In this age of information overload, what you communicate must compete for the time and interest of your audience. Whether for newsletters, web pages, reports, press releases, speeches, annual reports, or online magazines, your words must have the clarity and zing to get your message across effectively. Your message should be the pure, clean light that washes away readers' pain from the daily mass-media blitzkrieg.

Clarify your message

It's not enough that you know what you mean - your audience must as well. Cut through the confusion. If you have even the slightest doubt about the clarity or effectiveness of a point, sentence, or paragraph, get rid of it. Have one clear main message that you want to convey and then use two or three points to support your message. In the opening state your main point ("thesis"), and in the closing re-state your thesis and sum up your supporting points.

Cut out excessive verbiage

An old editor's trick when trying to hew word count is to strip adjectives - descriptive words that writers often string together ad nauseam. Adjectives are nice, but not necessary. You will find that most of what you write is not necessary to get your message across. Often it takes several editing passes (as few as two or three to as many as a dozen) in order to strip out all the excess verbiage. Every pass will eliminate another several words or sentences. By the time you are finished you will not only have a concise message, but a clear one.

Have your message edited

If you do not feel confident enough to produce error-free communications, you will benefit a great deal from a professional editor. A good edit of a well-written piece will spot those words that were inadvertently used incorrectly. A thorough edit of a more poorly written piece will spot misspelled words, errors in punctuation, changes in tense, etc. Good editors will question everything and look at a work from a variety of angles; they focus on the details and will make sure that your communications are error-free in both style and substance.

In short, do not compromise your professional credibility

Poor grammar, spelling mistakes, typos, and garbled, confusing, wordy messages, can detract greatly from your message and your credibility. Before you send out a communication, edit, edit, edit! If you do not feel confident enough to catch all of the spelling and grammatical errors, have an editor look at the piece.

Do you need editing help?

motion4.com can provide you with the expert assistance of a professional editor. If you would like some assistance, please contact us at 905-823-9657 or via e-mail at info@motion4.com.

Written by Lisa Johnson