Business Writing For Dummies, 3ed

Introduction

About This Book  

Foolish Assumptions  

Icons Used in This Book  

Beyond the Book  

Where to Go from Here  

Part 1: Winning with Writing  

Chapter 1: Making Writing Your Weapon for Success

• Putting Strategic Writing to Work for You  
• Planning and Structuring Every Message  
• Applying the Goal-Plus-Audience Strategy to More Media  
• Succeeding with email, letters and business documents  
• Writing to present yourself powerfully  
• Writing online: From websites to blogs to tweets  
• Leveraging your writing skills  
• Remembering to think globally  

Chapter 2: Planning Your Message Every Time

• Adopting the Plan-Draft-Edit Principle  
• Fine-Tuning Your Plan: Your Goals and Audience  
• Defining your goal  
• Defining your audience  
• Brainstorming the best content for your purpose  
• Writing to groups and strangers  
• Imagining your readers  
• Making People Care  
• Connecting instantly with your reader  
• Focusing on what's-in-it-for-me  
• Persuading with benefits, not features  
• Finding the concrete, limiting the abstract  
• Choosing Your Written Voice: Tone  
• Sound positive, never negative  
• Align tone with the occasion, relationship and culture  
• Writing as your authentic self  
• Using Relationship-Building Techniques  
• Showing active caring and respect  
• Personalizing what you write  
• Framing messages with "you" not "I"  

Chapter 3: Making Your Writing Work: The Basics

• Stepping into Twenty-First-Century Writing Style  
• Writing to be understood  
• Applying readability guidelines  

• Finding the right rhythm  
• Achieving a conversational tone  
• Energizing Your Language  
• Relying on everyday wording  
• Choosing reader-friendly words  
• Focusing on the real and concrete  
• Finding action verbs  
• Crafting comparisons to help readers  
• Employing Reader-Friendly Graphic Techniques  
• Building in white space  
• Choosing a typeface  
• Keeping colors simple  
• Adding effective graphics  
• Breaking space up with sidebars, boxes and lists  

Chapter 4: Self-Editing: Professional Ways to Improve Your Work

• Changing Hats: From Writer to Editor  
• Choosing a way to edit  
• Distancing yourself from what you write  
• Reviewing the Big and Small Pictures  
• Assessing content success  
• Assessing your language  
• Avoiding telltale up-down-up inflection  
• Looking for repeat word endings  
• Pruning prepositions  
• Cutting all non-contributor words  
• Moving from Passive to Active  
• Thinking "action"  
• Trimming "there is" and "there are"  
• Cutting the haves and have nots  
• Using the passive deliberately  
• Sidestepping Jargon, Clichés and Extra Modifiers  
• Reining in jargon  
• Cooling the clichés  
• Minimizing modifiers  
• Energizing What You Write  

Chapter 5: Fixing Common Writing Problems

• Organizing Your Document  
• Paragraphing for logic  
• Building with subheads  
• Working with transitions  
• Working in lists: Numbers and bulleting  
• Catching Common Mistakes  
• Fine-tuning punctuation  
• Using comma sense  
• More punctuation tools  
• Using "however" correctly  
• Weighing "which" versus "that"  
• Considering "who" versus "that"  
• Choosing "who" versus "whom"  
• Beginning with "and" or "but"  

• Using sentence fragments  
• Ending with prepositions  
• Fielding Pronoun Challenges  
• Match nouns and pronouns  
• Be mindful of personal pronouns  
• Spot common pronoun errors  
• Fixing Common Word Confusions  
• It's or its  
• Their, there and they're  
• Your, yours and you're  
• Affect versus effect  
• Reviewing and Proofreading: The Final Check  
• Checking the big picture  
• Proofreading your work  
• Cutting to fit  
• Creating your personal writing improvement guide  
• What about my personal style?  

Part 2: Applying Your Skills to Business Messages and Documents

Chapter 6: Writing Email and Letters That Get Results

• Fast-Forwarding Your Agenda with Email  
• Starting Strong  
• Writing subject lines that pull people in  
• Using appropriate salutations  
• Drafting a strong email lead  
• Building Content That Achieves Your Goals  
• Clarifying what you want  
• Assessing what matters to your audience  
• Determining the best substance  
• Structuring Your Middle Ground  
• Closing Strong  
• Polishing Your Email  
• Monitoring length and breadth  
• Simplifying style  
• Going short: Words, sentences, paragraphs  
• Using graphic techniques to promote clarity  
• Using the signature block  
• Using Email for Marketing  
• Composing Effective Letters  

Chapter 7: Creating High-Impact Business Materials

• Creating Valued Reports  
• Writing activity reports  
• Reporting project results  
• Fast-Tracking Your Proposals  
• Writing formal proposals  
• Writing informal proposals  
• Writing a business plan  
• Applying for grants  
• Writing an Executive Summary  
• Giving perspective to complex material  
• Determining what matters  
• Putting headlines to work  
• Writing Tips for All Business Documents  

Part 3: Writing to Present Yourself Effectively

Chapter 8: Building Persuasion into Your Writing

• Connecting with Your Readers  
• Drawing from psychology  
• Communicating with conviction  
• Strategizing in Many Dimensions  
• Centering on benefits  
• Creating a friendly and reasonable tone  
• Giving people time  
• Planning Your Persuasive Message  
• Using Persuasive Language  
• Choosing words that persuade  
• Structuring material to support persuasion  
• Knowing what language to choose and what to avoid  
• Finding Your Core Business Message  
• Searching for true value  
• Making your case in business terms  
• Finding, Shaping and Using Stories  
• Finding your business story  
• Building your story  
• Story-writing tips  
• Translating Words into Visuals  

Chapter 9: Speaking Well for Yourself

• Building Your Elevator Speech  
• Defining your goal  
• Defining your audience  
• Strategizing your content  
• Using your mini speech  
• Representing your organization and yourself  
• Preparing and Giving Presentations  
• Planning what to say  
• Crafting your presentations with writing  
• Integrating visuals  
• Standing and delivering  
• Composing Talking Points for Live Interaction  

Chapter 10: Writing for the Job Hunt

• Knowing and Expressing Your Value  
• Pinpointing your personal strengths  
• Pulling your ideas together  
• Assessing All Your Skills  
• Writing Résumés That Win the Race  
• Choosing a format  
• Sidestepping presentation problems  
• Styling Language for Résumés  
• Using keywords: An essential  
• Writing the summary statement  
• Building your work history section  
• Showing off strengths  
• Succeeding with Cover Letters  
• Planning a cover letter  
• Opening with pizzazz  
• Networking with Messages  
• Requesting informational interviews  
• Saying thank you  

Part 4: Writing for Online Media

Chapter 11: Writing for the Digital World

• Positioning Yourself Online  
• Understanding Visual Platforms  
• Choosing Your Platforms  
• Breaking down your goals  
• Finding your audiences  
• Writing for Digital Media  
• Loosening up  
• Keeping language simple and clear  
• Communicating credibility  
• Cutting hype, maxing evidence  
• Devising nonlinear strategies  
• Incorporating interactive strategies  
• Using Social Media Platforms  
• Engaging with social media  
• Exploring content ideas  
• Networking with Twitter  
• Planning your Twitter program  
• Guidelines for tweeting  
• Working with LinkedIn  

Chapter 12: Creating Content for Your Online Life

• Creating a Website from the Ground Up  
• Shaping your site to goals and audience  
• Planning a basic website  
• Creating the site structure  
• Assembling and writing a home page  
• Writing the About Us page  
• Writing the inside pages  
• Content tips for websites  

• Writing tips for websites  
• Graphic tips for websites  
• Creating a Blog  
• Choosing your best subject  
• Developing tone and style  
• Drawing from the journalist's toolkit  
• Creating magnetic headlines  
• Organizing with progressive subheads  
• Considering articles for publication  
• Telling Your Story with Video  
• Using video to accomplish goals  
• Scripting your video  
• Producing video step-by-step  
• Sharing expertise with video  
• Introducing yourself with video  

Part 5: Leveraging Your Writing Skills

Chapter 13: Writing for the Workplace: Managing Up, Down and Sideways

• Communicating as a Manager  
• Relating to your team members  
• Writing to inspire and motivate  
• Delivering bad news  
• Writing good news messages  
• Criticizing with kindness  
• Writing requests and giving orders  
• Writing to Manage Up  
• Guarding your tone  
• Avoiding the blame game  
• Making it easy to respond  
• Writing to Colleagues, Collaborators and Teammates  
• Using Backup Memos  
• Language for Communicating Sideways  
• Using Turnaround Techniques  
• Communicating with a Team of Equals  

Chapter 14: Writing for Entrepreneurs and Virtual Workers

• Communicating as a Virtual Worker  
• Teaming Techniques and Practices  
• Using Everyday Communication Tools: Email and Group Chat  
• Making email more personal  
• Using team chat to your advantage  
• Using teleconferencing effectively  
• Writing as an Entrepreneur  
• Charting your communication plan  
• Pitching the media for free publicity  
• Writing Challenges for the Entrepreneur  
• Introducing yourself in writing  
• Writing to pitch your services  
• Creating letters that get you in  

Part 6: The Part of Tens

Chapter 15: Ten (or So) Ways to Grow Your Personal Power with Writing

• Use Writing to Problem-Solve  
• Write a "Pro" and "Con" List  
• Handwrite to Spark Creativity  
• Write to Take Charge of Your Emotions  
• Take Notes about Your Work  
• Take the Meeting Notes  
• Take Notes of Your Anytime Ideas  
• Prepare for Confrontation  
• Write a Long-Range Career Plan  
• Create Profiles of Your VIPs  
• Write Gratefully  

Chapter 16: Ten Steps to Writing Your Own Book

• Envision Your Finished Book  
• Create an Elevator Speech for Your Book  
• Think about Marketing -- Early  
• Break the Writing into Pieces  
• Create a Folder System  
• Assess the Practicalities  
• Write a Proposal  
• Draft the Copy  
• Liven Up Your Content  
• Check Out Self-Publishing Options  

Index