Business Writing For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 1

Making Writing Your Weapon for Success

IN THIS CHAPTER

Rising above the pack with good writing

Using writing to achieve your own goals

Applying the three imperatives of strategic writing

Using an easy structure to plan everything you write

We take the ability to read and write for granted today, but human civilization started with, and depends on, the written word. Originating more than 5,000 years ago, writing empowered people to record events and share information with people beyond shouting distance. Over time it enabled us to collectively build knowledge and experience. We could think bigger thoughts and invent better ways of doing things.

For most of the time between early writing and the world we live in, writing skills were typically owned by the governing classes. A mere 50 centuries later, we can all own this magic. And as we know from Superman and his friends, when you own a power, you need to use it to accomplish great things.

But good writing is not an innate skill for most of us. It is definitely a learnable skill, but one that few people develop in school. ...