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Mike
Carruthers:
Letters,
memos and emails- too often we write them and send them without
proof -reading or editing, because we're in a hurry.
Ken O'Quinn:
And so is the reader- and the readers, in too much of
a hurry to clean up your mess.
Writing consultant,
Ken O'Quinn, author of the book, Perfect
Phrases for Business Letters…
People are interested
in getting the essence of your message and being able to move
on. And a lot of the times that means, for the writer, taking
a moment to double-check it at least for glaring mistakes or
things that could create ambiguity.
If you want to
improve your writing, Ken says, one thing that will go a long
way is…
Have a summary
paragraph- the first paragraph in most things that you write
should contain the essence of that message. It isn't all of
the details- these are snippets of information that capture
the essential highlights that the reader needs.
Business writing
doesn't have to be so formal; not anymore, says Ken, so he would
like it if we would all stop beginning letters and emails with
the phrase: "Per your request."
When was the
last time you used, "Per your request" in a face-
to- face conversation with another human being-?;probably never-
because we don't talk like that. And so there's nothing wrong
with simply saying. "Hi, so and so or Dear, so and so,
here is the information you asked for last week." That's
the way you would talk to a customer or a client - there's no
reason why you have to change that.
Tomorrow, more
ways to make your writing easier to understand- I'm Mike Carruthers
and that's Something You Should Know.
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