The Write Stuff
The Write Stuff
The Write Stuff
TH
EDITION
THE
WRITE STUFF
SEVEN STEPS TO WRITTEN EXCELLENCE
™
®
Published by:
Emphasis
130 Queen’s Road
Brighton
BN1 3WB UK
Tel: +44 (0)1273 732888
Email: [email protected]
www.writing-skills.com
Introduction p3
1 Tips for clear writing p5
2 Writing for the web p15
3
Writing email p25
4
Jargon buster p30
Index p63
Introduction
Introduction
We first came up with the concept for this book way back in 2007. My
colleague Tom and I were returning from visiting some clients. It was
obvious to us that their staff desperately needed a clear guide to the
company’s approach to written communication.
The trouble was, we knew the clients would never produce one. It was
simply too big a task for them, just as it was for all the other clients we’d
floated the idea with. We decided we’d better produce our own universal
guide. And so The Write Stuff was born.
Back then, we never dreamt just how popular it would become. It’s
now in its fourth reprint and some 40,000 copies are in use around the
globe. It’s become the go-to guide to better writing for a huge number of
organisations.
This edition contains the same solid advice as previous versions and a full
section aimed at settling arguments about contentious spellings and points
of grammar. But we’ve also fully updated it, including extra material on
writing email, house style and the all-important writing for the web.
As always, we’d love your feedback on how you’re using this guide and
to hear about the particular challenges you face when writing in the
workplace. We’re here to help.
Rob Ashton
Emphasis founder and CEO
But, as the saying goes, to fail to plan is to plan to fail. Never think of the
time you spend planning as wasted: it is a vital part of the process.
1
failed if you force your reader to
Why am I concentrate on the words rather
writing this? than the message.
2
highlight what you’re saying rather
than how you say it.
Who is it for?
The central readability
principles are:
3
be direct
• proof it.
Be direct
Be direct by addressing your readers as ‘you’ and referring to yourself, the
writer, as ‘we’ or ‘I’ wherever possible. For example, in place of: ‘The writers
of this sentence advise readers to adopt this technique,’ write: ‘We advise
you to adopt this technique.’ This will make your writing – and its relevance
– easier to understand. ‘You’ and especially ‘we’ also make writing sound
more confident, more transparent and more personal.
Make sure, too, that you write about what concerns your readers rather
than about your organisation’s internal processes.
Before After
Delegates are instructed to send Please send us an example of your
in examples of their writing writing before the course. We will
before training courses. The office analyse it so that we can give you
manager receives the samples and an idea of where your strengths
sends them to the trainers, who and weaknesses lie.
analyse them to get a better idea
of where delegates’ strengths and
weaknesses lie.
This sentence is in the passive voice. The person or thing doing the action
(‘the trainer’) follows the action (‘were made’).
The active voice puts the ‘doer’ – in grammar terms, the agent – first.
This makes the sense clearer and the wording less clumsy:
This sentence doesn’t tell you who took the action it describes (there is
no agent). This is because, unlike the active voice, the passive allows you
to remove the agent. So if a sentence leaves you asking: ‘By whom?’, it’s
passive. This is why the passive produces very opaque text. Using the active
voice forces you to be more specific and, again, more confident.
Before After
It was assumed by management Managers assumed that staff
that the changes to working had implemented the changes to
practices had been implemented. working practices.
Or
Managers assumed staff had
changed their working practices.
Be rigorous in your editing. Are you using the best word for the job? What
do you mean? Is there a simpler way to say it? When you think you’ve
finished, try cutting the content by a third.
Use verbs (which express actions) rather than nouns (which refer to things,
people and places): it’s the verbs that make language dynamic. Be especially
vigilant for those heavy nouns ending in -tion or -sion, eg recommendation.
Such nominalisations (nouns created from verbs) can make your writing
clunky and boring to read, as they attract redundant words. (This is why
at Emphasis we call these words ‘waffle magnets’.) See the table below for
some examples.
And use concrete terms rather than abstract (or meaningless) generalities:
‘Help with giving up smoking’ rather than ‘Strategies for smoking cessation’
(the title of a leaflet we found in a local pharmacy).
Verb Nominalisation
Use implement/do not undertake the implementation of
Before After
The aim of this document is to This document outlines how we can
provide an outline of systemic be consistent with the wording we
operations to facilitate the use in training materials.
implementation of methodology
that will assist the team in the
avoidance of inconsistency in the
wording used in training materials.
Before After
Whilst the organisation currently We need funding to lobby for
relies on sponsorship from small legislative changes that will improve
enterprises and individuals, the people’s lives. At the moment, we
cooperation of large corporate rely on sponsorship from small
bodies, without whose funding enterprises and individuals. But this
we will not be able to provide the is not enough. Financial support
services our clients require, is now from large corporate bodies is now
essential if we are to campaign essential if we are to provide the
successfully for legislative changes services our clients require and
that will improve the lives of many successfully campaign for change.
sectors of the population.
Keep an eye on paragraph length, too. Try to stick to one main point per
paragraph. If you can’t sum up that point in a few words in the margin,
you’ve probably tried to cram in too much information.
Proof it!
Proofreading isn’t an optional extra: make time for it. Try to create some
distance between writing the document and proofing it. Print it out and
come back to it when you’re fresh. And try to proofread away from your
desk – this will help you read as a reader, not as the writer. Use a ruler to
guide you, and a pencil to point to each word individually. This will stop
your brain reading what it expects to see rather than what’s actually there.
3. Be direct.
Your visitors are on your web pages for a reason. This can range
from a highly specific goal, such as to buy a particular product, to
a vague need for distraction.
You need to work out which of your readers’ goals also benefit your
organisation, then tailor your website to meet them. As a web writer, your
challenge is to make it as easy as possible for readers to find what they’re
looking for. Here’s how.
Once you have considered these questions, work out how many pages you
need to convey your information. Stick to one topic per page. And make
sure each page is self-explanatory and self-contained. It should stand as
an ‘island’ of information: your reader should be able to access it from
anywhere and understand it.
You have no way of telling for sure where the next visitor will come from,
and no control over which page they see first. What’s worse, many of them
will be seeing your site for the first time. They may not know how much
trust to put in it.
They’re likely to be asking themselves: ‘Am I in the right place?’ So each page
needs to answer that question – and answer it within about five seconds.
This is a hard test to pass. Try it: ask someone who isn’t familiar with your
website to look at an important page. After a few seconds, ask them what
they think that page is about. There’s a good chance you’ll be surprised by
their answer.
If this all sounds too painful, try it on the sites of your competitors or similar
organisations. You’ll be amazed at how many of them fail.
You can take advantage of this by using regular, clear subheads that
break up the text and make it easy for your reader to jump to the
appropriate section.
Be sure also to make your subheads explicit, rather than using bland,
general wording. So ‘40 years in the business’ is better than ‘Our
experience’. Combined, your subheads should tell the story.
Give your writing room to breathe. Just like printed text, your web content
needs plenty of space around it to make it look attractive and help it
stand out.
Put the most important points near the beginning. This applies at every
level: the most important message at the top of a page, the most important
sentence at the beginning of a paragraph and the most important bullet
point at the top of the list.
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks within your own site can provide relevant context. They’re
particularly useful if you have a topic that you want to cover in more detail
without crowding a page. (But remember that having too many links within
your own site is distracting.)
Links to other sites can also provide useful content for your readers. But
bear in mind that if you send your visitors to another site, they may not
come back to yours. Make links to other sites open in a new window to help
stop visitors from losing their thread.
Make sure, too, that you have real content on every page: relegating
everything to a hyperlink is both irritating and time-consuming for the
reader. Format hyperlinks as text, rather than ugly URLs, and use a style
that underlines them or highlights them in a different colour, so readers
know they can click on them. Your links should be descriptive: avoid using
‘click here’. Write instead something that describes the page you’re linking
to, such as ‘send us a message’.
Punctuate around the hyperlink in the same way as you would any other
piece of writing.
Paragraphs Keep up
Keep paragraphs short. A wall of
text will make the reader think they
to date
have to read all of it to understand Review your pages regularly,
your point – making them more making sure any dates, eg
likely to give up. Use subheads events, are updated. Out-of-date
(see page 18) to signpost content information will undermine the
more often than you would in content of your whole site.
hard-copy documents.
Get rid of any ‘We have written this page to help you …’ stuff. Use the
readability techniques in this guide to write concise, unambiguous text.
Pay special attention to sentence length: if in doubt, put that full stop in.
Writing for
social media
Social media platforms vary
enormously. They’re usually much
more visual than the average web
page – often allowing readers eed
e i f you n
to see large preview pictures
Not s
u r ers,
s i n numb
n ons?
hyphe
accompanying your writing.
d fracti ere:
But the same principles apply. And ages
a n
p r o b lem h
that gNm
whether you’re writing a tweet Solve t . l y / 1YhU
/b i
as the President of the United
http:/
t
Twee
States or posting a blog update to 140
Before
www.filtoncouncil.gov.uk/buildingstandards.html
This page hasn’t been written with the reader in mind: there’s unnecessary
background detail and it doesn’t make clear at the start what the main
message is. Without subheads, it is also difficult to follow the logic.
The language is not as direct (see Be direct, page 8) and active (see Use the
active voice, page 9) as it could be. And there are no contact details, which
undermines the practicality of the page as a whole. Here’s a rewritten
version that gets to the point, signposts the information clearly and tells
readers all they need to know.
After
www.filtoncouncil.gov.uk/buildingstandards.html
Many of the ‘rules’ of email usage rely on common sense and are, to
some extent, idiosyncratic: we all have our own favourite methods
for structuring, prioritising and archiving messages. Here’s how to get
the most out of email – and ensure your reader actually reads your
messages.
Is anyone there?
Unbelievable as it may seem, not everyone checks their emails every
five minutes. Don’t fret over a lack of response until you have genuine
cause to do so.
If you simply can’t wait any longer for a response, pick up the phone.
Calm down
Email is unforgiving. Without facial expression and tone of voice, it’s very
easy to get it wrong. What you thought was a pithy, to-the-point message
might come across as terse, bossy, or – worse – aggrieved. Emails are
generally ill-suited to emotive subjects: if you want to criticise or ask for a
pay rise, do so in person.
Take your time responding to messages that anger or upset you. Remove
the recipient’s address before you write anything, so you don’t send it
prematurely. And save your reply as a draft to re-read later when you’ve
calmed down.
Also be aware that successful humour onscreen takes careful thought and
knowledge of your recipient. If you don’t have time for either of these, keep
it straight. (See also Quality control, page 29.)
It’s very simple, but it does work. Without an address, the message isn’t
going anywhere. And if you always add the attachments first, you’ll be less
likely to forget them. With ‘Reply to’ messages, try deleting the recipient’s
address before starting at number 1.
Be professional
Email has dispensed with much of the formality of traditional business
writing. Using ‘Hi’ or just the recipient’s first name then ‘Kind regards’ or
‘Many thanks’ keeps the tone direct and approachable. But beware of being
too informal, especially across cultures or with recipients in a superior
position. For a first contact, err on the side of caution, eg use ‘Dear’ rather
than ‘Hi’. You can always become less formal when you become more
familiar with their preferred style.
But, use them with anyone you don’t know or in more formal
correspondence and you run the risk of looking unprofessional – even
childlike (especially with emojis). Some people object to emoticons and
emojis even in the most informal writing. If in any doubt, leave them out.
Keep it snappy
Use the KISS principles (see Keep it short and simple, page 10) to keep
the content concise. And try to restrict the body of the message to one
computer screen's length. Remember your email could well be read on a
mobile device, where it will look even longer. If you can’t keep it that short,
use subheads or put the bulk of the information in an attachment, which
you can then format in an easy-to-read way.
Quality control
Try sending your email to yourself. Oddly, reading a message in your
own inbox puts you more in the frame of mind of the reader. This is a
useful trick for monitoring your tone and spotting out-of-place remarks
– especially when proofing emails on a smartphone or tablet.
Try also pointing at every word on screen with a capped pen. Read each
word, one by one, as your pen points at it. This will slow you down,
preventing you from jumping over mistakes.
As with all writing, try to leave some time between the writing and the
proofing of the message. If it’s crucial that your email is absolutely
error-free, print and proofread it before you send it (see Proof it!, page 13).
Jargon Alternative
add value to improve
adjacent to next to
is able to can
joined-up (Avoid.)
on occasion sometimes
outside of outside
prior to before
utilise use
Avoid abbreviations
and acronyms
Any collection of letters may have a different meaning in other countries.
So while the BBC means the British Broadcasting Corporation to UK
readers, it may also stand for the Bat-lovers of British Columbia.
Or the Boy Buglers of Canberra.
Before After
We need to think outside the box We need to be more efficient so we
on this one and come up with can finish the project by Friday.
transitional operating procedures
so that we can put this project to
bed asap.
Yet you still need a consistent voice across your organisation, which is why
many have a house style. If yours doesn’t, you can use this chapter as a
guide to best practice in modern business communications.
A. Layout
Headings White space
Think carefully about ‘signposts’ – Sometimes it’s not what you include
such as section heads and subheads but what you leave out. Believe it
– because these give readers or not, white space – areas where
an immediate overview of your there is no print, such as margins –
arguments and help keep them is a key part of design. A document
reading. Make sure the subheads with wide margins, clear type and
actually say something about the decent spaces between the lines
content. Work out the hierarchy is much easier to read than one
before you start, so that your main crammed full of text.
heads, section heads and subheads
are consistent in size and style.
Fonts
Some fonts – by which we mean a Introduce bullets with a colon.
set of letter or number characters When each bullet completes
with the same design – are more the sentence started by the
appropriate for certain documents introductory line, use:
than others.
• lower case
Serif fonts have twiddly bits at
• no punctuation
the ends of characters and give
a document a traditional feel. • a full stop after the last bullet
Examples include Times New if it ends the sentence (as this
Roman and Garamond. one does).
Sans serif fonts, such as the one Sometimes bullets form a simple
in which this paragraph is written, list, where each item is only a short
have no twiddly bits and lend a phrase or a few words long. Each
more contemporary air. They’re item doesn’t create a full sentence
also particularly good for titles and when combined with the lead-in
subheads (even if you use a serif line. This is how you should format
font for the body text). Examples bullets like this:
include Arial and Helvetica.
• initial lower-case letter for
each bullet
Bullets
• no punctuation
Use a consistent style across your
document. For example, we use • no final full stop (period)
circular bullets in this guide.
• When each of your bullets is a full sentence, begin with a capital letter.
• Bullets that are full sentences should end with a full stop (period).
Tables
Also decide on a format for tables. Ours, for example, looks like this:
Caption style: make sure each figure/table has a caption like this.
Italics
Use italics for: • emphasis in text, but use
sparingly and try to find an
• books, publications, newspapers
alternative expression if
and radio and television
possible: ‘style does matter’ or
programmes, eg Troublesome
‘but style matters’
Words by Bill Bryson, The Times
• cross-references.
• foreign phrases that are not
assimilated into English (including Don’t use italics for brand names,
Latin terms), but use the English except where the brand name is
alternative whenever possible also a publication, eg The Write Stuff.
Use the full name of a company, Use lower case for the general and
including the ‘Ltd’ if it has one, in where the term is being used as
legal/contract documents only. For a description. Use upper case for
general documents, refer to the the specific and where the term is
company as it refers to itself. serving as an actual title:
Governments
Writing numbers
Write out numbers one to ten Thousands, millions and billions
in words. Use a comma for four digits
or more (but not in dates):
Use figures for 11 and above:
5,000 years; 5000BC.
11; 61; 11,000.
Write thousands as 60,000
Write out first, second, third etc in
(not 60K).
full (not 1st, 2nd, 3rd).
Write millions as 60 million or 60m
Always use figures if decimals or
(not 60,000,000).
fractions are involved: 6.25 or 6¼.
File sizes should always be written
But write fractions below one in
as abbreviations: 45Kb, 1.8Mb.
full and hyphenate them: two-
thirds of the job. A billion is a thousand million
(1,000,000,000), not a million million.
Avoid mixing words and figures in
the same phrase: Write billions as 6 billion or 6bn
(not 6,000,000,000).
You can order in multiples of 9,
12 or 16 (not ‘nine, 12 or 16’).
Write dates in this format: But keep them if the dates span
7 September 2015. different centuries: 1999–2008.
C. Punctuation
Abbreviations and
acronyms
Don’t use full stops in abbreviations Don’t use a comma or colon after
or acronyms (abbreviations that ‘eg’ or ‘ie’:
can be pronounced as words).
To find out more, enrol on one of our
For example:
courses, eg High-impact writing.
ie, eg, etc, am, pm, ltd, UK, US, Dr, Mrs,
Don’t use apostrophes to make
m, kg, km, Ofcom
abbreviations plural: HGVs, CVs.
Write abbreviations that are
The first time you use an
pronounced as individual letters
abbreviated term, write it out in
– such as BBC and CEO – all in
full followed by the abbreviation
upper case. Write acronyms –
or acronym in brackets. This isn’t
such as Unicef – with only an
necessary if the abbreviation is so
initial capital letter.
familiar to your audience that it
Precede ‘eg’ and ‘ie’ with a is the more often used and more
comma, eg as in this example, or readily understood form, eg HIV,
with a bracket (eg as shown here). DNA, MP.
Ampersands (&)
Avoid using an ampersand (&) unless monosyllabic names and ’
it forms part of a company name: alone for polysyllabic names,
eg James’s book, Cass’s sister,
Ernst & Young, Marks & Spencer
Emphasis’ trainers, Dickens’
Don’t use it as a general substitute novels, in Jesus’ name (note
for ‘and’. that biblical and classical names
usually take ’ alone)
Apostrophes
• plural: use ’, eg the Joneses’ dog,
Use apostrophes to: other businesses’ problems
• singular: use the normal ’s, Bill and Nancy’s address (they
eg his boss’s car, the live together).
business’s success
Bill’s and Nancy’s addresses (they
• singular proper nouns: go by live apart).
sound – in general, use ’s for
• include optional information, eg Hope this helps. (Look at the website too.)
almost half (48 per cent)
If you’d like more help, get in touch (or
• explain a term, eg upper case look at the website).
(capital letters)
• introduce an abbreviation,
eg the summary review
memorandum (SRM)
Colons
Use colons to: Compare this final use of the
colon, where there is a step
• introduce lists, eg the
forward in argument (often cause:
three things we need: time,
effect, or fact: explanation), with
investment and creativity
the similar use of the semicolon,
• introduce bullets which links balanced or parallel
clauses (see Semicolons, page 55).
• introduce extracts or long
quotes (see Commas, page 52,
Use lower case after a colon,
for introducing short quotes)
except when introducing a list of
• emphasise a question, eg The bullets that are whole sentences
question is: are their business (see Bullets, page 41).
processes up to the job?
Commas Dashes
Use commas to: Use dashes to:
One word
Hyphenated
Separate words
Question marks
Use question marks for direct questions, eg What are we going to do?
Don’t use them for sentences such as: I wonder if you could let me know.
Quotation marks
Use single quotation marks for ‘I will not’, she repeated, ‘be coming back.’
direct speech and for highlighting
How many people said, ‘We’re not
words or phrases. Use double
coming back’?
quotation marks only for a
quote within a quote. Introduce She asked, ‘Are you coming back?’
short quotes with a comma (see
Did she ask, ‘Are you coming back?’
Commas, page 52) and long quotes
with a colon (see Colons, page 51).
Semicolons
Put the punctuation within the
Think of semicolons as ‘super
quotation marks only if it’s part
commas’. Use them to:
of the quote. Quoting a complete
sentence means quoting the full • separate long phrases in a
stop too. So it goes inside the list when at least one of the
quotation marks. But quoting part phrases contains a comma,
of the sentence doesn’t, so the eg You will need the following
full stop goes outside. The items: climbing boots (or strong
following examples illustrate walking shoes); two pairs of
most eventualities: lightweight trousers; and – most
importantly – a waterproof
She said, ‘The food wasn’t even hot.’
jacket, which must have zipped
She said, ‘The food wasn’t even hot internal pockets.
and all the manager could say was,
• link two related clauses that could
“Better eat it quickly then,” which
otherwise be joined with ‘and’
wasn’t very helpful.’
or ‘but’, eg Some people do their
‘I will not be coming back,’ she said, best work in the morning; others
‘even if they beg me.’ are at their best in the afternoon.
This chapter deals with words that are commonly misused, misspelt
or otherwise abused. If you can’t find what you’re looking for
anywhere else in this guide, look here.
The effects of the hurricane were felt Use ‘compare with’ to consider
across the island. similarities or differences, eg He
compared Jenny with her mum.
among/amongst (He assessed the two women’s
relative merits.)
Use ‘among’.
complement/ continual/continuous
compliment
A continual buzzing is a noise
The first means ‘to support, make that happens repeatedly but not
whole or expand’, eg This project constantly. Continuous buzzing
complements the work we did doesn’t stop.
last year. The second means
‘to encourage or praise’, eg He data
complimented Jenny.
Treat ‘data’ as singular, eg Send
Likewise, ‘complimentary’ and me this data (not these data).
‘complementary’ have different Technically ‘data’ is plural, as is
meanings. Complementary ‘agenda’. But nobody uses the
therapy supports or broadens singular ‘agendum’, and the
existing treatment; complimentary singular ‘datum’ likewise comes
treatment is free. across as pedantic.
comprise dependant/dependent
No ‘of’ with ‘comprise’, eg The Your dependants are the ones
group comprises a trainer, an who depend on you, such as
accountant and a salesperson. your family. Dependent means
‘contingent upon’, eg The contract
Or try ‘consists of’ instead, eg The
renewal is dependent on your
group consists of a trainer, an
performance.
accountant and a salesperson.
-ise/-ize practice/practise
Use the standard British In UK English, ‘practice’ is the noun,
convention of -ise where ‘practise’ the verb, eg I need to do
there’s a choice, eg realise, my piano practice, because I need
organise, apologise. to practise playing the piano.
lead/led presently
The regular past tense and past This means ‘soon’, not ‘at present’.
participle of ‘to lead’ is ‘led’, not
‘lead’. ‘Lead’ (as a noun) is what you principal/principle
used to find in a pencil or a piece
‘Principal’ is a noun or adjective
of piping.
that means ‘main’ or ‘chief’, eg
the principal of the college; the
momentarily
principal point. ‘Principle’ is a
In UK English, this means ‘for noun that means ‘fundamental
a moment’, eg I momentarily characteristic, belief or doctrine’,
lost my bearings. In US English, eg the principle of free speech.
momentarily commonly means ‘at
any moment’, eg I’ll finish supersede
this momentarily. Stick to the
Spelt with an ‘s’ not a ‘c’.
UK version.
that/which
In general, use ‘that’ to define and
‘which’ to explain or inform:
while/whilst
Use ‘while’.
Index
Page numbers in bold show Colons 41, 42, 48, 51, 55
where the subject is explored
Commas 45, 46, 48, 52, 55, 60, 62
in more depth
Cultures, writing for different 28,
Abbreviations 10, 46, 48, 50
33–37
use when writing for a global
audience 34 Dashes 47, 52
Tables 42
Tips
clear writing 5–13
proofreading 13
writing for a global audience
33–37
Underlining 42
use when writing for the web 19
Writing training 66
™
®
9 780956 481023