The Language of Success: Business Writing That Informs, Persuades, and Gets Results

That’s fine most of the time. But when your e-mail message re-

ally matters, you’re better off composing it in your word processor,

editing it there, getting it right, and then copying and pasting it into

the message space of your e-mail system. You’re a little more likely

to catch the typos, misspelled words, and other mechanical prob-

lems that way.

Moving Beyond the Mechanical

Of course, mechanical errors, misspelled words, grammar mistakes,

and typos are actually the least of our worries. If your writing is rid-

dled with those kinds of errors, you’ll distract and possibly annoy

your reader, and you’ll certainly damage your credibility. But these

mistakes are not the ones that cause the most costly damage. If you

look back at those two disastrous e-mails written by company CEOs,

neither one of them had misspelled words and neither one of them

contained typos. The grammar was fine, too, even including their

use of sentence fragments to create an individual tone. No, the real

problems lay much deeper. They failed to accomplish their supposed

purposes—inspiring, motivating, setting a vision for the future. And

they created much larger problems for their authors and the compa-

nies they headed than they were trying to fix.

In this book, we will move beyond the merely mechanical er-

rors—the punctuation mistakes, misspelled words, and grammar

goofs that everyone makes

from time to time. Rather,

our focus will be on writing

effectively. The purpose of

this book is to provide some

guidelines for business

writers who want to feel

confident that the e-mails,

letters, and other docu-

ments they write are suc-

cessful in making a clear

point, communicating a credible opinion, effectively motivating oth-

ers, or even persuading the reader to adopt a particular point of

view.

22 The Language of Success

Words to Write By...

Effective writing does not de-

pend on correct grammar and

spelling. It depends on sound

thinking, an understanding of

the audience, and a clear sense of

your purpose in writing.

What the book won’t do is tell you how to install a spam filter,

how to set up multiple e-mail accounts for your office, or how to

launch an e-mail marketing campaign. That kind of technical infor-

mation is beyond my limited domain of expertise. The book also

will not attempt to deal with the human resource and legal issues in-

volved in writing a performance appraisal, the contractual issues

inherent in a proposal, and so on. Technical tasks and the legal im-

plication of your writing are topics best left to the techies and the

lawyers respectively. Instead, my goal is to outline how you can

write clearly and effectively. I will show you some simple techniques

that will enable you to communicate as professionally as possible.

Knowing these techniques will save you and your reader time and

effort, will prevent errors and misunderstandings, and will help you

create a favorable impression. Sloppy, unclear, incomprehensible

writing suggests that the person who produced it is incapable of

thinking clearly or producing high quality work. That’s not fair—you

may believe that your skills as a civil engineer or an investment ad-

visor or a purchasing agent or whatever you do professionally have

very little to do with your ability to write well—but nobody ever

said life would be fair. The fact is it’s in your best interest to learn

how to communicate effectively, to learn how to use the language of

success.

In the next chapter, The Problem, I’ll sketch the typical mistakes

people make in writing e-mails, letters, and other documents. Specif-

ically, I’ll describe four “languages” people use that simply don’t

work: Fluff, Guff, Geek, and

Weasel. Each of these lan-

guages fails in business

communications because

each makes it difficult for

the reader to understand

the message. These lan-

guages often create the wrong impression, they can undercut rapport

between sender and receiver, and they may diminish the writer’s

professionalism and credibility. The use of these ineffective

languages is often a matter of bad habits. By pointing out their char-

acteristics and how to revise them, I hope to make you hypersensi-

tive to these four faulty languages. I will have accomplished my

Chapter 1 Introduction 23

Words to Write By...

People judge you and get to

know you through your writing.