Four secrets of a good communicator

Whether or not you’ve taken our tongue-in-cheek style test, if you already consider yourself a Churchill of writing then you’ve probably perfected the four secrets of a good communicator.

Here’s what all three ‘D’ test sentences look like when put together:

We apologise for the unfortunate break in service, which was caused by problems with our IT system. Should you wish to cancel the agreement, under our new policy you must inform us in writing three days in advance. Email us now – we would love to hear what you think.’

We’re not saying this is the only or even the best way of writing our example paragraph. But in just 53 words it demonstrates four essential components of a good writing style, as identified by writing style sage, F.L. Lucas.

So what are those four components? Well, they are as follows:

  1. Clarity – The three main messages are easy to see – sorry for the failure of service; cancellation now requires three days’ written notice; and, why not get in touch. There is nothing ambiguous and nothing has been obscured by clutter.
  2. Brevity – By sticking to the point and choosing precise terms to get the main messages across, the paragraph is delightfully brief too.
  3. Variety – This is essential to avoid writing becoming monotonous. Although rather short to demonstrate much, our paragraph nevertheless varies in sentence length, sentence construction, the words used and even to some extent its tone.
  4. Simplicity – Most business writing demands some degree of formality in tone and content. As a rule, colloquialisms, slang and contractions shouldn’t be used. This does not mean, though, that our language cannot still be simple. A good test is to read your writing aloud. If both the words and their logic flow like a conversation that is neither pretentious nor sloppy, then you’re probably there.

Tips for the ‘pedantic’ writer

Whether or not you’ve taken our tongue-in-cheek style test, if readers need a ball of thread to find their way out of your verbal maze then please read on.

Here’s what our three ‘C’ test sentences – yes, only three! – look like when we put them together:

The 3.25 hour interruption to service experienced by customers on the morning of May 24th 2013, was the result of a rare but highly virulent file infector virus which entered our centralised IT system during a scheduled bi-monthly update of anti-virus software, for which we are sorry. Our terms and conditions, which were revised on 1st September 2013, stipulate that in order for us to perform all the administrative tasks that are required to process cancellation requests and update our records, we can only accept cancellations where we have been notified in writing three days in advance. We are always keen to hear our customers’ views – that is why we set up our dedicated email facility which we launched on 1st April 2010, since when we have received an impressive 3,012 responses from clients and interested members of the public – so contact us now.’

An incredible 146 words! If your intention is to decimate the tree population then you’re off to a great start. If you were hoping to impress, brace yourself for disappointment. Call us busy or lazy, the odds of us bothering to read enough to spot your brilliance are slim.

We know that being ‘transparent’ is de rigueur these days, but there are limits. Far from being admirably informative, our Pedant is more likely to be thought of as a long-winded know-it-all. So, here’s what you need to do.

  • Think of your readers – Put yourself in their position. Would you want to wade through lines and lines of irrelevant information in the hope of finding something useful? Exactly. And if your readers don’t have to, chances are they won’t even try.
  • Identify your point and stick to it – If your message is important enough to write about, it’s important that your readers can grasp it. Always keep the purpose of your document in mind and stick to your subject.
  • Help readers get to the point – In all three sentences we arrive at the important bits – we’re sorry; cancel three days in advance; contact us now – only by following a very long, congested and circuitous route. Don’t assume that everyone will bother to make it that far. Help them by ditching the chatter and bringing your main messages to the fore.
  • Leave out irrelevant details – Do readers need to know what caused the IT to fail, what goes on in the intervening three days before cancellation or how many visitors you’ve had to your website? No – none of these is relevant to the main points. Dates, lengths of time, schedules, number of responses etc. are also unnecessary here.
  • Don’t talk technical – Unless you’re writing for a technical audience, avoid this urge. File infector virus, bi-monthly update, anti-virus software, centralised – all extraneous details that will turn off, rather than turn on, your readers.

Less is more – Do everything we’ve said above and the words will fall away!

Tips for the ‘bureaucratic’ writer

Whether or not you’ve taken our tongue-in-cheek style test, if your writing makes even politicians sound lucid, please read on.

Here’s what our three ‘B’ test sentences look like when put together:

To the company’s regret, the issues its clients have been experiencing were due to a quality issue relating to the delivery of the IT-based system that is currently utilised in-house, and a review to identify lessons and learning points is now ongoing. Going forward, cancellation of the agreement can only be delivered upon receipt of written notification of a client’s intention to cancel three days prior to the cancellation. Should any client wish to comment on this issue, feedback submissions can be made via the company’s IT-based communications interface.’

At best you might be seen as injecting a tone of respectful formality, but mostly this style of writing is just pompous and, let’s face it, miserable to read.

So, whether sounding self-important or trying to be obscure is your goal then give yourself a gold star – you’ve cracked it. Conversely, if you’re trying to attract the attention of readers who are in no way obliged to give you it, here are some tips on how to win them over.

  • Keep it short – Sentences should contain 15 to 20 words on average. Ideally they should vary in length too. Granted, the three above are of different lengths but two of them contain over 20 words. The first alone contains an incredible 42. In fact the entire paragraph consists of 89 words, whereas our model example using the ‘D’ sentences comes to just 53.
  • Add the personal touch – Be natural and engaging. Don’t hide behind the company but say ‘we’ or ‘I’, ‘us’ and ‘our’. Similarly when addressing your readers, say ‘you’ and ‘your’.
  • Reveal your verbs – Avoid noun constructions such as a review to, cancellation of, notification of and instead say we are reviewing, in order to cancel, notify us. Otherwise you stifle the action, preventing the flow of words and making the language stodgy.
  • Be active – Active verbs make it clear who is doing the acting. Passive verbs make you sound impersonal and aloof. So say we currently use instead of is currently used; and you can make submissions instead of submissions can be made. (See *Blame others below for one example of when to be passive.)
  • Ditch jargon, clichés and business-speak – Examples here include issues, quality issue, the delivery of, utilise, ongoing, going forward, feedback, interface. Using hackneyed terms like these makes writers sound shallow and lazy.
  • Use the right word – An IT-based system is just our IT; the IT-based communications interface is simply email; quality can be excellent or awful and everything in between – which is it?; issues can be problems, obstacles, topics for discussion or editions of a publication. Help your readers by being precise.
  • Don’t repeat yourselfIssue/issues; delivery of/delivered; cancellation/ cancel; IT-based. It suggests lazy thinking and makes for dull reading.
  • Drop redundant words – A lot of our paragraph’s contents could be removed at no detriment to its message, by: i) applying the preceding tips to how it is written; and, ii) removing all other redundant words and phrases – e.g. relating to the delivery of, -based, currently, in-house, now – whose only contribution is to drag it all tediously out.
  • *Blame others – Taking responsibility when things go wrong, especially when it is not our fault, earns respect. There is, though, a solution where no-one need take the blame and that is by using the depersonalising passive voice – e.g. the breakdown was caused by a fault in the IT system.

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    By applying these techniques here’s what our Model Answer (three ‘D’ test sentences) looks like:

    We apologise for the unfortunate break in service, which was caused by problems with our IT system. Should you wish to cancel the agreement, under our new policy you must inform us in writing three days in advance. Email us now – we would love to hear what you think.’

    Tips for the ‘cowboy’ writer

    Whether or not you’ve taken our tongue-in-cheek style test, if you write like George Dubya speaks, then please read on.

    Here’s what our three ‘A’ style test sentences look like when put together:

    The people supposed to be looking after our PCs misunderestimated what they had to do. From now on no-one can cancellate the deal without 3 days’ notice! If what we’re saying resignates with you and even if it doesn’t it’d be grate to hear from you ;).’

    There’s Plain English and there’s plain unprofessional! Writing like this is the equivalent of not thinking before you speak. At best you might earn yourself some free exposure – but as the latest Facebook ‘funny’, at what cost to your reputation?

    On a positive note, at a mere 46 words you certainly win on brevity. Nor could you be accused of speaking down to readers. If you want to convince people that you are worth paying attention to, though, here are some tips on what you most definitely should NOT do.

    • Write without thinking – All business documents have a purpose, an intended audience and a point to get across. A successful communicator takes all three into account when deciding how and what to write.
    • Make up words – Shakespeare may have made an art of it, but these days making up words is more likely to shout ignorance than inspired creativity. While I confess to inventing ‘cancellate’ for the purpose of this demonstration, you may thank George W Bush for misunderestimated and resignates.
    • Be careless with spelling and punctuation – If you can’t be bothered to get these right, what else don’t you bother with? That’s the impression sloppy writing gives readers. Rightly or wrongly, mistakes of this kind also cause people to question our intelligence and ability.
    • Blame others – Taking responsibility when things go wrong, especially when they are not our fault, earns respect. There is, though, a solution where no-one need take the blame and that is by using the depersonalising passive voice – e.g. the breakdown was caused by a fault in the IT system.(See *Be active below for why we do not normally advocate use of the passive.)
    • Use contractions – With the advent of social media many of the old rules of formal writing no longer hold sway. Nevertheless using contractions such as we’re and doesn’t in business documents still tends to be frowned upon, while awkward-sounding constructions like it’d should always be avoided.
    • Be too casual – Contractions we have covered above, but also included here are what could be considered dismissive terms and phrases (e.g. the people, PCs), numbers, exclamation marks and emoticons.

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    *Be active – Active verbs make it clear who is doing the acting. Passive verbs make you sound impersonal and aloof. So usually better to say, e.g. we currently use instead of is currently used; and, you can contact us instead of we can be contacted.

    Take our writing style test

    . . . and discover what kind of business writer you are. For each set of sentences below, which of the four options comes closest to the way you write?

    Set 1
    1a – If what we’re saying resignates with you, and even if it doesn’t, it’d be grate to hear from you ;).
    1b – Should customers wish to comment on this issue, feedback submissions can be made via the company’s IT-based communications interface.
    1c – We are always keen to hear our customers’ views – that is why we set up our dedicated email facility which we launched on 1st April 2010, since when we have received an impressive 3,012 responses from clients and interested members of the public – so contact us now.
    1d – Email us now – we would love to hear what you think.

    Set 2
    2a – The people supposed to be looking after the computers misunderestimated what they had to do.
    2b – To our regret, the issues you have been experiencing were due to a quality issue relating to the delivery of the IT-based system that is currently utilised in-house and a review to identify lessons and learning points is now ongoing.
    2c – The 3.25 hour interruption to service experienced by customers on the morning of May 24th 2013, was the result of a rare but highly virulent file infector virus which entered our centralised IT system during a scheduled bi-monthly update of anti-virus software, for which we are sorry.
    2d – We apologise for the unfortunate break in service, which was caused by problems with our IT system.

    Set 3
    3a – From now on no-one can cancellate the deal without giving 3 days’ notice!
    3b – Going forward, cancellation of this agreement can only be delivered upon receipt of written notification of your intention to cancel three days prior to the cancellation.
    3c – Our terms and conditions, which were revised on 1st September 2013, stipulate that in order for us to perform all the administrative tasks that are required to process cancellation requests and update our records, we can only accept cancellations where we have been notified in writing three days in advance.
    3d – Should you wish to cancel the agreement, under our new policy you must inform us in writing three days in advance.


    Mostly As? – It’s back to the classroom for you, or next time get a grown-up to help!

    Mostly Bs? – Find a job that demands verbal subterfuge or apply some Plain English.

    Mostly Cs? – Take pity on your audience and learn to get straight to the point.

    Mostly Ds? – Give yourself a ‘V for Victory; Great English Needs You!

    For more insight into your writing style and how to improve it, click on the links for each score.