writing

Refer to older posts…

It’s still one point

Published 17 April, 2008 | By TashWord

When writing a list of ideas or tips, it is worth making sure each one has enough value to be in the list – it is better to read a short list of valuable ideas than a long list of mostly junk surrounding a few good ideas.

Even if you’re calling your list something like “top ten tips” or “101 things to do with cheese”, don’t get tempted to make the list longer just so the title seems more impressive. Your credibility will suffer if the list doesn’t provide the help or interest people were looking for.

What I find even more annoying is a list of say 20 things which actually turns out to be a list of 10 or 15 things. I’m not sure if these writers are deliberately trying to plump out a short list or don’t realise how repetitive they are being, but either way it wastes my time and I don’t like it.

Here are the common ways I’ve seen people repeat list items…

giving the same point in different terms. For example, “use good spelling and grammar” and “don’t misspell words or use bad grammar” as two separate points – obviously, they mean exactly the same thing!
making the same point in different words so it almost seems a different point. For instance “remember to market your existing customers as well as potential customers” is really the same as “don’t neglect your current customers in word of mouth campaigns” in a list of ideas for treating customers well
breaking one point into two points – neither point fully makes sense alone, but if they are long enough they can look acceptable

Are there are other common repetitions or problems with lists that you have come across? What has been your reaction to these annoyances?

Happy writing!

Posted in blogging, newsletter content, web content, writing | Tagged breaking, credibility, impressive, list, long, points, short, terms, valuable, words, writing | Leave a comment

He isn’t a good start

Published 15 April, 2008 | By TashWord

As much as possible, avoid starting any sentence with a pronoun*. Sometimes the pronoun will clearly refer to one person, but often the pronoun is confusing so it is safest to avoid it.

I recently read the following in a book: “As Linda came back into the room, she saw Claire was back from lunch. She smiled at Marie then called Bill.” The question is, who smiled at Marie and rang Bill? The author meant Linda but grammatically the ‘she’ of the second sentence is Claire.

In business writing, that sort of confusion could lead to misunderstandings about who was to do certain tasks, or just annoy the reader so they will take their business elsewhere. Use a name or title to start a sentence for clarity.

*For the sake of clear communication, a pronoun is a word that can be used instead of a noun – for example, she, he and it are common pronouns.

Posted in grammar & details | Tagged business, confusing, he, misunderstandings, pronoun, she, writing | 1 Comment

New category…

Published 11 April, 2008 | By TashWord

I have come to realise that there are two groups of people writing for business – those who are ready for technical knowledge and those who need more help with the basics of writing and grammar. Most of my blog so far has been aimed at those with a certain level of knowledge, rather than helping those (usually sole traders and particularly WAHMs and WAHDs) who need information about the basics to present themselves in the best light.

So, I am adding a new category called “basic grammar and writing” where I can include an occasional post about topics that may seem more obvious, but are critical for good English and a professional presentation. For those who need this, I hope it helps you! And please ask about any specific topics you want to know about.

Posted in About Word Constructions, grammar & details | Tagged basic, business, category, grammar, writing | Leave a comment

Business integrity

Published 19 February, 2008 | By TashWord

As a writer and professional service provider, I consider my job as helping my clients. I write webcopy or documents for their business, of course, but more than that I use my skills and knowledge to help them. I consider that my clients want my expertise, not just some words on a piece of paper.

So for example, if a client asks me to write a media release on something that I know is not news worthy and is extremely unlikely to get published, I tell them so and might suggest another way I could help them more effectively.

Whenever I approach suppliers, for myself or on behalf of a client, I always make my request along the lines of “Please do x, y and z – unless you can suggest a better alternative”. I trust suppliers to know more than me and hope we can work together to get the best result.

I hate seeing suppliers that are more concerned with making money than doing what is best for their clients. And let’s face it, it isn’t good business practice either – clients are less likely to come back or recommend you if you don’t do the right thing by them.

One of my clients has been approached by a marketing company with a lot of suggestions. Now, this company does produce some nice work and they are very friendly and helpful.

However, it concerns me that they are more interested in taking over the product marketing than in what is best for the product. For instance, they are suggesting changes to the website to make it more like x and z sites. I did a quick Google search – my client’s site shows on page one of a search for the appropriate term, the x site shows on page 2 and z doesn’t show before page 5. My client’s site get new visitors to the site everyday now, which is pretty good for a site less than 6 months old. And being so young, a branding change now would have limited benefit in my opinion.

To me, they would be servicing my client better to agree the site is doing well and here are some ways to promote it further rather than match it to less popular sites.

Do you have examples of businesses using good integrity in their dealings with clients? I’d love to hear them 🙂

Posted in business info & tools | Tagged business, Clients, service, writing | 1 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

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

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

Style Guide vs Style Sheet

Published 20 November, 2007 | By TashWord

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the use of style sheets to help you keep your writing consistent. The next step is a style guide.

What’s the difference?

A style sheet is short (usually only one page) and lists very specific items, such as preferred spellings of particular words.

A style guide is a comprehensive set of rules to keep everything consistent. A full style guide can list the logo colours, spelling style, formatting, design and more, and would include everything in the style sheet as well.

Often, a style sheet is a summary of frequently used details from the style guide.

Which is better?

A style sheet can be on your desk or wall as a quick reference you can refer to as you work. So it is great for everyday items.

A style guide is important to maintain your brand. It can be used by your suppliers as well as by staff to ensure that everyone uses the same rules to keep consistency regardless of who does the work.

If you are a sole trader, you may not think a style guide is worth the effort as you control everything. But as your business grows or if you leave someone else in charge when you take a break, a style guide can keep your control in place. It can also be a very useful tool to offer potential buyers if you later to choose to sell your business.

For a professional appearance, a style sheet is a great start, but I would recommend a style guide as something to aim for over time.

Posted in grammar & details, writing | Tagged comparison, grammar, style guige, style sheet, writing | 5 Comments

Copyright or copywrite?

Published 19 November, 2007 | By TashWord

Writing is always ‘writing’, yet it is amazing how many times I get asked to do some ‘copyrighting’ or asked ‘who owns the copywrite?’ So here’s a quick explanation of these common terms…

copyright – protection of materials (e.g. articles, books, songs, photos, designs) by giving only the owner the right to copy the materials

copywrite – the act of writing text for a brochure, article, website, ad, etc (copy being a common term for the text in these items)

So I own the copyright of entries in this blog and I can call myself a professional copywriter.

Posted in grammar & details, Monday Meanings, writing | Tagged copy, copyright, copywrite, copywriting, owner, protection, writing | 4 Comments

Blog carnivals

Published 17 November, 2007 | By TashWord

I have just discovered blog carnivals. Essentially, someone hosts a ‘carnival’ and includes links to various blog entries that are relevant to the carnival topic.

There are apparently hundreds of carnivals happening so you’ll probably find one you like, or at least one on a topic you like!

It seems like a great way to find new blogs on interesting topics, and just to learn about a particular topic. Most carnival hosts review the blogs first so the blogs listed in a carnival should be relevant, good and spam-free.

So far, my blog is included in two carnivals:

The She Blogs carnival

Mothers in business carnival

What carnivals have you read and enjoyed?

{Additional content November 2009}

I have since been involved in a number of carnivals (list of some below) and find them a great way to find some very interesting blog posts and blogs. Some blogs I’ve found in this way and have taught me things and others have inspired me (including inspired a number of blog posts which usually involve a link back to the original post so those bloggers get an additional link from being in a carnival, too.)

It is easy to join carnivals, especially if you put good content into your blog in the first place. So if you haven’t joined a carnival yet, why not?

Focus Organic
email marketing tips
sales & management success
internet business techniques
Aussie bloggers
internet business
boot strapper
tip diva
achieving objectives

Posted in blogging | Tagged blog, carnival, topics, writing | 2 Comments

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