As business owners, we find our writing often flows from paper to mobile device to desktop—email, instant messaging, texts, memos and presentations are just some of the ways we connect at dizzying speeds. With all of these ways to instantly connect, the demand for strong writing skills is higher than ever. Your buyers are making judgments on the quality of your message whether you like it or not. As our streams of communication narrow and shorten, your writing is ever more expected to be clear, concise and compelling. This short presentation will arm you with tools and information to get you ahead. Learn how to reveal exactly what you intend to with your communication. You will learn: - Why so much business writing fails - What makes writing compelling or irresistible - How to pack your messages into small spaces - Where to find the resources to take you to the next level.

1. Master and Manage Your
Business Writing
Create, control and proliferate the right message to the right
medium (in 25-ish minutes).
@redpaperclip
Tuesday, 19 June, 12

2. Who are We?
What gives me the right to stand up here?
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3. What to expect today:
• Eschew “tips and tricks” and delve deeper
into some mechanics
• Parse and share elements that propel your
writing from casual to compelling
• Gain tools and resources to move your
writing forward
Remember: “Nothing is original.” -Jim Jarmusch
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4. “90% of everything
is CRAP”
• Sturgeon’s Law,1958
• Written in defence of Science Fiction against attacks by
people who selected the worst work to make an example of.
• Even more applicable in business because the parts of great
writing have been ignored by so many.
• Originally business writing was to catalogue or archive
transactions or contracts
• Today, it needs to do more...
Tuesday, 19 June, 12

5. What is Business
Writing?
"Throughout the globe, the written word, in both paper and
electronic forms, is seen less as strictly a way of archiving the
business already completed and more as a vital, creative means
of problem solving, collaborating, and actually doing business."
(R. Inkster and J. M. Kilborn, The Writing of Business, 1999)
Tuesday, 19 June, 12

6. What is Business
Writing?
Let’s Try That Again:
“We’ve left the stodginess of writing about business and
entered an active world of writing compelling, persuasive,
collaborative content for conducting business.”
Tuesday, 19 June, 12

7. The Parts of
Business Writing
• Audience - To whom are you speaking?
• Message - What are you trying to say?
• Medium - How must you say it?
• Actions - What do you want them to do?
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8. Audience.
Don’t just think of them as a loose group.
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9. Understand Mindset.
Look at the individual motivations, perspectives, locations, etc.
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10. Be Relevant.
It works. Le Seth Godin
Le Purple Cow
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11. Connection
Concerns.
Possible Barriers or Challenges:
• Cultural
• Gender
• Social
Getting this wrong can end the conversation.
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12. Message.
Pack It With Story.
Character Action/ “Climax” Conclusion
Tension
Simply put, it’s “... A narrative about a character dealing
with an obstacle to achieve some important goal.”
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13. Story in Small
Spaces.
• “We Won,” versus “Congrats to the IT
department for their success yesterday.”
• Show, don’t tell.
• “World Economics Newsletter-June 17, 2012”
versus our rewrite: “World’s Worst Breakup:
The EU Without Greece? WEN-June 17, 2012”
Tuesday, 19 June, 12

14. The Greatest Bad-
News Memo
To: H. R. Haldeman
From: Bill Safire
July 18, 1969.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER:
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is
hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by the nation; they will be mourned by the people of the
world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our
heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain
the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is
forever mankind.
PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT:
The President should telephone each of the widows-to-be.
AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN:
A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to "the deepest of the deep," concluding with
the Lord's Prayer.
Tuesday, 19 June, 12

15. Appeals.
How Can I Connect?
• Your Character (Trust, Disposition)
• Their Logic (Pricing, Exceeds Criteria)
• Emotions (Speaks to Mindset. Emotional
appeals always leave the most lasting effect)
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16. Medium.
VS
Requirements Limits
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17. Medium.
Take What You Get From Audience:
• Take all the audience mindset, story, and
appeal and fill it into each of the
requirements of the medium.
• Snip the extraneous parts that are
unimportant by looking at the limits of the
medium.
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18. Medium: Literary
Elements.
= +
Tone Audience Personality
or Brand
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19. Medium: Literary
Elements.
Same Story, Different Tone
"Ike Turner, Musician and “Ike ‘Beats’ Tina to Death”
Songwriter in Duo With
Tina Turner, Dies at 76"
One of these is from The New York Times, the other is from the New York Post.
*Courtesy of Grammar Girl
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20. Outcomes/
Actions.
Business Writing IS Persuasion.
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21. Outcomes/
Actions.
“We’ve left the age of information.
We are now in an age of transformation.”
@redpaperclip
Tuesday, 19 June, 12

22. Outcomes/
Actions.
• Understand the action you’re seeking.
• Spell it out early in the brainstorming
session, if you have to.
• Ask, “What do I want the reader to do?”
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23. Outcomes/
Actions.
Possible Outcomes:
• Comprehend Information
• Accept a justification
• Influence their position with calls to action
• Direct Action or Authoritative Action Calls
(not as hard to do as above, since authority
reigns)
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24. Parting Thoughts.
• ALL Business Writing is Persuasive.
• Stories move readers more than facts or
figures. Stories show, facts tell.
• Where you can, inject emotional elements.
“We won,” does much better than
“Congratulations to the sales department.”
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25. Thanks!
@redpaperclip
http://redpaperclip.ca
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26. Resources.
• Strunk & White (1918). The Elements of Style
• Roddick, H (2003). Business Writing Makeovers: Shortcut solutions to improve
your letters, e-mails and faxes.
• Seglin, J. L., Coleman, E. (2002). The AMA handbook of business letters (3rd ed.)
• Johnson-Sheehan, R. (2008). Writing proposals (2nd ed.)
• Signorelli, J., Storybranding: Creating standout brands through the power of story.
• Shipley & Schwalbe (2008). Send:Why people email so badly and how to do it
better.
• The Grammar Girl (The Queen of American Usage)
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/
• Seth Godin (2003). The Purple Cow.
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