at the end of chapters. I highly recommend that you actually write them out.
The core exercises are:
1.Freewriting
2.The unlocked door
3.Focused Freewriting
4.A return letter to say “no” and
5.Perception
6.Writing a brief report based on a newspaper.
If you take my challenge and complete these exercises, you will improve—no matter who you are or how well you write already.
People More Than Paper
Writing is “people” more than “paper.” The path to success for writing dilemmas lies not in learning more rules and tips about language. The solution instead lies in the world around us, its people and problems, its complexities and strains. Writing at work is successfully connecting to this world. So in order to communicate better, Terry must reach out to the people around her rather than isolate herself within the world of language skills. Yes, knowing grammar and punctuation is important. But such language skills are only the tools for communication, not the goals. For writing success, Terry must do what she does in the rest of her work life. She must set goals for each memo, letter or report. And when she finishes, she must check to make sure she has achieved those specific communication and action goals.
Waiting for inspiration to make the words flow will not work. The concept of inspiration comes to us from the ancient Greeks, who identified nine divine Muses who whisper ideas to poets and artists. Unfortunately, the Greeks offer no mention of a Muse for memo writing. For writing at work, they leave us to our own imaginations. That is just as well. We must learn to create our own fate. And for many people today, that fate depends on how well they write. Even with the widespread adoption of computers and the electronic networks that go with them, writing continues to be an essential element for achieving goals at work. In fact, the electronic workplace makes writing skills more important to more workers than ever before.
Maybe you recognized some of the problems Terry faces when writing at work. Her situation is common. If you feel discomfort instead of joy when you write memos, letters and reports, the key to your success is the same as for Terry. Identify your writing process: Clearly understand the steps you go through to produce a document. Select precise and appropriate communication goals for each writing project. Work until you achieve those goals. And most important of all, once you have achieved the goals you set for yourself, move on to the next task at work without worrying about what you have written. The most enjoyable part of writing does not come from committing words to paper. The pleasant experience we all seek is the fun of knowing you have gotten yourself across to another person, communication fulfilled.
Using This Guidebook
The guidebook in your hands will show you how to identify and set goals for yourself so that writing becomes an enjoyable and effective experience for you at work. You will learn one very effective process for writing any memo, letter or report. This process relies on a format that organizes information on the page in a specific way. The format goes by this abbreviation: LEB123S. This acronym is not a cute, easy-to-remember name. Cute labels for writing formats, besides sounding contrived, make the job seem less demanding than it actually is. Neither is it a magic formula. It is a tool for you. You remain the center of the writing process, not this format. You use it; it does not command you.
The letters of the acronym stand for “Lead,” “Explanation,” “Background,” “First Example,” “Second Example,” “Third Example,” and “Summary.” When most people think about writing, they think about words on paper. Successful writers, however, know writing is more than what happens on the page. It is the research before and–for those who write at work–it is the response of readers afterwards that make writing enjoyable and productive.
The heart of this book—the LEB123S format—focuses directly on what happens on the page because that is the best way to communicate to people who want to improve their writing at work. Since that is where you are likely to start thinking about the subject, I will join you at that point and move on from there. The format then becomes a way to discuss the beginning of the writing process and a set of terms for examining the responses of prospective readers.
Once you learn how to organize the language on the page, you will learn ways to determine what content to include in your memos, letters and reports, and why.
But first we solve the most common problem I have seen in more than 25 years of editing and training people how to write. Too many writers shoot without selecting a target. They do not define exactly what success is. Instead, they wait for a vague sense of “rightness” or “flow” after committing words to paper. The sense never comes because it does not exist. Instead—and this is the best news in the guidebook—you are in charge. You determine what success is and you decide what to include in your writing at work. So the first activity is for you to write down what success is. Once you define what you want to achieve (select your target), you will discover a way to hit it. Only then will you experience that good feeling of doing a job well.
Making a Universal Format Your Own
To make this book work for you, begin by writing down “What I like.” This book—a mere collection of ink on paper—is nothing until you make it come alive for you. The funny contradiction of Write Better and Get Ahead at Work is that the book sets out a single format that each individual writer makes his or her own. Once you decide what you want, the guidebook shows you the format. Original only on the surface, LEB123S is a simple way of stating what you and most readers already know in your hearts. The format is a shorthand way of describing (and remembering) how people in Western Civilization think.
This arrangement of ideas surrounds us in language everyday, in newspapers, at work and in books. You have heard a similar idea before: “Your writing should have a beginning, middle and end.” When I first began teaching writing to people at a community college, I noticed that this strategy did not help them at all. Who could disagree with “beginning, middle, and end”? But what does it mean? What should come first? How do you know which information goes in the middle? How do you know when you have reached the end?
To make the terms of language organization more useful to people who want to improve their work right away, I devised the format to explain exactly what goes into each of the three sections. The format—with variations—applies to any memo, letter or report because it is the fundamental structure of any message, the progression of ideas your reader is expecting to hear. The beginning is a strong lead statement, getting to the point right away with perhaps a bit of explanation to follow. The middle is historical background information and three or so relevant facts to support the lead. The end is a summary, which for writing at work usually means the action resulting from your message.
Where did this format come from? LEB123S comes from the most successful and efficient writing business in the world today: daily newspapers. Compare the writing at most businesses to the writing of a newspaper. In less than 24 hours, a newspaper will produce a story written by one person, edited by two more, reviewed by three or four others and finally printed. The end product is readable, accurate (nearly always), and relevant to the reader now. What happens where you work? Possibly something like this: the boss gives someone a writing assignment; after a day of thinking about it and another day of producing two or three drafts, the writer produces a memo that the boss may or may not like. The final product—even when it is useful for the intended reader—too often feels “wordy” or “boring.”
Building
