"Styling" your writing

When working with words, it’s easy to get stumped on certain issues of style. I’m not talking about fashion sense but, rather, those fine points regarding spelling, usage, punctuation and other fundamentals that are an essential part of any well-written communication.

For example, how should you write Web site (or is it website)? Do you write out the word “percent” or use the symbol? Does e-mail really take a hyphen? After all, you’ve seen it both ways. There are dozens of such matters that writers routinely encounter. To help you sort them out, you need to consult a style manual.

Two references that are widely used are the AP Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style. Both are good and are worth the investment if you do even a moderate amount of writing. Be aware, though, that even the most respected style manuals sometimes differ, and that’s all right. The important thing is that you have some credible authority that you can cite for why you made a particular style decision in what you’ve written. Too many people guess, which can tarnish an otherwise fine piece of writing.

Before you buy a style manual, check around in your organization. It may already have a preferred style manual. You’ll want to be sure you buy that one. If no particular manual is preferred where you work, then buy either of the two listed here and you'll be covered.

Some larger companies and organizations have what’s known as a “house style,” which identifies the words and terms that it routinely uses and specifies how they should be used in their communications. If one of these exists, get a copy and use it in conjunction with your regular style manual.

Occasionally in this blog, I’ll address some of the more troublesome style issues. Let me start now. According to the AP Style manual, here are some pointers:

-- Web site, not website

-- Internet, not internet

-- e-mail, not email

-- Spell out the word “percent.” Don’t use the symbol. Also, if you’re specifying a percentage, use a figure: 3 percent, not three percent

-- Periods and commas always go inside quotations marks: “We’re revising our style manual,” the communications chief said.

How you say it counts

David Reich's outstanding blog "My 2 Cents" recently offered some helpful advice to aspiring business bloggers. I suggest taking a look at what Dave had to say.

The only thing I'd add to David's observations is that as the prospective author of a blog, you should learn how to write. That sounds obvious, but too many blogs fail not because of what the author has to say but how he or she says it.

The appearance and content of a blog are important, of course. But what good is the window dressing if readers can't grasp what the writer's trying to convey.

I'm not suggesting that if you can't write lyrical prose then you shouldn't be blogging. But at a minium, you should be able to string together words in a logical fashion that adheres to the general principles of sound writing.

Wondering what those are? Well, scroll through this blog, which tries to capture what I've learned in nearly 25 years of professional writing. It also includes much of what I try to teach in my university writing course.

If I had to recommend just one book on the craft of writing, it would be Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" (see my suggested reading list to the right). This slim volume speaks volumes about the fundamentals of solid writing. And best of all, you don't have to be a grammar expert to understand it.

As a writer, you are what you read

Many writing tasks, such as authoring e-mails, reports and memos, involve conveying thoughts, requests, instructions and similar information. Completing these assignments is a matter of gathering your material and then relaying it accurately and clearly.

Yet some writing jobs – speeches and newsletter articles, for example – require copy that not only communicates but does so with style, flair and maybe a sprinkling of humor, wit or deep thought tossed in.

But what if you don't consider yourself creative or intellectual? Don't believe it. Most people have a spark of both flickering inside; it's just a matter of stoking it to make it burn more brightly. There are a number of ways that can be accomplished, the first of which is believing you're more creative and capable of deeper thought than you know, and then spending time during the re-writing process to give your copy more punch and depth.

Another method doesn't involve writing, it involves reading. Good readers often make good writers for a number of reasons. Those who read broadly are exposed to a richer range of thought. The diversity of your reading material counts too. By reading others' ideas or opinions, for example, you can see something from a different vantage point. And if you approach reading as a writer – that is, you're searching for insight on how to write more effectively – you'll be exposed to a continuing source of knowledge and information.

There are many more ways in which reading benefits writing, but I think you get the picture. Books, newspapers, magazines, ads, the Sunday funnies. Absorb the written word in all of its forms. What you read doesn't matter as much as the fact that read widely and regularly.

Giving credit

There has been plenty of back-and-forth lately over Barack Obama's use of lines originally delivered from his pal and adviser Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. I'm not going to offer my opinion regarding this campaign season dust-up, but it does raise the question of how and when you credit others' work or ideas in your writing.

The rule we learned in college was that in written works you must acknowledge another's ideas and words in the body of your text and in footnotes or endnotes and through a bibliographic citation. In the world of business writing, those rules don't seem that fixed. But certainly the concept of crediting others remains.

As a general guideline, the closer you can adhere to the formality of footnotes and citations, the better. How close you need to stick with these rules depends a lot on the type of communication you're assembling. Case studies and white papers should be thoroughly annotated with regard to sources. The same probably would hold for formal reports and proposals. As for memos and e-mails, I say forego footnotes and bibliographic citations, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't credit your source. Just slip the credit smoothly into the copy itself using wording like "according to .....:" or "In his 'Tactics' article 'Journalists get Web 2.0: Do you?' Mike Neumeier says ...."

The idea is to not only give credit but to equip your readers with enough information that they can find the source material themselves if they wish.

There is also a practical advantage to detailing your sources in what you write: It forces you to take a hard look at them. Knowing that you'll be identifying your sources and that your readers will be judging their appropriateness makes you more likely to use only the most reliable ones.

Let it be written, let it be said

In this month's issue of Tactics, British business journalists Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove are quoted as saying, "Being able to write effectively and persuasively – whether creating a business plan, e-mail, report, appraisal or positioning statement – is a core executive skill."

I agree. In fact, that statement should be treated as holy writ and nailed over the entrance of every business, law, medical and engineering school in the nation. Writing effectively represents more than communication -- which is significant -- but it also forces us to think. Sloppy writing often results not just from poor technical skills but the fuzzy thinking it masks.

Yet, despite the importance of writing, it's often treated as an afterthought in many professional training programs. If I were king, no one would venture out of college, regardless of their field, until he or she had demonstrated an ability to communicate effectively with words.

If you've established yourself as a capable writer, congratulations; you can probably attest to the difference it has made in your career and in your contributions to your business or organization. If you haven't earned your writing chops yet, I'd urge you to do so. It's not as hard as you might think, and I can promise you it will be one of your best career moves ever.

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Subject to error

Knowing what form of a verb to mate with a subject isn't always simple. In a straightforward construction like, "The books are on the shelf" it's uncomplicated. Our subject, "books" is obviously plural, so we'd want to use the plural verb "are."

But what about this one: "The CEO, along with several other executives, is/are traveling today." If you said "are," you're wrong. But don't sulk. It's a common mistake. The error lies in thinking you have a multi-part, or compound, subject consisting of the CEO and the other executives. But actually, the subject is limited to the CEO, which is singular and takes the singular verb "is."

The rule to remember is that phrases such as "along with" and "in addition to" are used to shoehorn additional information into a sentence. They're not part of the subject, though, so don't let them fool you into choosing a plural verb when you want its singular cousin.

Another trap lurks when you have subjects that define units like money, measurement and diseases. These subjects take a singular verb, as in:

-- Three million dollars is all he was willing to pay.

-- Four thousand feet of road has been laid.

-- Mumps is a disease that threatens many children.

Avoiding subject-verb agreement errors not only requires knowing the special rules that apply, but being able to strip a sentence down to its main subject and main verb, which makes solving the puzzle easier. Good luck.

World of confusion

English is loaded with pairs of words and phrases that are easily confused. That's what makes writing so much fun, right? "When Words Collide," the text I use in my writing class and which I reference to the right of this blog, contains a glossary that discusses puzzling pairs of words. In this post, I'll address a few common ones and try to revisit the issue periodically.

-- Can/may. These two aren't interchangeable. Use "can" when you are denoting ability, as in, "Do you think I can win the race?" Use "may" when you want to establish permission: "May I borrow your book?"

-- Compare with/compare to. Write "compare with" when you're making a literal comparison. "Our profit this quarter was up when compared with our profit in the same quarter last year." Use "compare to" to make a figurative comparison. "Laura compared assembling the annual report to running a marathon."

-- Since/because. "Since" is the proper word when you want to express a period of time, as in, "It has been years since I visited there." Use "because" to give a reason or cause. "Production is slumping because our machinery is old and broken." The common error involving these two is to misuse "since," as in, "I refuse to sign this report since I disagree with it." That's wrong. Swap "since" with "because."

-- Principal/principle. I recently discovered an error with this pair on a colleague's Web site. "Principal" is someone who is first in rank or authority, as in the principal of a high school or the principal speaker at a convention. "Principle" refers to a truth, doctrine or rule of conduct.

-- Eager/anxious. Writers frequently use "anxious" when what they really mean is "eager." Use "anxious" when you're describing a state of fear and worry. Think "anxious" and "anxiety." "Eager" is the word when you want to indicate a mood of stimulation or excitement.