17 April 2008
Think of "granny" for better business writing
Practitioners learn how to ensure corporate messages are noticed and understood.
Communicators in the UK spent two days this week improving their writing and editing techniques at Melcrum's new skills training courses.
Let's get personal
The advanced writing and editing course was run by Sue Heal, (pictured right) an experienced media trainer and journalist whose recent clients include BT, the Ministry of Defence and Sony Europe.
She told the group, which included participants from Virgin Atlantic, NYSE, ABN AMRO, "A lot of what internal communicators write just won't get read. This is partly due to internal communicators falling into a routine writing in a format that's seen time and time again."
Heal stressed the importance of making a personal or individual link between the corporate message and the reader, "When writing, ask yourself: 'What does this mean to Mr X in the finance department? Why should he care?'"
Her advice is to include stories about specific employees as much as possible, to give the message a human interest angle and make it relevant to the audience.
When writing, ask yourself: What does this mean to Mr X in the finance department? Why should he care?
Trash the jargon
Like most good writers, Heal insisted that communicators should boycott the use of jargon. However, this raised concerns with many of the participants, who felt that there was an expectation of them from leadership to use corporate speak. Why? Because otherwise messages that are supposed to have come "from the top" would appear unprofessional.
Some also commented that leaders like to hide behind the jargon, "It gives them an escape route from being honest with employees and telling them like it is," said one delegate. Another point raised was that what may be seen as jargon to some, would make perfect sense to an employee within a specific industry.
"That's true," said Heal, "But this language won't lure them to pick something up and read it, or to give up 5 minutes of their time to read your message all the way through. Merely understanding something is quite different to consciously wanting to read something."
Think about how you would explain corporate terminology like 'strategy', 'initiative' or 'core values' to your granny over a cup of tea.
Respect your audience
Heal's advice was to keep jargon to the bare minimum, "Think about how youwould explain corporate terminology like 'strategy', 'initiative' or 'core values' to your granny over a cup of tea!"
Above all, Heal stressed that a good writer needs to respect the intelligence of their reader. In this case, internal communicators need to remember that employees can usually tell when a sensitive corporate issue is being padded out by jargon. "Be as straight forward with them as possible," she said.
Have your say
How do you make employees sit up and take notice of your corporate messages? Do you feel pressured to use jargon and overused corporate speak? Or is it just easier and quicker? What's the most commonly used piece of jargon in your organization?
Share your thoughts on these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
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