Write for Business - Blog

If you have been laid off, or if you’re just entering the job market and finding it less than hospitable, you know that unemployment is not the most pleasant state of being. So how do you make it tolerable, even positive?

There are ways, my friend.

First, think of this as a gift of time. Use it to reexamine and polish your resume until it shines. Even better, make several versions, each geared toward a different job. For example, you might develop a consulting business based on your specific professional acumen. That’s one resume. Do you have training experience? Could you serve as adjunct faculty at a local technical college? Another resume. Does your experience include business writing—proposals, white papers, instructions? Yet another resume.

You get the idea.

Another way to use this gift of time is to improve your marketability. Take a class to sharpen your skills, or even consider a course of study in a different career field. This is a time to focus on your future. It has been said that a person will change careers—not jobs, but whole careers—eight times in life (the exact number depends on who you talk to). Still, the idea of changing goals is reasonable: maybe this is the time to change yours.

Also, remember that even if unemployed, you are still a professional, and your job right now is finding a job. No lounging around the house in a robe, watching daytime television or playing computer games. Likewise, if you were in an office you wouldn’t be doing the laundry, so save that for “after hours.” Maintain your focus on the job hunt. Have an agenda for each day and stick to it, blocking out time for computer job searches, for electronic networking, for cold calls. Get dressed in something other than sweats so you can feel professional as well. Set up casual meetings with others in your field for coffee and a little face-to-face networking.

Finally, just as you would in any normal workday, take a lunch break. Set your lunch hour and stick to it, getting outside for a walk or maybe going to the gym for some quick exercise. Physical activity keeps your mind sharp as well as your body in shape and helps you maintain a positive attitude.

And therein lies the most important aspect of using your time while unemployed. Stay positive. Whatever else you do, don’t give up. Keep in mind that this is a temporary situation.

Hang in there!

—Joyce Becker Lee

Photo by Evil Erin

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
          —Albert Einstein

UliveandLearn has a great post today about personalizing your messages, to let business contacts know that they mean more to you than just business. Although as the writers point out, “American business correspondence, especially e-mail, is direct and to the point,” other cultures you might do business with are not so blunt. And even in the US, the rise of social media is making personal connection in business ever more important.

What’s more, recent brain studies suggest that emotion plays a greater role in our thinking than our hyper-rational culture might like to admit. As Dr. Tian Dayton notes, “Our limbic system, which is where we experience and process emotion, actually sends more inputs to the thinking part of our brain, i.e. the cortex, than the opposite.” (This certainly matches my experience that people tend to feel first, then think of support for their position.)

If an emotional connection is important even in business correspondence, it’s worth considering appropriate greetings. Of course, it’s still important to get to the point of the message rather quickly.

For replies to previous messages, I often use the following approach:

Dear X:

Thank you for your message. I found your points about _____ particularly interesting.

That second sentence could instead be “Your explanation of _____ is apt” or some such. The point is that it opens the topic while complimenting the recipient.

For messages sent to introduce a new subject, the following can serve:

Dear X:

I hope this message finds you doing well.

After that simple opening, I’m comfortable launching into the topic of the message’s subject line. (The subject line should always work in tandem with the message body.)

For people you know a bit better, a more personal opening may be appropriate: “It was great talking with you last Tuesday,” or “Welcome back from your vacation. I hope you had a wonderful time,” or the like. As an alternative, you might consider opening more directly and then closing with a personal touch such as, “Let’s get together for lunch” or “I hope to see you at the high school concert” or such.

What strategies have worked well (or not so well) in your own business correspondence? We would love to hear any stories or advice you might have to share. E-mail us or leave a comment below. I look forward to your reply.

—Lester Smith

Photo by Abby Lanes

In October 2009, just before the housing bubble burst and left the global economy hemorrhaging, Penguin Publishing released Niall Ferguson’s The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. In retrospect, the book seems almost prophetic, but I mention it here because of the quality of the writing.

Ferguson, a professor of History at Harvard University, as well as a professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, presents the history of finance from the earliest seashell money to the latest hedge funds, all in open, engaging language. Imagine a beloved uncle, who also happens to be a financial expert, explaining the subject in simple terms, and you’ll have some idea of Ferguson’s writing style. I highly recommend the book both as a source of financial history and an example of how to write simply about a complex subject.

It’s worth considering, as well, where Ferguson’s information comes from. History assumes the study of records. You may recall our own Rob King’s blog entry “Receipts from a Stone-Age Liquor Store,” concerning the earliest known writing, a cuneiform tablet about beer and porridge to stock a river tower. I’m sure the composer of that clay memo never expected his writing to join the annals of history, but it’s a good thing he did his job well, giving us insight into his time—a background to our own.

The Ascent of Money mentions many other instances of business writing, including the Scottish pastors who invented insurance to care for their widows and children, the Dutch bankers who developed credit to encourage merchant voyages, and the Spanish captains who transported a wealth of colonial gold that ultimately ruined Spain’s economy. All kept records that allow us a window into history.

In business, it can often seem that everything we do is for present gain. But at some point in the future, people may well be researching our records for a glimpse into their past. An e-mail, a memo, or a report you compose today could become part of a historian’s or an economist’s study. So we aren’t writing just for our own present prosperity, but also for posterity. Let’s do it well and make our descendents proud.

—Lester Smith

I’ve long admired the quirky acting style of John Lithgow. So I’m happy to report that the two of us have something in common: We’re both poetry promoters.

Lithgow’s The Poets' Corner: The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family is a wonderful introduction to a wide range of verse from across history. Besides the poems themselves—from William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Dylan Thomas, and others—the book presents a short historical introduction to each, delivered in Lithgow’s delightful writing style. What’s more, the print book includes a CD with a wide range of celebrities reading these poems, from Lynn Redgrave to Kathy Bates to Morgan Freeman and others. But I particularly recommend the audiobook version, which integrates the histories (in Lithgow’s voice) with those poetry readings. Play it in your car while commuting to and from work. Your life will be the richer.

As for my own promotion of poetry (besides recommending books), in my spare time I’m president of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. It’s a small way of thanking Wisconsin for supporting my own growth as a poet and writer.

You might assume that as a poet I have an innate sense of rhythm and tone. To a certain extent, that’s true. But I’ve learned to always ask someone else to read my work aloud before I submit it for publication. Often, I discover that the rhythm I’ve been hearing in my head isn’t the rhythm other people use. By the same token, where I might imagine an ironic tone, or a gentle one, or something else, my reader may react altogether differently. From reader reaction, then, I’m able to target the weak spots in a piece and work to revise them until the poem accomplishes just what it’s intended to do.

The same is true of business writing. What you think you’ve written isn’t necessarily what your reader understands. This makes peer critique essential. (Seriously, a colleague critiqued this very blog entry before I posted it.) What distinguishes the professional writer at this point is a willingness to lay the blame for any miscommunication on the text, rather than on the reader, and the dedication to refine that text to make things smooth and clear.

Do you ask a peer to read your text before it’s published? If not, give it a try. If the person is hesitant to comment, ask him or her to point out specifically the one strongest thing and the one weakest thing about the piece. That will be a good starting point both for revising your writing and for building a critique relationship.

Be sure to let us know how it works out! Just click the “Comments” link below.

—Les

Last week while reading an essay titled "7 Tips for Writing Sticky Online Copy," I found myself musing about "Tip #5. Link to other stuff." I'd like to get your opinions.

Specifically, that section says:

Link where more info enhances the message or helps the reader, but don’t link frivolously. Too many links can be annoying. Link to info on your own site first and open links in a new window so readers stay on your site. Use links to help readers take action, sign up, request more information or learn more.

My first quibble involves "open links in a new window." As a Web writer, of course, I'm tempted to do just that. Making each link launch a new window ensures that the main article remains open in the background. That way, when readers close the linked page, they're delivered back to my text. However, as a reader myself, I find these auto-launching links annoying. If I want to open a link in a new page, I know how to right-click it (or scroll-button-click it). If I don't want a new page, a link that forces one is irritating.

By the same token, I wonder about the advice to make sure "readers stay on your site." Again, this raises the issue of trusting your visitors, of treating them as adults. I'm not certain that trying to corral them is best.

My final question is about the assertion "don't link frivolously." While that sentiment might seem wise, sometimes a frivolous link shares a bit of joy between writer and reader. It can also expand a reader's knowledge in unexpected ways. For example, one old Webmonkey article casually included a hyperlinked wisecrack about rhesus monkeys. Although that article has since been "lost in time, like tears…in rain," the "frivolous" link both taught me something new and furthered my appreciation of Webmonkey.

(Similarly, that "tears…in rain" link quickly conveys something about the author of the post you're currently reading. However, despite the "Yips on the Links" title, I should confess I'm no golfer.)

What are your opinions? Should links launch new windows or let the reader make that decision? Should a Web site seek to retain its visitors or trust them to return on their own? Should blog posts include "frivolous" links or focus only on the information at hand? We'd love to hear what you think. Just click "comments" below.

—Lester Smith

Photo by Clarkston SCAMP