I've almost blogged about this survey a couple of times in the last few weeks, which stresses the importance of writing skills in the professional workplace, and the lack of those skills among many employees. I haven't written about this up to now because neither conclusion is particularly surprising.
But this silly little column, which offers some tips for improving job-related writing, compels me to say something. Recommendations include relying on lists, keeping paragraphs to a maximum of two lines, and leaving out background information. The columnist does say that her tips are most relevant for e-mail and presentation writing. Still, taken as a whole, her suggestions comprise a near-perfect method for reducing complex thinking about complex issues to easily digestible, Powerpoint-friendly soundbites. This isn't always a bad thing, but taken as a way to improve writing overall, it depresses me. Obviously, work-related writing is not the appropriate venue to express your own character and style. But eliminating the writer's voice completely ends up making this stuff even more unbearable to read or sit through.
Some of her advice is actually good, such as the recommendation that any "finished" piece of writing should have its length reduced by 10% before it's ready for prime time -- there's a pointer I should take to heart and exercise more often. But why reinvent the wheel? There's nothing worthwhile here that Strunk and White didn't already say more eloquently. I think I'll stick with them.
Posted by at October 10, 2004 1:46 PMComing from a very political office climate, I'd have to say her tips are dead on. I have been chastised for revealing my logic before--i.e., telling too much.
Keep in mind, too, that she is not talking about academic writing. That's where I get into trouble for not revealing enough. I was lucky to pull enough stuff out to actually write the dang dissertation--it probably is about 20-30% shorter than it should have been, rather than 10% too long... :-)
Posted by: Danielle at October 11, 2004 7:42 AMAcademic libraries are weird, with one foot in academia and one foot in the business world (or maybe it's more like nine toes in academia and one toe in the business world). And librarians can't ever decide if they want their field to be academic or professional or somewhere in between. So even in stuff we write for work, we're treading a fine line between not saying enough and saying too much. The practices of academic writing -- and reasoning -- are pretty well ingrained in some people, who expect to hear your reasoning. But others would really rather just have the bullet points.
Posted by: Stacie at October 12, 2004 8:16 AM