Communicate with Mastery

APPENDIX CMORE TIPS ON WINNING WRITING FROM GLENN KRAMON

These tips pick up from our conversation about writing earlier in the book. The whole document of Glenn's tips exists on my webpage. What follows are Glenn's words:

• RULE ONE: The first thing to ask yourself is: Who is my audience? I know you know this, but I'm struck by how many times we forget it. Think first: What result do I want from this writing, and how can I persuade the reader to help me achieve it? What is my ask?
• RULE TWO: Before you begin writing, it's so important to make sure you can answer this question: If you boiled it down to one phrase, sentence, or paragraph, what would it say? The shorter, the better. Put another way: Use the Miniskirt (or Speedo) Rule: Make it long enough to cover the basics, but short enough to keep it interesting.
  • Use shorter, simpler words and sentences—help rather than assist or facilitate, use instead of utilize, start instead of commence, improve instead of try to make better. Pretend you're typing on your phone—it's so unpleasant to use those keyboards, you force yourself to say it in fewer words.
    • “We are in the process of investigating.” Why not “We are investigating”? And “I am currently working for Google” is better as “I work at Google.”
  • Use strong words. For example, why say “she is incredibly smart” when you can say “she's brilliant.” Why say something is “extremely important ” when you can say it's “crucial.” And “especially unusual ” is more powerful as “rare” or “