Page 115 - Time Management

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Time Management
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Know Your Audience
One fundamental mistake many people make in writing is
failing to take into account the reader. People respond differ-
ently to written communications and, these days, most people don’t
have the time or patience to read carefully.
People now want information in a quick and easy format.They want
to learn right away how the communication may affect them.They
want to be able to skim, looking for the details that are important to
them, without having to read too carefully the information that they
don’t need.
Keeping your reader in mind as you write will help ensure that oth-
ers get what you need them to know.
Recast into an active (and more intelligible) form, this sen-
tence would read more easily as follows: “The advisory commit-
tee outlined procedures that everyone found acceptable.”
Another problem with using passive constructions is that
they allow you to omit the agent, whoever is doing the action.
For example: “Any errors should be reported to the HR staff
immediately.”
So, who’s responsible for reporting the errors? We all know
the axiom—when everyone is responsible, no one is responsi-
ble.
2. Replace negatives with positives. No, not, none, and other
words with negative connotations set off confused and counter-
productive feelings in the reader. For example: “To not prioritize
will not help us and will, unfortunately, lead to failure.”
This would be better phrased: “To prioritize will help us suc-
ceed.”
3. Edit long sentences into shorter units. As one expert puts it:
“If you can’t say it in one breath, it’s too long.” Consider this
statement: “This personal organizer is not only compact, but it’s
also very complete and it has numerous features that will help
you streamline your business-related activities, as well as your
personal life, with the added advantage of being affordable.”
This version would be more effective: “This compact and