If there’s one important reason why you need to write effectively in the workplace, it is this: the quality of your writing imprints a lasting impression on the reader. This reader may be your boss, a client, or a person who is ready to make a billion dollar business deal with you.

Have you ever read a poorly-written document that made you lose interest right away? It was so poorly-written that you lost trust in the author and asked yourself why the author was wasting your time? How about those junk e-mails that sneak into your junk box like annoying cockroaches? You know the ones I’m referring to: the ones pitching vitamins, software, and sex aids. These e-mails are the biggest showcase of writing blunders, stricken to death with grammar mistakes, misspellings, and sloppy sentences. I doubt these e-mails pull a sale because their poor writing style immediately alienates the reader.

What impression does your writing leave on your boss, clients, or co-workers? Does your writing alienate readers, cause you to lose sales or clients, or cost you job promotions? Or does your writing build streams of loyal readers, increase sales for the company, and help you earn six figures a year at your job?

Whatever type of writing you do in the workplace, always know this reality: readers believe the quality of your writing reflects your skills, work ethics, and integrity as a person. If you write eloquently, clearly, and lively, the reader trusts you and you are able to build rapport quickly. If your writing is sloppy, disorganized, and riddled with errors, the reader assumes the rest of your work is flawed, your work ethics are flawed, and perhaps as a person you are flawed. Why should this reader waste his time reading the rest of your junk or even do business with you?

This article provides fail-safe strategies to help refine your writing and help you to communicate with clarity, simplicity, and impact so you will never write junk again. You will learn five masterful steps to guide you in planning, writing, and refining an article; and you will learn how to avoid common writing mistakes.

AIM! FIRE! FIRE!

To become a superb writer, your first task is to establish your aim.

Yiddish novelist, dramatist and essayist, Sholem Asch, once said, “Writing comes more easily if you have something to say.”

What message do you want to convey with your writing?

To establish your aim, ask yourself:

1) “Why am I writing this document?”

2) “What do I want to communicate?”

3) “Do I want to inform, educate, report, persuade, challenge, or entertain?”

Developing your aim will help you to adopt the best writing style for your reader. For example, an educational document will likely be more formal than one written for entertaining.

CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS

To write effectively, you need to connect strongly with your readers. Ask yourself:

1) “For whom am I writing this? Will I be writing for colleagues, my supervisor, my team of employees, or our clients?”

2) “How much information do my readers need?”

3) “How familiar are my readers with the topic?”

4) “How much time do my readers have? Would my readers prefer a short, succinct presentation of facts and statistics, or more narration and exposition?”

Knowing your audience will allow you to write content in a way that appeals to your readers.

SHAPE YOUR DOCUMENT

You know your aim. You know the people who will likely read your document. Now plan your document. What information will it contain? What information will most likely grab the reader and hold their interests? What points do you need to get across? Start with a rough outline of ideas. Then go through the outline and add more information and more detail. An outline will create the structure for your document. Soon enough your writing will come more easily, quickly, and with greater clarity.

WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW BEST

At this stage, read over your outline and write the first draft. Establish the main idea of the document and support your argument throughout. If a blank white page glares back at you like headlights, just start writing on whatever topic you know best. According to American novelist Jack London, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Don’t worry about the sequence if the ideas come to you out of order. You can cut and paste later.

WORDY WEIGHT LOSS

If you have time, step away from the document. Come back to it later with a fresh mind. Now add material where needed. Trim away unnecessary sections. Refine the text to communicate what you want to say. Remember: less is more. Try not to repeat ideas. Repetition, unless necessary, is tiresome for the reader. Keep the piece moving along. Use a lively pace. Progress through your points efficiently.

The following sections address some of the most common writing problems. Use these tips to write more clearly, effectively, and lively.

I.) PUNCTUATION

a) Apostrophes

Do not use an apostrophe in the possessive form of “it.”

Incorrect: Our department submitted it’s reports for 2005 last week.

Correct: Our department submitted its reports for 2005 last week.

Do not use apostrophes in the possessive forms “his,” “hers,” and “ours.”

Incorrect: The window office is her’s.

Correct: The window office is hers.

Do not use apostrophes in plural nouns.

Incorrect: How many new computer’s are we getting?

Correct: How many new computers are we getting?

b) Commas

Do not connect two complete sentences with a comma.

Incorrect: The meeting was cancelled, I finished my work early.

Correct: The meeting was cancelled, so I finished my work early.

Correct: Since the meeting was cancelled, I finished my work early.

II.) MECHANICS

a) Split Infinitives

Do not insert words between “to” and the infinitive form of a verb.

Incorrect: I was told we needed to slightly tighten the deadline.

Correct: I was told we needed to tighten the deadline slightly.

III.) SPELLING

a) “A lot” is always two words.

Incorrect: I have alot of work to do.

Correct: I have a lot of work to do.

b) “To” is a function word often used before the infinitive form of a verb (to go).

c) “Too” is an adverb that means “excessively” (too difficult).

d) “Two” denotes the number 2.

Incorrect: This file cabinet is to heavy for me to move.

Correct: This file cabinet is too heavy for me to move.

e) “There” is an adverb indicating a place (over there).

f) “Their” is a possessive word that shows ownership (their computers).

g) “They’re” is the contraction form of “they are.”

Incorrect: There results for this quarter were excellent.

Correct: Their results for this quarter were excellent.

Incorrect: Their working very hard today.

Correct: They’re working very hard today.

IV.) STYLE

a) Sentence Variety

To write more lively, vary sentence structure. Use alternate ways of beginning, and combine short sentences to create different sentence lengths.

Before:

I organized the files for all the new accounts this week. Then I created a more efficient labeling system. I color-coded everything. I made sure all paper files had been documented electronically. I put these files in the empty file cabinet.

After:

This week I organized the files for the new accounts and created a more efficient color-coded labeling system. After I documented all paper files electronically, I put these files in the empty file cabinet.

V.) ACTIVE VOICE vs. PASSSIVE VOICE

The English language has two “voices”: active voice (the subject performs an action); and passive voice (the subject is acted upon). In business communication, all good writers write in active voice. Lazy writers write in passive voice. Writing in active voice shortens your sentences and makes your writing sound more direct and formal.

Examples:

PASSIVE: The recipe book is read by her.

ACTIVE: She reads the recipe book.

PASSIVE: The radio announcement should be listened to by everyone.

ACTIVE: Everyone should listen to the radio announcement.

PASSIVE: The photo is being taken by the photographer.

ACTIVE: The photographer is taking the photo.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

To learn more about fixing common writing mistakes, check out The Electronic Writing Course ( http://www.ElectronicWritingCourse.com ). It’s a program that teaches the basics of good writing and editing. If you want to check your document against 36,000 style and usage mistakes, check out StyleWriter ( http://www.StyleWriter-USA.com ). It’s a style and usage Plain English checker. If you want to write more lively and creatively, check out WhiteSmoke Software ( http://www.WhiteSmokeSoftware.com ). It’s a program that fixes and enriches your text.

If you follow these guidelines, you’ll stop yourself from writing lousy in the workplace. Your writing will be lively, clear, and concise, and you will build rapport with readers. Perhaps it’s now time to e-mail your boss a perfectly-written e-mail requesting a salary raise?

Hey I was wondering if anyone could tell me which universities are the best (anywhere) for creative writing? I’m not interested in any universities in ontario because they dont offer the type of courses I want. I was also wondering if maybe there are schools specifically for creative writing? Please help me out, I have to apply in Dec, and I have no idea where I’m going, I just know that I want to write, because writing is my life, and I cant see myself doing anything else. Thanks.

Do you have a book in you?

Well, I feel that everybody has a book in them. It’s just a matter of when you’re going to write it.

Do you have experience or expertise in some particular area? What about all your work/career experience, personal relationships, spiritual searching and studies, all the knowledge, all your life experience, the things that have helped you in life?

Perhaps you’re a computer programmer, you’re a single parent, you’ve been in sales, you know how to open a restaurant or a hairdressing salon. You know what NOT to do in relationships etc which mean you know what to do J! Right? Well, I feel that everybody has a book in them everyone has a story to tell or an experience to help people.

Perhaps you have a how-to book in you or it could be an audio program or video/DVD. It’s such an AWESOME way to help yourself have PR for your life’s work and/or business. Also having written a book will bring you 110% more credibility in the marketplace. So let’s begin ……………

How do we write a book Michele????

This process I am about to share with you is so simple and so much fun. My friend Wilma McIntyre and I wrote “Conversations on Money, Sex and Spirituality in just 3 days using my method. I have been using this method now for over 12 years. I made it up because when I wrote my first book I could not type. This process you can also use when you are going to create a motivational audio program or even a video. (Unless you can adlib to perfection. If you cannot adlib without um thrown in KEEP readingJ) As this method will help you become very clear and totally professional.

Even IF you do not think you have a book in you, writing out the following exercises will help you gain so much clarity on what you do want to do.

I have had MANY people complete this section at my live events, really not thinking they had a book in them and some ended up writing books very quickly with more enthusiasm and passion then they ever knew they had.

If you are reading this now because you DO wish to write a book, I have some GREAT and yet simple examples to help you get started OR to quickly improve the writing you are presently doing.

First of all, make a decision on what it is you choose to write about. For example, if I was in network marketing and I’d been in the business for a while and had success, I know that having a book on how to have a successful network marketing business would be tremendous for adding publicity and credibility about who I am. This can be handed out and also sold through your own Website, or other websites including Amazon.com, and through many other areas. If you do choose to self-publish your own book, which I believe is a wonderful, freeing way to begin a writing career, we’ll be covering that topic in another one of my articles on in the “How to Self-Publish.” For now let’s get the book written.

Further down, (print out the article) write down areas of experience in your life. List six areas of experience you have in life. For example:

· I have studied many spiritual books and been to many seminars and feel that I have a great metaphysical self-help book in me.

· I have experienced a great deal of success in sales, and would like to write a book on sales.

· I have a great deal of experience on how to bring up children as a single parent.

These are just a few examples to get you started, because starting is what it is all about. Go ahead and fill in six areas that you have experience in from career related experience to your personal and home life.

AREAS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

Now that you have listed the areas of experience that you have, write the top three areas that you feel the most desire to write about.

TOP THREE LISTING FOR your Book, Audio Program, Product IDEA:

Next, pick your number one area.

NUMBER ONE AREA I WOULD LIKE TO WRITE ABOUT:

Okay, now you have the area you would like to write about. Whether it is fiction, non-fiction, a how- to – book, or a workbook, an audio program or even a video/DVD, next you are going to write down some ideas for your title. It makes it very, very easy so please do this with an open mind. Write down five ideas now, just off the top of your head. Don’t get too much into your left brain. Let the ideas flow through your right brain, and just write down anything you think of.

· How to Bring up Children as a Single Parent

· How to Increase Your Sales

· How to Eat a Healthy Diet in the Fast-Food Lane of Life.

Okay great!! So now you have some ideas! These are just working book title ideas; they are not in stone, they are not it yet. (Or one may beJ) This is just to get your juices/passion up and your creativity flowing. Later, you will come up with a great subtitle. These days, you can have quite an esoteric book title, but have your subtitle let the reader know what’s in it for them, what the benefits are.

For example, you will notice that all my MusiVation™ products have a very dynamic subtitle. In my audio program, Be Your Perfect Weight, the subtitle is Dynamic Psychological Breakthrough in Weight Control. As another example, the title of my 6-tape audio program is Affirmation Power, and the subtitle¾done as a top of the title subtitle¾is Be A Magnet to Success through [then the title] Affirmation Power. My best selling book I wrote with Rock Riddle How To Be A Magnet To Hollywood Success, is subtitled Your Complete Step-by-Step system to making it in Show Business. My book I co wrote with Wilma Conversations on Money, Sex, and Spirituality is subtitled How to Attract Multi-Dimensional Abundance in Your Life.

As you can see from these examples, if you show the people what’s in it for them through a well defined simple descriptive subtitle, then they know they are going to read a magnetic, powerful book before they’ve even started reading it.

Some of my titles are what’s in it for them, as well. For example one I wrote with Bob Proctor, Be A Magnet to Money is the title, so that’s basically telling them what’s in it for them. And then our subtitle is Dynamic Psychological Breakthrough in How to Attract Money. So having a double whammy in two very strong areas is very powerful.

Number one, your book title is telling them what’s in it for them, and Number two, your subtitle is telling them what’s in it for them.

However, that is simply your title. Now for the exciting part! You are now going to write out your table of contents.

I suggest you write ten areas, or ten chapters. This is a little more challenging if you’re writing fiction, however, I feel that just writing down ten ideas for your chapters or your book topics to start with helps tremendously in getting the juices flowing and keeps everything in Divine Order. You will see this clearly later on, after you write your ten topics.

Go ahead now and write ten topics on the next page. For example, if you were to write a book about sales, you could start your topics with:

· Is Money Everything?

· Love Your Customers

· Have a Positive Attitude

· How to Keep Keeping On

· Look Ahead, Not Behind

These are just a few ideas of book/product topic contents. Write down NOW ten- twelve areas. Sometimes people find such a great topic idea doing this that IT ends up being their new title, straight from their table of contents. Now go ahead and create your table of contents!

The next suggestion I’m going to share with you on how to write a book IS so SIMPLE. It came to me when I was working on my first book. I just find it so EASY to write a book or an audio program this way. What I do, is so very easy and fun (because remember, writing a book is FUN J)

Write ten questions for each topic. With these ten questions, ask a friend to interview you and treat it as if they are, someone who is a TV or radio show host (i.e., Oprah, Michele J) who is really interested in that particular topic in your table of contents, especially if it’s a how-to book or a non-fiction book. Simply write out the questions; these will be questions that you will answer for all areas that you already know about. Then, I suggest you start reading a lot of books about that particular topic and getting a lot of information into your mind.

You already have a lot of information in your sub-conscious mind that is just waiting to be released when it’s needed. With these questions, get a very good friend to interview you. Pretend it’s an interview show. Get a tape recorder, get them to ask you the questions, and then you just flow with it. Just answer the questions; don’t be nervous—no one’s out there listening to this! It’s just you! Ask your friend to please be very focused and not agree or disagree, or say, “Oh, yeah, that happened to me, too.” They are going to be a professional interviewer and simply be there, asking the questions. When you’re finished with one answer, they will ask you the next question. Do this for each topic; it’s so much fun! Next, type up what’s on the tape for each topic (or have someone type it for you). Finally, take out all of the questions; then just leave your answers. Then you have a whole chapter or topic for your table of contents done. Do this for all ten areas. Do not edit as you go, just take out the questions.

Once all ten topics have been done, go back and start typing. Add areas that you may not have had handy when answering the questions, for example, you may want to quote a particular person in your book. You may want to speak of the story of a successful person in your book. You can add that in later. What is very important to remember, whether you use this interview technique or simply go ahead and just write, is that you go ahead and just write! Every time you give yourself time to write, it doesn’t matter what you write, as long as you write. Don’t edit as you go. The editing can be done later. Too many people will never finish a book because they feel each area or every sentence has to be perfect as they go. Again, I repeat, DO NOT EDIT until you have finished and you have all the information written. Now you have your story/product written! Then edit later. Don’t even edit each chapter as you go. Just get every chapter written; finish that book. The editing can be done later, either by you or by a professional.

I also feel it’s wonderful, if it’s a non-fiction book, to write stories about how other people conquered those particular topics. Perhaps you can even interview some well-known celebrities. A lot of well-known, successful writers and entrepreneurs want extra publicity. And, it is free publicity for you. So, go ahead and contact these people. You’ll be surprised who knows whom. Email out to a whole group of friends, “Hey, does anybody know Richard Branson?” “Hey, does anybody know blah, blah, blah?” “Hey, does anyone know Melanie Griffith?” You’ll be surprised how many people will know someone who knows them. You know, they say, and I agree with this, you know who they are—they are us! They, which are us, say you are only four phone calls away from any person you would like to meet. And I do agree with this. Sometimes it may be five or six, but very rarely. Just take some action. That is part of networking, which is another chapter.

It is also a very good idea to write little example stories of the success of others or conduct a short interview with the actual people. You can mention on your book cover that these people are included. And then, at the end of the book, you can mention the person’s book and their Website and their contact information. People love this; it’s free publicity. I have been interviewed for many, other books. People always put my contact numbers; I love it! I would do it for anybody. If anyone wants to interview me, I do it. Anybody will do the same thing. It’s a very rare person who won’t do it. This way you also you get to be networking and meeting great people while you’re doing interviews. Priceless!!!! Call some people you’ve always loved to meet. It’s so good to always remember to be in the consciousness of the people who are already doing what you want to do.

If it’s a fictional book you’re writing, storyboard it. I suggest you create a mind map. Put a big circle in the middle and get all the characters written from that circle. For example, if it were Gone with the Wind, then “Gone with the Wind” would be in the circle in the middle. Then a little balloon off from that would be Main Character—Heroine. If you know you want a heroine, think of a name for your heroine. Offshoot that—what century is it written in? Is it Sci-Fi, or is it back in the history books of the 1400’s?

Storyboard all your characters. What type of characters they are, their characteristics, what type of personalities and looks? Allow the story to take on its own vision and flow. When you storyboard, mind map a fictional book, and put it up on the wall, it really gives you access to great ideas, because you’re mystically saying to the Universe, “This is what I want to write about—give me ideas.” And it will come to you!

Michele Blood
Musivation.com

Have you ever reached for a brownie when you were trying to lose weight? Or stayed in bed when you intended to go to the gym? Or put off paying bills because it was “too much of a hassle”?

There are lots of different ways in which we sabotage ourselves. This is true of life in general and also true of the writing life.

Writing depends not just on discipline but also on the complicated interplay between what we know and what we feel.

I’ve worked as an editor for just about 30 years (honest, I was really young when I started) and I’ve noticed there are five key negative feelings or thoughts that tend to shut down our writing—in much the same way that a circuit breaker shuts down electricity. BOOM and the lights go out.

Often, simply being aware of these thoughts is enough to take away their power. At other times, it’s important to challenge them head-on. So let’s see which ones are disrupting your writing (and therefore taking a bite of your income) and figure out what you can do about them.

1)I’m a lousy writer; I don’t have the talent to do this.

This is probably the most common negative thought of all. My theory is it’s usually born in high school when writing teachers single out one or two people in the class for praise and use their red pens too liberally with the rest. (To this day, when I’m editing, I make a point of never using red to make suggestions or corrections!) And too much of a focus on grammar and spelling in childhood often mean trouble for the adult writer.

But here’s the interesting truth: We’re all born lousy marketing writers. The people who become “good” are the ones who are prepared to do the following simple things:
– Read good writing and work to emulate it; – Write a lot—because writing is like exercise: the more you do, the better you get; – Spend double the time on self-editing that they spend on writing.

If you discover that you’re constantly bad-mouthing yourself as you write, replace the inner negative chatter with the following statement: “Writing is about practice. The more I do, the better I’ll get. When I finish this article (letter, report, etc.) I’ll have more experience and I’ll have improved.”

2) I don’t have the time to write

This is one of my favourite negative thoughts because it’s so common and sooo easy to blow out of the water. The writing world is littered with people who quit their day-jobs so they could work on their books. But here’s the secret: The published novelists and non-fiction writers are almost always the people who continue with their regular work and write in their spare time.

Just as the cactus thrives in a hot, dry environment, writing thrives in the absence of time. Yes, you read that correctly. Writing not only can be done quickly; it is better done quickly. That’s partly because, if you’re fast enough, you can usually out-run and out-write the negative chatter in your head.

People often make the mistake of trying to set aside huge chunks of time for writing (especially for reports). Me? I love writing in 10-minute bursts. Not only does this allow me to get ideas out of my head and onto paper when they are fresh, but it also gives me a big payback down the road. That’s because when I go back to the document I often discover my article is much further ahead than I’d realized. No blank page. It’s a great feeling.

I do like having a decent chunk of time to self-edit—a different task from writing—but I’m talking maybe 30 to 60 minutes. Not all day.

When you’re planning your writing time, think in small increments, not big chunks. Remember: If you write 300-350 words a day, you’ll have written a decent-length book by the end of a year.

3)I’d better do a really good job on this (article, report, letter) because my reputation/sales results hinge on it.

Of course you want your writing to be good. And of course certain pieces of work you do can be important to your business or career. But to understand why this negative line will do you in, it might help to think about professional sports. Take tennis for example.

Do you think Martina Navratilova won a record nine Wimbledon singles championships and 58 Grand Slam titles by telling herself, “I really need to win this game; if I don’t, I’m in trouble.” Of course not! I don’t know about Martina, but I do know many professional athletes work with psychologists precisely so they can learn to turn off this unhelpful chatter. After all, this sort of self-talk is more likely to cause them to choke than to win.

Similarly, when you’re writing, you need to shut down the tiny yet persistent voice that tells you how much you have riding on this job. Instead, do what the athletes do. Focus on the ball—in your case that means: focus on what you’re writing.

And if that doesn’t work, tell the voice that you don’t have time to listen to it while you’re writing, but you’ll attend to it when you’re editing the piece (when it can’t do so much damage.)

4)I need to write about this topic

Truth is, unless you’re a journalist or someone else who writes professionally, there are precious few topics that anyone is going to force you to cover. Sure you might need to write a pitch for a bank loan or sales letter to promote your product, but if you’re writing an article for your e-zine or website, don’t be bound by duty. Instead, focus on topics you feel passionate about.

Readers can smell disinterest the way lions can smell a steak. I’ve seen too many consultants who start an article by saying to themselves: “This is a hot topic in my industry right now.” Or, “I want the search engines to pick me up on this one.” Or, “People expect me to be an expert on this.” Yawn.

Instead, choose a topic that excites you and has you fairly bursting to write. Then think hard about how to make it relate to your business, your keywords or your target market. Your enthusiasm will not only captivate your readers, it will also inspire you to write quickly and fluently.

5)Writing is too hard

Let’s get something straight. Lifting bricks is hard; waiting tables is hard; telling someone they have cancer is hard. Writing is not hard. Writing is just writing.

There is a romantic notion—perpetuated by Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler and others—that writers must be tortured. In fact, writing is just a job. Sure, sometimes it’s more difficult than other times —just like it’s hard to return voicemail messages when you’re headachy and grumpy or hard to go for a run when you’re bone-tired.

But overall, writing is actually pretty cushy. You get to sit in a warm dry place. You can have a steaming cup of tea or coffee beside you. You don’t have to do any heavy lifting (with Spell check, you don’t even have to lift the dictionary!) And best of all, you get the privilege of sharing your thoughts—the ones inside your head—with other people.

So, dismiss the notion that writing is an onerous act. Writing is something we all can do. Sure, some of us are better at it that others than others. But that’s mostly because of practice. And if you write more, you too will improve.

Get at it.

For many people writing is a passion. On the internet, there are huge opportunities for writers to make money. Everywhere on the web, content is needed and webmasters and website developers are looking for people to write unique articles for their website. If you are ready to make money online and you are a passionate writer, then there are great opportunities for you to become a successful writer.

Every writer always wants to improve his or her writing and to do this you must know the best writing secrets. To write better, you have to choose the topics that you know. On the internet, you can find resources about various subjects and you can soon become an expert. You need to know where to find writing resources in order to improve your writing.

You should know writing secrets to captivate your readers. You want them to read whatever you present and you want them to cry out for more of your work. As a writer, you must never be satisfied with your writing skill. You have to always look for writing resources to improve your writing. With a positive attitude, you can easily gain readers for your writing. If you have people who like to read whatever you write, you will be automatically motivated to write more.

To impress your readers, you must present something of use for them. Never write on something that you don’t like or believe in. Only if you are confident of the subject you are writing, will you produce something people will enjoy.

The essential writing strategies dictate the way you present your knowledge to your readers. Every reader is unique and every one of them has different expectations. It is not possible to satisfy all the readers who read what you write. However, it is possible to get as many readers as possible if you know the writing strategies to impress them. Some of your readers may like to read facts and information. Some of them like to hear stories. You have to provide both of these for your readers. The better the balance, the bigger your target audience.

Experts who formulate essential writing strategies ask you to concentrate on one major point in each paragraph. Don’t focus on writing long paragraphs because no one has patience to read these, and they are unappealing to the eye. The article must concentrate on three to five major points. Validate each point with facts and information and also include stories. As a writer, you need to have your own style of writing. You can learn from experts, but you should never try to copy their writing style. No one in this world accepts duplicates when the originals are available.

Many writers on the internet form writing groups and these groups are great writing resources. The members of these groups are always ready to help those who want to choose writing as their career. You can join these groups and share your knowledge. Even an expert writer can get useful information and writing secrets from these groups.

While the focus has been on freelance writing, what you have learned can be applied to any type of writing, be it short stories, novels, works of non-fiction or poetry.