Writing Advice Archives - Page 11 of 12

DELETE WHAT DOESN’T MATTER

November 5, 2009 by Scott Flood

While waiting for a flight yesterday, I heard the same PA announcement several times: “Effective June 30, 2008, smoking is prohibited in the airport.”

The “smoking is prohibited” part I fully understand. But what’s the bit with the “effective June 30”? That’s more than a year ago. Does the date the ban went into effect really matter? Do we want people to think, “Gosh, I shouldn’t smoke in the terminal,” or is it really important that they mentally add, “and I haven’t been able to do so since June 30, 2008”?

INAPPROPRIATELY APPROPRIATE

October 27, 2009 by Scott Flood

Many people use some words that don’t really need to be there. A great example is “appropriate,” as it’s used in sentences such as “once we review the information, we’ll take appropriate action.”

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

October 22, 2009 by Scott Flood

After a recent blog entry about exclamation points, fellow writer Tony Perona shared his own personal frustration – people who present their messages with an abundance of capital letters. They generally do it either because they think what they’re saying is REALLY IMPORTANT or because they think it ADDS EMPHASIS. They rank right up there with people who overuse boldface or underlining.

Using ALL CAPS, boldface, or underlining in print is the same as raising your voice to make a point. If you were speaking and wanted to make sure that your audience recognized that something was really important, you’d probably only stress the word “really.” If you stressed every word, you’d end up sounding like a raving maniac.

FEATURING BENEFITS

October 20, 2009 by Scott Flood

Recommendations to emphasize benefits rather then features when communicating are so old that I think they may date back to cavemen. Still, some marketers don’t understand the difference, so they miss out on an opportunity to connect more powerfully with their audiences.

Simply put, a feature is some aspect of your product or service. A benefit is what makes it a good or useful thing. If a bank tells you that they have 24-hour ATM access, they’re calling attention to a feature. If an automaker mentions stability control, that’s a feature.

IT’S NOT DUMBING DOWN

October 15, 2009 by Scott Flood

Imagine what would happen if the average math professor found himself lecturing to kindergartners. His words about chaos theory would fly over the group’s heads and the room would revert to real chaos. Now put one of your company’s engineers across the table from one of your product’s end-users. The gulf isn’t nearly as wide as that between our professor and the tots, but it might as well be.

One of the most challenging tasks facing those who create marketing materials is putting them in language that’s right for the reader. That doesn’t necessarily mean dumbing them down; it means that information should be presented at a level and in words that are comfortable for the audience.

OF LANGUAGE SPEAKING YOU ARE?

October 8, 2009 by Scott Flood

No matter how much money a company invests in its advertising and marketing efforts, no matter how hard they try to create and promote a compelling brand, and no matter what they do to get your business, they often lose sight of the fact that their reputation hinges on every employee or representative who has contact with customers and prospects.

Why then do so many companies put people who are unable to communicate clearly in these frontline roles? Whether it’s someone at the counter who can’t deliver a coherent answer to a customer question, or “Bill,” the highly accented voice that tells you he is really sorry you are having this problem, and then offers advice you can’t understand, these poor choices forever tarnish your impression of the organization behind them.

ARE YOU BEING SERVED – OR SERVICED?

October 6, 2009 by Scott Flood

I’ve often written about the tendency to use bigger words when smaller ones are actually more communicative. I blame it on a desire to sound more educated and impressive (and I think it goes back to those papers we wrote in high school and college, when we tried to mask our failure to read the assignment by digging deep into the thesaurus).

One common mistake is to substitute the word “service” for its close cousin “serve.” Instead of saying “we serve our customers with a smile,” we see “we service our customers with a smile.” Rather than “thanks for the opportunity to serve you,” it’s “thanks for the opportunity to service you.” In place of “we served 10,000 customers last year,” we get “we serviced 10,000 customers last year.” No big deal, you say?

IT’S ESPECIALLY VERY UNIQUE

October 1, 2009 by Scott Flood

Are you unique? That’s good. Are you very unique? That’s not so good.

No, I’m not suggesting that individuality is a bad thing. In fact, it’s a very good thing. A very powerful thing. And the word “unique” should be a very powerful word. Unfortunately, it’s misused so often that it is losing its power. Maybe even its uniqueness.

ESCHEWING OBFUSCATION

September 22, 2009 by Scott Flood

Wisdom shows up in the oddest places sometimes. While visiting the Society of Physics Students lounge at Purdue with my son, I pointed to a phrase someone had tacked on the wall, and told Joe that it was one of my favorite expressions. The sign said “Eschew Obfuscation.”

Okay, I realize that a lot of people reading this are now getting ready to click over to TMZ or something that’s not quite as painful, but eschewing obfuscation isn’t complicated. In more common terms, it means the same thing as the time-honored “keep it simple, stupid.”

WHY, I EXCLAIM! AND EXCLAIM!

September 15, 2009 by Scott Flood

A writer friend once opined that everyone should be allotted a set number of exclamation points at birth, and once they’ve used up their share, they’re done. Can’t use any more. I think that makes far more sense than any recent piece of legislation I’ve seen.