Write Right! How to stop writing like a dropout and start writing like a pro

Remember the Battle of Hastings? Maybe a fuzzy 1066. How about trigonometry? Doubtful. So why do we feel guilty about not remembering Ms. McGuire’s 10th-grade English class?

After all, for many of us, it’s been a while. For others, they never learned it. Curricula have changed, and most kids schooled in the last 25 years have never even diagrammed a sentence. Add the speedy demands of e-mail and text-messaging, and no wonder writing today is the literary equivalent of fast food: slapped together, full of fat, and hard to digest.

To compound matters, we live in a rush-rush world where improving our writing is like cleaning the basement. We know it needs to be done, but things pile up and bad follows bad. In other words, familiarity breeds unkempt—which is exactly what happens when our grammatical slips are showing.

Making mumbo-jumbo
Our letters, reports, e-mail—1.4 trillion e-mails last year alone—are getting sloppier by the day. We’ve lost the ability to string clear, concise thoughts together—a malady some call “corporatespeak.”

“Inasmuch as the process, if accelerated through the strategic channels in the n allotted timeframe, will leverage our deployment as an immeasurable uniquenessn in the marketplace.”

Translation: “If we hurry up, we can get there first.”

M.B.A. programs and business schools recently have added writing classes to their curriculum. That means we’re in good company, so without blame or shame, let’s brush up on writing basics.

Write the way you talk
Conversational writing is in. Large words and convoluted sentences don’t get the message across. Write in an open, honest style. In turn, you’ll increase sales, eliminate misunderstandings, and achieve goals faster.

Overcome fears
Even after 25 years as a jou
alist, I still blanch at a blank screen. The best antidote? Just start. Anywhere. When facing an important letter, e-mail, or sales proposal, start with a brain dump. Get all your thoughts down on paper or screen, then push them around into a logical sequence. There, you’ve got a first draft.

OK, it’s terrible, but guess what? Everyone writes terrible first drafts. Anne Lamott makes the case for them in her bestselling book, Bird by Bird.

Now …even better news… is the idea of [dreadful] first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. … I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts.…

Feel better? Now, spend time editing. Not long tedious stretches—just enough to run through it once for accuracy. Next time, make it more concise. Then add a little creativity. Your readers will reward you by reading to the end and responding to your requests. (You are letting them know what you want, aren’t you?)

Law and order
The pain of not writing well begins to throb when it lands us in jail. When someone complains about his boss in an e-mail, that document could be discoverable in litigation. Remember that no matter what you write, it’s permanently in your computer. Best advice: don’t say anything in a letter or e-mail that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the New York Times.

More than a resume
More businesses are getting wise to good writing. Some are even requiring pre-employment writing tests. That means once you jump through the cover-letter-resume hurdle, you still may have to prove that you can dot your Is and cross your Ts. And why not? If you apply for a job at ESPN, they’ll ask about your knowledge of sports. Since our ever-expanding lust for technology ensures that just about everyone will be writing at work, it only makes sense for companies to expect employees to do it good, er…well.

Get it Write: Eight tips to jumpstart your writing and polish your prose.
1. Relax. Write conversationally. Tell it like a story.
2. Dump your ideas. Get everything down and arrange in logical order.
3. First drafts aren’t really writing—they’re thought organizers.
4. Let them know what you want through strong conclusions and compelling calls to action.
5. Edit, edit, and edit some more until the document is clear and concise.
6. Get creative: Use vivid verbs rather than boring “is, are, was, were.”
7. Take Albert Einstein’s advice: Don’t memorize anything you can look up. Buy a good reference guide (such as Strunk & White’s Elements of Style) and use it—regularly.
8. Sleep on it—then edit again. Mistakes jump off the page.