Word Constructions

Pages of note

Refer to older posts…

Keeping to the course

Published 6 December, 2007 | By TashWord

I did a bit more driving than usual over November and I noticed a few idiots on the road. You know the type – overtake every car they can, speeding well above the limits, but somehow staying in sight and stopping at the same red lights as you.

Honestly, it is costing them in stress and petrol use, and greatly increases their risks (of accidents and fines).

Yet travelling safely & steadily gets you where you’re going with less risk, less cost and you arrive ready for whatever awaits.

Thinking about these drivers, it occurred to me that driving is like running a business. Some people start a business and run at it, trying to make a fortune in the first six months, changing direction as each new opportunity or distraction arises. These people are often stressed and overworked.

Others take their time – do some research, study up on various topics, gather advice and opinions, set up systems, and so on – and develop strong foundations for their business. These people may sometimes be frustrated at things not going fast, but they stay the course and develop a good business.

Consistency, steady progress, solid foundations, patience, planning deliberate moves – all of these traits will make business growth a little slower but a lot stronger.

So how do you run your business? And how do you approach a major writing project?

Posted in bit off track, business info & tools | Tagged analogy, business, consistency, driving, patience, stress | 1 Comment

example etcetera…

Published 5 December, 2007 | By TashWord

ABCs Writing a complete list can be tedious, so we tend to write out part of a list as a sample instead. Implying it is a sample even when we think we have written out the entire list, can also be useful – it protects you from giving an absolute.

So how do we imply it is part of a list? We start the list with something like ‘for example’, ‘such as’, ‘including’ or ‘something like’ OR we end the list with ‘etcetera’, ‘and so on’, ‘and more’, ‘or another…’ or ‘and similar.’

The key word is or – we start or end the sentence to indicate it is an incomplete list, not both.

“For example, we offer red, blue, orange, pink, etcetera” is unnecessary.

In fact, example means here is a subset of the whole while etcetera means there is more or the rest is to come. So the above sentence means “The subset is red, blue, orange, pink, and the rest”

“For example, we offer red, blue, orange and pink” or “We offer red, blue, orange, pink and other colours” makes more sense, is shorter and is correct!

So please don’t write example and etcetera in the same sentence!

Posted in writing | Tagged ect, examples, use | Leave a comment

Trusting suppliers

Published 2 December, 2007 | By TashWord

Outsourcing is a valuable activity in business – you gain expert assistance, time and completed projects.

Yet many business owners choose to not trust their suppliers. Now obviously you need to maintain control and ensure suppliers are providing you with what you’re paying for, but you are also paying for their expertise.

I recently did some webcopy for a client. Amongst other things, I rewrote their about us page – both adjusting the content (as requested by the client) and improving the flow and grammar of the page.

The feedback from the client was ‘that’s good thanks, but we made a few changes to the about us text’. That’s great – they should take ownership and make changes so it is accurate and they are comfortable with the final copy.

However, when I looked at their changes I saw that they had replaced a lot of my text with their grammatically incorrect text again. By grammatically incorrect, I’m talking about sentences like ‘we started our business because my son needed…’ without indicating who ‘me’ actually is. It ended up not making much sense and looking very amateurish, unfortunately.

The point is that if you’re going to pay a professional writer, then take their advice on grammar, flow and style, even if you want to change the tone or content of the work.

I’ve heard graphic designers, accountants, web designers and database programmers express this frustration, too. In all instances, the professional has done what the client wanted but is disappointed in the result as they are aware of the errors. The professional is also unlikely to add that project to their portfolio so you won’t get any free advertising that way, either.

Question a professional by all means, make a suggestion even, but listen to what they tell you before you assume your way is best.

If you are not ready to take professional advice and direction, then maybe you aren’t ready to give up any control of your business and outsourcing won’t help you.

Outsourcing will help you and save you time, but only if you are ready to accept that help.

Posted in business info & tools, grammar & details, web content, writing | Tagged grammar, trust, writing | 1 Comment

Blogging skills

Published 30 November, 2007 | By TashWord

I found a post about developing your skills at blogging which I thought worth mentioning. It is also relevant on the whole for newsletter writing.

It doesn’t mention ‘be yourself’ directly, but I think that is the only major point I would add to the list.

In summary, Chris Garrett gives 10 points that lead to successful blogging:

blog by example
blog with passion
be organised (well, I can’t always get 10 out of 10!)
delegate
take ownership & responsibility
communicate effectively (hopefully, that’s where my tips come in handy!)
be brave & honest
listen
know your readers
be a reader

I found number 7 interesting – I am always honest in my blog but don’t feel I am particularly brave as communications isn’t usually very controversial 🙂 But then I read Chris’ comments about this to find him saying pretty much the same thing and suggesting there is bravery in choosing and presenting topics.

Which of the above points do you find most challenging in your blog writing?

Posted in blogging, newsletter content, writing | Tagged Blogging, brave, challenging, honest, skills | 6 Comments

Explaining outsourcing

Published 28 November, 2007 | By TashWord

What is outsourcing and why should you care?

Outsourcing is simply getting someone else to do a task or tasks for you. It can be a simple task (e.g. getting someone to stuff envelopes or do a letterbox drop for you) or a skilled task (e.g. hiring a professional web designer, accountant, writer or photographer)

Some of the benefits to you and your business if you outsource are:

Many hands make light work – it’s true!

save time as someone else does some of the work
you gain expert knowledge in many cases
you can potentially learn from the supplier
you can gain an outside perspective (great as a sole trader)
you may get a more professional result which will attract more customers
the project is likely to be finished sooner than you could do it on top of the other tasks you are performing

Although there is a cost to outsourcing, that is often paid for with the advantages above – for example, Brad designed his own website and it took 9 months before it was ready to launch. Later he realised that he could have paid Jim to design it and it would have been launched within a month, giving Brad an extra 8 months of sales to help pay for Jim’s service.

So if you are feeling overwhelmed in your business or are desperate for another day every week, outsourcing may be your best option.

If you have already done some outsourcing, how did you find the experience?

*Image courtesy of 123rf

Posted in business info & tools | Tagged advantages, outsourcing, tasks, time | 4 Comments

Why have a business blog?

Published 26 November, 2007 | By TashWord

I would write about the advantages of blogs, but I found this great post by Kenton Newby so I thought I’d link to that instead 🙂

Kenton wrote ‘Why every business owner should have a blog’ If you are running a business and don’t have a blog, this is a post worth reading and thinking about.

If you do decide to start a blog, you may find the audio and notes from the blogging for beginners talk I did last week useful, as well as my posts on blogging.

(July 2012 update – Sorry the notes are no longer available online but I am looking to produce some similar notes in an eBook format – leave a comment below and I’ll let you know when these become available).

Posted in blogging, business info & tools | Tagged beginnersKenton Newby, Blogging, blogs, business | Leave a comment

Why use a professional writer?

Published 24 November, 2007 | By TashWord

Not many people actually ask me outright, but you can almost see the thought cross their mind – “why would I pay someone to write stuff for me? I know how to write a sentence.”

One very important reason some people choose to hire a writer is simply to save time. It is a task to be outsourced so you can spend more time doing what you’re best at. This is especially true for people who struggle over every word and find writing very time consuming.

Another reason is distance – a professional writer is not so close to your business so will have a clearer perspective of what needs to be said. When you are close to the business, it is easy to get caught in details that aren’t necessary in a marketing document for instance. And when it comes to something like an about us page on a website, many people find it hard to write about themselves anyway.

A professional writer (or editor) may just review what you have done – finding those little errors you can’t easily find in your own work. It is handy if you work alone and don’t have anyone else who can proof read for you.

Of course, a major reason for using a professional writer is to get words that work well, are easy to read and are grammatically correct. For some people this is easy to achieve, others have to work hard at it and some people just can’t get it no matter what they do. Even if you can write fairly well, if you aren’t experienced at writing in a certain way it may be worth getting a professional to do it for you. You can always use their work as a model for future projects.

I think of it this way – I can hold a pencil or paint brush and make marks on a page but I would pay someone else to actually paint something to hang on my walls. We all have our talents and I’d prefer to outsource to experts than try to find time to do everything myself. Which of course leaves me with more time for writing…

Posted in blogging, newsletter content, web content, writing | Tagged distance, editing, perspective, professional, reason, skills, use, writing | 7 Comments

Writing effective ads

Published 23 November, 2007 | By TashWord

I have seen some ads lately that just don’t do justice to the product/service they are supposed to be promoting. Some are poorly designed so I won’t touch them, but others look great but the words let it down.

The key is knowing the purpose of the ad – is it to get website traffic, explain a new product, attract a certain type of person, increase sales, or …

Once you know the purpose, you can make the headline, graphics and text suit that purpose.

Next is knowing your audience – using terms like ‘lol’, ‘RAM’, ‘html’, ‘ftp’ and ‘ppc’ will work if you are attracting IT specialists but not so well if you are after people in their 80s.

The hard part is then adding enough information to meet your purpose but not so much you overwhelm or bore people. This is definitely the stage where it is valuable to write it, leave it and then review it a few days later.

As well as the above points, you need the basic writing rules, too – good spelling, correct grammar and an easy-to-read format and style. Put it all together and your ads will be much more effective than the ones I mentioned earlier.

Word Constructions ~ for all your business writing needs

Posted in grammar & details, writing | Tagged ads, format, purpose, sales, spelling | Leave a comment

Carnival of small business

Published 21 November, 2007 | By TashWord

This carnival was opened over night and it looks really good. I haven’t read all the articles yet (I don’t get up that early!) but they cover a range of topics and I intend reading them over the next few days.

My blog post about polite emails is also included by the way 🙂

So for some small business tips and ideas, visit the Carnival of small business issues when you have some time to read a couple of articles.

Posted in writing | Tagged articles, business, carnival, writing | Leave a comment

Welcome!

eBooks to read

Pages of note

Useful resources

Recent Posts

Categories