Modern Business Writing

2.3 Tactics to get rid of writer’s block

Start brainstorming

Jot down all the possible ideas you can think of. At first, these will be fairly logical. Then, as you run out of options, you'll find that you start to come up with more innovative ideas. These might be just what you need to get you going again.

Ease into your writing

Start your writing session with something that's 'easy' - a routine letter, e-mail or even a 'to do' list. Then go back to your “difficult” assignment. You may find, as others have in the past, that a half-hour session of processing simple correspondence is a good warm-up for a writing session.

Take some time out

Only you know how much time this should be. It might be a few minutes, an hour or even a day. Sometimes the subconscious simply needs time to work its magic.

Revisit the last few pages

If you have already written some content go back a few pages and revise. You could even retype the last page completely, and see if that releases new ideas.

Use the tried and true 'carrot' trick. Reward yourself!

Think of something you'd really, really like. A chocolate? See a movie that night? Dinner out? New clothes? Give yourself a reward that is commensurate with the size of the task - and DO IT.

Pressure Cooker Tactics

Some of us work well only under pressure. You'll probably know if this applies to you by thinking back to how you handled the previous assignments. If you can produce when the pressure's on, then set yourself a deadline. Don't make that deadline too unrealistic, though, or you may find that you're setting yourself up for failure - again.

Change the time and venue

J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book in extended stints in a cafe (or so the story goes). Roald Dahl (children books author) worked in a battered garden shed. Try changing the venue or the time of your writing - from the office to a coffee shop (if you have a laptop); from late afternoon to early morning; perhaps even at a table in the corner of your bedroom.

Meditate or go walking

Sometimes it helps to get out in the fresh air, or to sit quietly and move into a meditative state and just let the ideas flow. Or not flow. Perhaps what you need is to dissociate yourself from the world for a while.

The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.” Mark Twain

Module 3

3 Avoiding common errors and grammar mistakes

At the end of this module delegates will be able to:

• 
  Resort to accuracy, brevity, clarity: the ABC of business writing
  
• 
  Explain the need for applying a simple vocabulary
  
• 
  Modify “useless”, “negative”, “big”, “redundant”, words
  
• 
  Solve ambiguity and pomposity
  
• 
  Distinguish between active and passive verbs
  
• 
  Compile sentence and paragraph structures
  
• 
  Apply appropriate punctuation
  

3.1. The foundations of your writing skills

In writing your major task is to create a message which is clearly understood and will induce the reader to take the desired action. Readers should not be left with questions or irritations in their mind.
Writing, to be professional, requires working to a system.

The system focuses on four rules

• 
  A clear objective
  

• 
  Correct grammar
  

• 
  Proper structure
  

• 
  Attractive layout
  

Its foundations are

1. 
   Accuracy
   

2. 
   Brevity
   

3. 
   Clarity
   

- the ABC of good writing

English a complex language

For many people who will be reading your documents, English will be their second or third language. If you do not know your reader, assume always that her/his home language is different from yours.

We are living in a country with 11 official languages. Co-workers may speak Sotho, Afrikaans, Venda, Zulu, Tswana, or Xhosa.
If you assume that the person receiving your letter, memo, e-mail, report or minutes is not a first language English speaker, you will probably be right.
It is therefore vital that you keep vocabulary and sentence structure simple in all the documents you produce.

What you are up against learning English: If GH stands for P as in hiccough If OUGH stands for O as in dough If PHTH stands for T as in phthisis If EIGH stands for A as in neighbour If TTE stands for T as in gazette If EAU stands for O as in beau The POTATO would be spelt GHOUGHPHTHEIGHTTEEAU (FROM James Clark, Stoep Talk, The Star, Thursday 25 November 1993)

H. Schultz v The New York Cleaning Department

A saga in three acts!
Act 1
Dear Sir.
I find Hydrochloric Acid fine for cleaning pipes. Is this OK?
Signed. H Schultz – Plumber


Dear Mr Schultz
In response to your enquiry regarding the use of Hydrochloric Acid for cleaning pipes should be clearly recognised that this is not efficacious. The Hydrochloric Acid interacts with a variety of metals to produce salts of various natures, depending on the composition of the metals involved, which would be more than mildly toxic to any person or persons (or animals) who might ingest the substance in question. The precise result which would stem from such ingestion would depend, amongst other less crucial matters, on the proportion of Hydrochloric Acid and metallic radical to other dilutory substances in the original combination of substances that induces the salt producing reaction initially.
Signed. B Pearson, New York Cleaning Department
Act 2
Dear Mr Pearson
Thank you for your interesting letter. Can you please now tell me if it is OK to use Hydrochloric Acid to clean out pipes?
Signed. H Schultz – Plumber
Dear Mr Schultz
As was explained in our previous letter to you it is the opinion of this Department that the use of Hydrochloric Acid for cleaning would increase the susceptibility of the population at large to varying degrees of virulence. The precise degree of virulence in any specific case would depend, of course, on the total amount, and percentage of toxic content in that total amount, of debilitating solution imbibed, and naturally the frequency of such reflections by the person or persons in question.
We trust the position is now clear to you.
Signed. B Pearson, New York Cleaning Department

Act 3
Dear Mr Pearson
It’s real nice of you to trust me. I am now cleaning many more pipes with Hydrochloric Acid.
Signed. H Schultz – Plumber


Dear Mr Schultz
Don’t use Hydrochloric Acid for cleaning pipes. It poisons the water.
Signed. B Pearson

The moral of this story is ….?