Transcript
John Simmons (Author of 'Room 121'): So what are our top ten tips to become a better writer for business? Well, we put these down in the last section of 'Room 121.' My first tip is this: welcome constraints. It sounds counterintuitive, but I believe it really works. It's the creative liberation for your writing.
Jamie Jauncey (Author of 'Room 121'): And the next one is develop personality. So put personality into what you write. And that doesn't necessarily mean words that are singing with your individual voice, but just words that sound as if they've been written by another human being, rather than an impersonal, rather robotic organization.
John Simmons: My next one is... create pictures. And what I mean by this is that a lot of writing that's produced for business has a visual element. So you might be working with a designer or a filmmaker, whoever it is... make their job a little bit easier by creating pictures through the writing that you produce. Use metaphors, use similes, use imagery, and it helps.
Jamie Jauncey: And my next one is empathy. Create empathy because nobody likes listening to monologues. So, essentially, all communication, if it's to work, has to have the character of a dialogue or a conversation. And, in order for that to work, it means that you have to be able to empathize with the person who is your audience. So write in a way that acknowledges the fact that you understand their point of view as well, and that you are aware of them as a reader.
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John Simmons: And the next tip... reading matters. So reading I see is the other side of the coin from writing. So to become a better writer, we need to become a better reader, and read all kinds of writing. So don't just read the business book, read novels, read stories, read poetry, read biographies. Extend your writing by extending your reading ability.
Jamie Jauncey: And my next tip, which follows on from that is... tell stories. Because all business life is just like human life. It is human life. What else is it, if not human life? And we live our lives through stories. They're how we learn. We begin to learn through stories, at our mother's knees. We tell stories throughout our lives. Our lives themselves are stories. They are quite simply the most powerful form of human communication, and have been ever since we first learned to speak, as a species. Find a way of casting what you have to say in the form of a story. And it will also force your language to become simpler too.
John Simmons: And my next step is, following on from that really, make connections. So stories help us make connections. They connect us to another human being because we all love stories. Stories are absolutely universal. We grew up with them, as Jamie has said. And so we make connections, and the words that we use make connections with other words and other thoughts in the heads of other people.
Jamie Jauncey: Tip number eight, which is, sort of goes with tip number seven... which is avoid abstractions because they stop you making connections. So, if you resort to abstract ideas, if you conceptualize, rather than stay with the realities, the tangible realities... the images that you can see, the feelings, the people doing things... it makes for much better communication. Abstractions are harder to grasp.
John Simmons: And the last tip from me is respect craft. So you want to become a better writer, well, there's no magic formula for it. You have to work at it, work at your craft respect your craft, and you will become better at it.
Jamie Jauncey: And number ten, finally, of course, given the title of the book, write one-to-one.
Reflective Questions:
Once you've watched the video, reflect on what you learned about business writing by answering the following questions:
- How would you currently describe your business writing skills? What areas of written communication do you feel you need to work most on?
- How do you inject personality into your writing? What could you do to be more effective at this?
- To what extent do you tell stories to communicate in a business setting? How might you build on this?
- Whose written communication style do you admire and why?
- What tips and tricks of theirs could you apply to your own business writing?
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About the Authors
John Simmons
John Simmons is an independent writer and consultant, and a former director of Interbrand. He is co-author of "Room 121: A Masterclass in Effective Writing and Communication for Business" with Jamie Jauncey.
Jamie Jauncey
Jamie Jauncey is an author, writer, blogger, musician and, along with John Simmons, is a co-founder of Dark Angels, which specializes in creative writing in business courses.
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