -- just focusing on your singular purpose -- a purpose that you can state

in one sentence. "I want my reader to know this or to do that." As you draft,

consider whether you are writing in active voice -- making your subjects do the

action -- and whether the organizational pattern you are using makes the most

sense for the topic.

After each draft, assess your document's clarity and eliminate red flag

words and phrases that might confuse or offend your readers. And, as a last

step, double-check your document against a style guide -- your company's or a

reputable outside guide. Run Spell Check, have someone else proofread your

document for you to catch errors you might miss, check those numbers and

captions, and take one last look at the final product before you distribute it.

While you might never find writing fun, following a step-by-step process

from start to finish can at least make it a manageable task. Thank you.