Business writing is one of the most important skills for personal and organizational success. The secret to being a great professional writer is the ability to refine complex ideas and express them concisely. The good news is that this is exactly what you will learn in this course Nov 20, · Business writing is full of industry-specific buzzwords and acronyms. And while these terms are sometimes unavoidable and can occasionally All professional writing needs to meet a certain standard. No one wants to read a badly written story or report. If the content doesn’t make sense and the sentences are grammatically incorrect, the readers will quickly give up reading it, and its message will be lost. This is also true of business writing
Definition and Tips for Business Writing Best Practices
There are a lot of very smart people in business today; there are not a lot of corporate writing writers, corporate writing. Couple this with the fact that companies need to produce more words, via a greater number of channels, than ever before, and you quickly come to realize that the corporate landscape is rife with opportunity for those who know how to communicate, you know, corporate writing, good.
Oh, oh—I can hear the murmurs already. All right, before we go any further, corporate writing, allow me to dispel three all-too-frequent demurrals I hear about corporate corporate writing. A few weeks ago, corporate writing, one of my clients, an executive for a financial services firm, asked me to write a hypothetical story about a working mom.
The purpose of the story was to show how hard the typical mom works to succeed in her career, raise her kids, maintain a healthy marriage and still get home in time to make dinner. This executive, corporate writing see, wanted to pitch to her senior committee an idea for a new credit card tailored specifically to working moms, and this story was to be the opener for her presentation, corporate writing. My assignment, in other words—a corporate assignment, remember—was basically to write a short story.
You know how I can tell these are all writing jobs? Third, they have only one requirement: to put together words in a compelling way. My profession is storytelling, and it runs across many different contexts, so it makes perfect sense to me when I receive such requests. When my son asks me to read him one of my own stories at bedtime, my heart swells. CORPORATE WRITING IS SELLING OUT, corporate writing. CORPORATE WRITING WILL UNDERMINE THE ARTIST IN ME. It produces great literature, fascinating historical accounts, important texts and persuasive marketing brochures.
So, while writing haiku may give you the biggest lift, why not also use your talent to make a little coin? If so, the two of you need to have a little talk.
Test the waters. So how do you get your foot in the door? Glad you asked, corporate writing. There are plenty of fish in the sea, corporate writing, as the saying goes.
Because the fewer people those companies have around who can put a decent sentence together, the greater their need to seek outside help. There corporate writing a number of specific things you can do to make this happen, corporate writing.
Get your gear. Before you say boo to anyone, you need to undertake a few steps to establish yourself as a freelance professional, as distinct from an author or journalist.
Which means you need four things: a business card, matching letterhead, and a website corporate writing proprietary domain. Your business card, which you will attach to every piece of correspondence you send out, needs to have either your name or the name of your entity.
When you take on corporate gigs, you are not the devoted short-story writer who occasionally writes marketing copy. Just as the author in you must be percent committed to his side of the overall pursuit, the corporate writer must be likewise devoted, corporate writing. These two creatures occupying the same body have no productive reason to overlap. Your website—and you do need one this is a non-negotiable point —should be simple and direct, letting prospective clients know about your credentials and the kind of writing you can provide.
Need examples? Purchase a Web domain that ideally matches your name or the name of your business entity exactly. Do not engage in correspondence with prospects using a third-party common e-mail provider like Hotmail, Gmail or the like.
My e-mails with clients or anyone else in the corporate world are sent exclusively through ij ijschecter. Prepare your lure. But before you start fishing for clients, you need to decide what you want to catch.
Trout from your local lake? A majestic ocean swordfish? Or are you just looking to fill your hold with anything that has gills? Your target clients will depend in part on your background. In that case, your best strategy will be to start with small or local businesses, then work your way up. The letter, printed on your own letterhead, simply does this in a proactive way.
Note: proactive—a very corporate word. Learn to love them. If you have applicable credentials, note them. First and foremost, tap your personal network any way you can. Word-of-mouth recommendations and personal relationships can be some of the best ways to get your foot in the door, corporate writing.
A good next step is to contact your chamber of commerce to request a list of local businesses. It really does work. The more lines you cast, the better your chances of getting a bite.
Practice fishing. No doubt you have umpteen friends in the corporate world. Ask them to sneak home as many samples as they can corporate writing the internal and corporate writing materials their companies produce. Anything will do, corporate writing slide PowerPoint presentations to one-page memos.
Getting a look at these materials helps you in three ways. Second, it gives you the opportunity to see how much you can improve on them.
A number of organizations produce individual pieces that stand on their own respectably enough, but a surprising few have taken the time to put corporate writing place an overall branding or communications program that enforces a consistent voice and style.
Say your friend showed you a marketing brochure the company produced for its last big product launch, and you thought the writing was awful. Chances are someone inside the corporate writing thinks so, too, corporate writing. Use the proper bait.
The level at which I set my rate for a given client is a function of the size of the company, corporate writing, the size of the project, the difficulty of the work, the timeline surrounding it and any other factors that present themselves, corporate writing.
I do several other things to stand out to clients. For instance, in corporate writing standard agreement, corporate writing, I include two rounds of back-and-forth revision to whatever extent the client deems necessary. And any edge you can get over the competition is worthwhile, corporate writing.
Reel in your catch. Getting a foot in the door is one corporate writing. Being invited to cross the corporate writing is corporate writing. How do you get a company to want your services again and again? Sammy Davis Jr. said he always maintained the philosophy that you give them the show of your life no matter how many people are in the crowd. Apply the same attitude to your corporate writing, corporate writing.
Perform great work for one person, and that person might refer you to half a dozen others in the organization with similar needs. Knock the ball out of the park on an assignment you think is trivial and you might find out they were giving you a trial run before pulling the trigger on that major project, which is now going to pay your bills for the next two months.
The ripple effect of doing an impressive job is always larger than you think. BE EASY TO WORK WITH. Creative types can sometimes be, corporate writing, um, a little testy when it comes to their art. Be flexible. Be accommodating, corporate writing. Be pleasant to work with. WRITE IT HOW THEY WANT, NOT HOW YOU WANT. It is not your job to tell them how to do their jobs, corporate writing.
If they feel like trimming that sparkling line of copy you know would probably sell the product on its own, take a deep breath and say nothing.
But even in such cases, tact is the watchword. You must never act condescending, corporate writing, snappish or rude. Calmly explain why the appearance of a comma in such a spot is like the sound corporate writing nails on a chalkboard, and move on. Attract other fish. Collect these endorsements over time and categorize them according to industry, type of project and so on, so you always have them at the ready for prospective clients.
Once you have a few, add a testimonials page to your website. Also, gather samples of your pieces as you go. In your standard agreement, include a clause that stipulates you are permitted to use all or part of the assignment in your own promotional materials. This is no different than being able to include published clips when you pitch a story to a magazine, corporate writing.
Companies will often ask corporate writing to sign nondisclosure agreements before writing anything for them. These simply mean you agree not to divulge any of their secrets or work for direct competitors while writing for them. Strong communicators are worth their weight in gold, corporate writing. Start testing the corporate waters and see for yourself!
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The Secret to Business Writing: Crash Course Business - Soft Skills #3
, time: 11:44The Basics of Business Writing Online Training Course - TalentLibrary
Nov 20, · Business writing is full of industry-specific buzzwords and acronyms. And while these terms are sometimes unavoidable and can occasionally Business writing is one of the most important skills for personal and organizational success. The secret to being a great professional writer is the ability to refine complex ideas and express them concisely. The good news is that this is exactly what you will learn in this course Jul 02, · Principles of Good Business Writing 1. Clarity of purpose. Who is the reader? What do I want to convey to the reader through my writing? Clarity of purpose 2. Clarity of thought. Thinking while, rather than before writing, makes the writing less structured, meandering, and 3.
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