How to Improve Business Writing Skills for Managers

The best learning during my time at Amazon was improving my writing. Here is my list of how to edit your writing to improve it and how to get an idea down on paper in the first place. TL;DR craft compelling documents by anticipating reader needs, addressing potential questions, and clearly articulating the desired outcome. This will take time and a lot of editing. Make your writing better, editing tips: A. Use data and logic to lead the reader to a conclusion. Using adverb and adjective is less effective. B. Eliminate weasel words C. Use readable scores to get data on how readable your doc is now and improve it D. Use read-a-loud extension or read it out loud yourself E. Edit words that don't add value. Look for repetitive language. Don't tax your reader with big words How to crafting an idea in writing: 1. Start with bullet list of what your thinking about 2. Start by writing with limited edits. Sleep on it and then edit like crazy. 3. Know your reader and write for them. 4. Write down FAQ to the end of a doc that you think your reader will have. If you can, you should answer these in your writing but it's not always possible.  5. Take ownership not ask for ownership. If you are asking for ownership or asking the reader to force someone to do something you are doing it wrong.    6. Ask why 5 times on customer facing questions to get to the detail why this is important 7. Think in 3s. How would you explain this with a 3 word (The Title), 3 sentences (TLDR), 3 paragraphs (a 1 page page overview), 3 pages (longer form with more detail). 8. Bonus: add some long term thinking topics to your doc. If the reader is excited about what you are writing about, give them more and think big about the future. 9. Close with what decision you need help from the reader 10. Finally writing a couple page document should take a week(s) not days or hours to complete.

✨🎬 Behind the Scenes: Crisp Writing 🎬✨   New Year! New Goals! New Ideas! This means lots of new communications - emails, papers, presentations - are currently being drafted. Here are my Top 5 TIPs when reviewing✳ my writing. ✳And yes, I mean reviewing and not drafting. If I overthink format when creating a first draft, I don't focus on getting out my ideas. I usually brain-barf an outline with all my major concepts and themes, then write a bad draft. After the major content is on paper, I review and rewrite. If possible, I share with a trusted reviewer. If I am self-editing, I change the font on screen or print out a hard copy. Why? Changing the way words look decreases my blindness to my own mistakes. 📍 Over-Modifying: Look at what modifiers are in a sentence. Are they redundant? Do each of them add unique value to the sentence? Chances are you can remove some without diluting your point. 🔎 TIP: Search for "and". When I got fired up about something, my boss told me "Only Nouns and Verbs". This great advice helped me avoid modifiers filled with emotion I would not feel in the morning. 📍 Passive Voice: I admit it - as a techie who spent most of my career in government, I struggle with passive voice. 🔎 TIP: Search for all forms of the verb "to be". One way I self-correct is to search for every has, had, is, have, are, will, would, etc in my writing and consider if I really need that word. Often it can be removed or reworded to become more active. For example, "I had a boss who would tell me" becomes "my boss told me" 📍 Caveats & Hedges: Adding caveats or hedges to soften the message undermines the strength of your message. Some people call these weasel words. 🔎 TIP: Ending recommendations with "Does that make sense?" because it's a confusing, nuanced topic can be mistaken as insecurity. Using "some people think" or "it's possible that" to present alternative ideas can be viewed as unvetted. Be mindful of your caveats as some are needed! 📍 Own It: Similar to caveats, adding polite words creates distance for the reader to get through before they find out the point. When the reader is short on time, this decreases the time left to focus on your reason for writing in the first place. 🔎 TIP: While doing something, are you stating that you want to do it? For example, starting an email with "I wanted to drop a quick note because I am wondering if you had an update on if you saw my paper?" instead of "Did you have time to read my paper?" or even "Did you read my paper?" 📍 Be Brief. Be Brilliant. Be Gone. - President Woodrow Wilson and others 🔎 TIP: If your sentence is longer than 3 lines, you risk lost readers. Before you break it into smaller sentences, check for modifiers, caveats, and passive voice. When breaking sentences apart, check for focus shifts. Most of my long sentences occur when I am trying to pack in too many ideas. What TIPs do you use when reviewing written products? Thanks for joining me on this journey. 💖

How do you write good business documents? Here is a technique that works for me. It is well known that Amazon has a document-centric culture, where most group meetings begin by quietly reading a document, followed by an in-depth discussion. This can seem strange when you are accustomed to PowerPoint presentations. However, I have become a strong proponent of this approach, and will now ask for a written document on every complex topic. With PowerPoint, weak ideas can be hidden behind a persuasive speech or flashy slides. Written documents remove these distractions and enable everyone to focus on the idea itself. The document should include all supporting data, and can be revisited in future to refresh on what was agreed. Written documents are also a gift for introverts like myself, who may otherwise struggle to influence in large groups. Despite these benefits, it is still possible for great ideas to be obscured by poorly written documents, and poor ideas to be presented in great documents. The key is to write clear documents, so the ideas (good or bad) can be properly assessed. The best advice that I have for writing clear documents is simply to plan the content of the document fully before writing anything. When I am unsatisfied with my own documents it is generally because I was unclear on what I wanted to say. By contrast, when I am happy with a document it is because I was very clear on what I wanted to say, and the document just wrote itself. The worst way to write a document is simply to begin typing without a plan. The resulting document will be muddled and inconsistent, as you form your opinions directly in the prose. I have heard people say that the act of writing itself forces them to clarify their ideas. If this is the case for you, the document should be rewritten once your ideas are clear. It is helpful to divide the effort of writing a document into “thinking time” followed by “writing time”. Thinking time is where the key arguments are identified, and the document structure is planned. It is very tempting, particularly under time pressure, to jump straight to the writing time. This means the thinking will occur while the document is being written, and will likely force many rewrites and revisions. Instead, the majority of the effort should be invested in thinking time before writing begins. When your ideas are clearly formed the writing will flow effortlessly and the document will be clearly structured. Finally, thinking time does not need to happen in-front of a computer. I frequently plan my document while I am in the shower, or out for a walk! The writing can then begin when I reach my desk. Let me know if there are writing techniques that work for you? [Note that the above is entirely my own opinion, and in no way represents the views of Amazon] #writing #business #clarity