© copyright 2006, komei, inc. 1 manage your writing the mcgraw-hill 36-hour course in business...

© Copyright 2006, Komei, Inc.

1

Manage Your Writing

The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Business Writing and Communication

by Kenneth W. Davis


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Why manage your writing?

• In this knowledge economy, writing is the chief value-producing activity.

• But you may not be writing as well as you could.• That may be because you think writing requires

a special talent that some people have and some people don’t.


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Why manage your writing?

• In fact, writing is a process that can be managed like any other business process.

• If you can manage people, money, or time—then you can manage your writing.

• And you can profit from the results.


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Toffler’s three waves

1. From a hunting/fishing/gathering economy to an agricultural economy

2. From an agricultural economy to an industrial economy

3. From an industrial economy to an information economy


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“Knowledge is power, as the cliché has it. But knowledge is not easy to come by. You earn it by thinking. And all we have to think about is information. So make sure that the information ‘gets around.’”

—James Champy, Reengineering Management


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Become a third-wave communicator1. Pay attention to your communication.

2. Pay attention to its results.

3. Seek out diverse communication.

4. Make your communication process efficient and effective. (Manage your communication!)

5. Start collecting tools and models.


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What a writing course cangive you1. Confidence

2. Process knowledge

3. Reinforcement


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The discipline of the craft

“You shortchange yourself if you that writing is ‘someone else’s problem.’ . . . Even if your job description says nothing about writing, by regarding yourself as a writer, even privately, you can take advantage of the discipline of the craft.”

—Richard Saul Wurman


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One-stage writing

• Getting each sentence right the first time


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Five-stage writing

• Planning• Drafting• Revising• Managing at the

beginning and end• Break in the middle


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The Law of the Next Action

The five-stage writing process• takes the scary job of writing a document, and• breaks it into a series of next actions.


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At the Managing stage

12. Manage your writing.– Remind yourself that writing

can be managed.

– Plan the rest of your writing time.


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At the Planning stage

1. Find the “we.”• Manage your relationship with

your reader.

2. Make holes, not drills.• Manage with purpose.

3. Get your stuff together.• Manage your information.

4. Get your ducks in a row.• Manage your structure.


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At the Drafting stage

5. Do it wrong the first time.• Manage your drafting.


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At the Break stage

6. Take a break and change hats.• Manage your Internal Writer

and Editor.


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At the Revising stage

7. Signal your turns.• Manage your paragraphs.

8. Say what you mean.• Manage your subjects and

verbs.

9. Pay by the word.• Manage your sentence

economy.

10.Translate into English.• Manage your word choices.

11.Finish the job.• Manage your spelling,

punctuation, and mechanics.


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At the Managing stage

12. Manage your writing.– Evaluate your writing process.


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Find the “We”

• Manage your relationship with your reader.


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The old model


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A new model


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Find the “We”

• What is the smallest community that my reader and I are both part of?

• How are my reader and I alike and different?– in Personality– in Attitude– in Circumstances– in Knowledge

“PACK” for your journey through the writing process.


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Personality: the Myers-BriggsType Indicator• Extroversion (E) or Introversion (I)• Sensing (S) or Intuition (N)• Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)• Judgment (J) or Perception (P)


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Attitude: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs


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Knowledge


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Make Holes, Not Drills

• Manage with purpose.


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Make Holes, Not Drills

“Over 10,000 business letters come across my desk every year . . . . Here’s the approach I’ve found that separates the winners from the losers (most of it’s just good common sense)—it starts before you write your letter: Know what you want.”

—Malcolm Forbes


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Death to subject lines

• Purpose: to tell you about ___________________ to ask you to ______________________


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Get Your Stuff Together

• Manage your information.


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Payoffs of collecting information before drafting1. It reduces interruptions while you’re drafting,

giving your draft more continuity.

2. It gives you a chance to focus, for a while, just on your information.

3. It reduces the possibility of omitting important facts.

4. It gives you the confidence to draft more easily, with much less anxiety.


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The reporter’s checklist

• Who?• What?• Where?• When?• Why?• How?


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Interviewing

1. Prepare.

2. Break the ice.

3. Ask basic W/H questions.

4. Listen.

5. Ask follow-up questions.

6. Write down what you’ve learned, as soon as possible.


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Mind-Mapping


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Get Your Ducks in a Row

• Manage your structure.


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Principles of persuasion

• Reciprocation• Consistency• Social validation• Liking• Authority• Scarcity


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WIIFM?

• What’s• In• It• For• Me?


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From information to knowledge• Futurist John Naisbitt: “We are drowning in information

but starved for knowledge.”• Entrepreneur Neil Larson: “Knowledge is information with

structure.”• KM (knowledge management) guru Thomas A. Stewart:

“Intelligence becomes an asset when some useful order is created out of free-floating brainpower.”

• Winnie the Pooh: “Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it’s not all mixed up.”


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Do It Wrong the First Time

• Manage your drafting.


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• “Anything worth doing does not have to be done perfectly—at first.”

–Ken Blanchard and Robert Lorber• “Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but

it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”

–William Faulkner• “The best reason for putting anything down on

paper is that one may then change it.” –Bernard De Voto


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Draft as prototype

• Plan until you can’t plan anymore. • Build a prototype.• Test and improve on the prototype.


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“On the wall of my Vermont writing studio is a quote by David Kelley, founder of IDEO Product Design: ‘Fail faster. Succeed sooner.’ Next to it hangs a saying by the extraordinary photographer Diane Arbus, who told her students, ‘Learn not to be careful.’”

—Tom Peters


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Exercise

• If you can type faster than you can write by hand, open a new document; if you can write faster by hand, grab a pen and paper.

• Write as fast as you can for 10 minutes, without stopping.

• After 10 minutes, just stop.


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Debriefing the exercise

• Notice how much you’ve written.• Notice how it feels to write without editing.


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Writing and “flow”


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Dimensions of flow

• Clear goals• Balance of skill and challenge

• Merger of action and awareness

• Concentration on task• Sense of control

• Loss of self-consciousness

• Altered sense of time• “Autotelic” experience—activity

done for its own sake

• Result of planning stage• Result of growing skill as a

writer• Result of “Law of the Next

Action”• Ditto• Result of self-definition as

writer• Result of drafting without

editing• Ditto• Result of all of the above


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Take a Break and Change Hats

• Manage your Internal Writer and Editor.


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Breaking for objectivity

• See what you wrote, not what you meant to write.

• See the document as the reader will see it.• Overcome your ego.


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Maximize your break time

• If you have an hour, break for at least five minutes.

• If you have two days, break overnight.• If you have a week, break for several days.


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A writer-based memo

• I received the results from the Spring examinations. I want to extend my congratulations to you for your success in passing Parts I & II. I know that to achieve this success took a special effort on your part.

I am pleased that you are interested in your personal development and have taken the initiative to improve your knowledge of the insurance business and to increase your value to the company.


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A reader-based memo

• Congratulations on passing Parts I & II of the Spring examinations. Your success reflects a special effort on your part.

Your interest in your personal development and the initiative to improve your knowledge of the insurance business certainly increase your value to the company.


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The two hats

• The Internal Writer– Converts ideas into written words

• The Internal Editor– Assigns tasks to the Internal Writer– Reviews the Internal Writer’s work


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One-stage writing

• Getting each sentence right the first time

• Wearing both hats at the same time


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Five-stage writing

• Planning– Internal Editor makes the most

complete assignment possible.

• Drafting– Internal Writer drafts the

assignment.

• Revising– Internal Editor reviews the

draft.


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Signal Your Turns

• Manage your paragraphs.


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Revising

“In baseball, you only get three swings and you’re out. In rewriting, you get almost as many swings as you want and you know, sooner or later, you’ll hit the ball.”

—Neil Simon


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Tools for revision

1. Revision tools are not drafting tools.

2. Revision tools are not rules.(“Hell, there are no rules here. We’re trying to accomplish something.” —Thomas Alva Edison)

3. You already have most of the revision tools you need.


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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive. It was the strongest of any tested. It was one of the most water-resistant. It has several disadvantages. Its cost is fairly high. Its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment. Its viscosity would perhaps require modifications in existing equipment. Its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. In my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns

• and– also

– too

– moreover

– furthermore

– in addition

– next

– second

– third


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Signal Your Turns



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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive. It was the strongest of any tested and one of the most water-resistant. It has several disadvantages. Its cost is fairly high. Its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment. Its viscosity would perhaps require modifications in existing equipment. Its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. In my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns

• or– alternatively

– otherwise


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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive. It was the strongest of any tested and one of the most water-resistant. It has several disadvantages. Its cost is fairly high. Its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment. Its viscosity would perhaps require modifications in existing equipment. Its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. In my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive. It was the strongest of any tested and one of the most water-resistant. It has several disadvantages. Its cost is fairly high. Its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment or modifications in existing equipment. Its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. In my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive. It was the strongest of any tested and one of the most water-resistant. It has several disadvantages. Its cost is fairly high, its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment or modifications in existing equipment, and its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. In my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns

• but– however

– nevertheless

– nonetheless

– on the other hand


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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive. It was the strongest of any tested and one of the most water-resistant. It has several disadvantages. Its cost is fairly high, its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment or modifications in existing equipment, and its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. In my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive. It was the strongest of any tested and one of the most water-resistant. It nevertheless has several disadvantages. Its cost is fairly high, its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment or modifications in existing equipment, and its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. However, in my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns

• so– therefore

– thus

– for this reason

• because– since

– for


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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive. It was the strongest of any tested and one of the most water-resistant. It nevertheless has several disadvantages. Its cost is fairly high, its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment or modifications in existing equipment, and its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. However, in my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive. It was the strongest of any tested and one of the most water-resistant. It nevertheless has several disadvantages. Its cost is fairly high, its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment or modifications in existing equipment, and its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. However, in my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I therefore recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns

• colon– specifically

– for example

– to illustrate


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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive. It was the strongest of any tested and one of the most water-resistant. It nevertheless has several disadvantages. Its cost is fairly high, its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment or modifications in existing equipment, and its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. However, in my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I therefore recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns

The next sample, Formula D-7, is an excellent adhesive: it was the strongest of any tested and one of the most water-resistant. It nevertheless has several disadvantages: its cost is fairly high, its viscosity would perhaps require new application equipment or modifications in existing equipment, and its storage-temperature requirements are rather strict. However, in my judgment, these disadvantages are outweighed by its overall quality. I therefore recommend that Formula D-7 be used for the project.


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Signal Your Turns (original)



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Say What You Mean

• Manage your subjects and verbs.


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Hidden subjects

• It is difficult to control costs.• REVISE TO Costs are difficult to control.• OR Controlling costs is difficult.

• There needs to be more tribute paid to these unselfish workers.

• REVISE TO More tribute should be paid to these unselfish workers.

• OR These unselfish workers deserve more tribute.


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Hidden verbs

• He has a tendency to be late.• REVISE TO He tends to be late.

• The consumer must make intelligent choices when buying tires.

• REVISE TO The consumer must choose tires intelligently.


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Hidden verbs

• Ellen made a recommendation that we conduct a survey of employee morale.

• REVISE TO Ellen recommended that we survey employee morale.

• Membership will be twice as much next year.• REVISE TO Membership will double next year.


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Hidden subjects and verbs

• It is not until Wednesday that the parts will arrive.

• REVISE TO The parts will arrive Wednesday.• OR The parts will not arrive until Wednesday.

• There is a wide range of costs.• REVISE TO Costs range widely.


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Active or passive

• PASSIVE: The book was ordered by us last week.

• ACTIVE: We ordered the book last week.


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Active or passive

• In general, use active verbs.• Consider passive verbs when you want to focus

on the receiver of the action, as when– the actor is unknown– the actor is less important– the actor wants to avoid responsibility


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Modifiers

• A new federal regulation regarding the sale of snack foods in competition with federally subsidized meal programs in schools is in effect this fall.

• REVISE TO A new federal regulation is in effect this fall, a regulation regarding the sale of snack foods in competition with federally subsidized meal programs in schools.


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Cumulative sentences

• The engineers concentrated their efforts on total efficiency,

• the highest possible ratio between energy-out and energy-in,

• not just on one or two isolated areas.


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Cumulative sentences

• I suggest a new advertising campaign,• aimed not at our traditional teenage market• but at the growing number of twenty- to thirty-

year-olds,• a campaign emphasizing not glamour • but economy.


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Pay by the Word

• Manage your sentence economy.


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Pay by the Word

• $10• + 10• + 10• + 10• + 10• = Attention and goodwill

• $1• + .25• + 2• + .05• + .10• + 1• + .50• etc.• = Loss of attention and

goodwill


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Objectivity and common sense

• The part is blue in color.• REVISE TO The part is blue.

• His mistakes were three (3) in number.• REVISE TO He made three mistakes.


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“Which-hunting”

• Count the chairs which are in the room.• REVISE TO Count the chairs in the room.

• The state has vast deposits of coal that have not yet been developed.

• REVISE TO The state has vast undeveloped coal deposits.


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Prepositions

• The fertilizer tablets are planted near the roots of the trees.

• REVISE TO The fertilizer tablets are planted near the tree roots.

• The number of applications to schools of business are on the increase.

• REVISE TO Business school applications are increasing.


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Translate into English

• Manage your word choices.


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Word choice

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”

—Mark Twain


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Pseudo-English

Dear Mr. Davis:

Pursuant to your recent inquiry, please allow this communication to serve as reply thereto.

The Girls’ State Basketball Tournament wherein the souvenir program is distributed commands an annual attendance of approximately . . . .


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“Business jargon too often is cold, stiff, unnatural. Suppose I came up to you and said, ‘I acknowledge receipt of your letter, and I beg to thank you.’ You’d think, ‘Huh?’”

—Malcolm Forbes


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IRS 1976

The Privacy Act of 1974 provides that each Federal Agency inform individuals, whom it asks to supply information, of the authority for the solicitation of the information and whether disclosure of such information is mandatory or voluntary; the principal purpose or purposes for which the information is to be used; the routine uses which may be made of the information; and the effects on the individual of not providing the requested information.


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IRS 1977

The Privacy Act of 1974 says that each Federal agency that asks for information must tell you the following:

1. Its legal right to ask for the information and whether the law says you must give it.

2. What purpose the agency has in asking for it, and the use to which it will be put.3. What could happen if you do not give it.


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From 1976 to 1977

• provides• inform• individuals• authority• solicit• provide• effects

• says• tell• you• right• ask• give• what could happen


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The Norman Conquest


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French and English

• Beef• Pork• Mutton• Venison

• Cow• Pig or swine• Sheep• Deer


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French and German

• provides• inform• individuals• authority• solicit• provide• effects

• says• tell• you• right• ask• give• what could happen


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• Unless you have a good reason otherwise,• replace fancier (French/Latin) words• with plainer (English/German) words.


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Good reasons otherwise

• Precision• Variety• Courtesy


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“Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.”

—Winston Churchill


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• From “We are endeavoring to construct a more inclusive society.”

• To “We’re going to make a country in which no one is left out.”

—Franklin Delano Roosevelt


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“Say it in English and keep it short.”

—Lee Iacocca


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Finish the Job

• Manage your spelling, punctuation, and mechanics.


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Two meanings of finish

• To end• To put a surface on


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Manage your spelling

• Use a spell-checker.• Proofread carefully.• Look it up.• Track your problems.• Consider three or four rules.• Make up your own tricks.


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Manage Your Writing

• Evaluate your writing process.


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About these slides

• These slides, by Kenneth W. Davis, are based on his book The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Business Writing and Communication.

• These slides are © copyright 2006, by Komei, Inc., but they may be freely used, without changes, as a supplement to The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course.

• The latest version of these slides, as well as other resources for managing your writing, can be found at www.ManageYourWriting.com.

© copyright 2006, komei, inc. 1 manage your writing the mcgraw-hill 36-hour course in business...

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