Whoever you’re writing for, they’ll only read it if there’s something they want or need to know. So as writers we need to put ourselves in the reader’s shoes if we want our written communications to be effective. Fortunately, writing skills are like any other job skills, you can improve them through effort and practise.

To start, creating a profile of your reader will help you focus on what information is most relevant to them, and from this an appropriate writing style.

Your writing style will depend on the nature of your audience (for example their job role, their knowledge of the subject matter, their familiarity with diagramming techniques), and the type and complexity of the material itself.

Here’s a short exercise on profiling your readers and how to write about the same topic to different audiences. And don’t worry about the topic, it’s one you’re already an expert on – yourself !

Tell 3 different types of readers something about yourself

Write a short note describing yourself to:

• A social or sports club you’ve just joined.
• Readers of a review (movie, food ,book etc. )you’ve posted online. An “About the author” summary.
• A promotions board for a new role or position
• An old friend you’ve made contact with after some years

Consider the different audiences, the words that you would use and what you can and cannot assume in each case. Each audience is going to require a very different style. Think about the detail that you want to supply and what tone you will adopt. Ask yourself:

• What do you want to say?
• What does your reader need to know?

To get started, a good idea is to use a table like this to make a list of key words:

[ws_table id=”11″]

As you flesh out your keywords you’ll also start asking yourself what’s more relevant – what I want to say or what does my reader need to know?

If you’re writing up meeting notes then you want the notes to be an accurate reflection of what was said – i.e. what you want to say.

However if it’s a recommendation or executive summary, then the focus moves from what do I want my reader to know to what does my reader need to know.

In the words of one famous author – it’s not about you, it’s about them.

  If you enjoyed this article, you may also be interested in these:

Writing Better Requirements

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An Introduction to Technical Writing

The post Who Reads Your Stuff Anyway? appeared first on IRM Training.

But there’s more to Microsoft Word than just spell-checking. How many people take any notice of the readability statistics?

These statistics give an indication of how easy – or difficult – a piece of text is to read. The two Flesch figures at the bottom both measure readability, but in different ways.

This example – a spell check on part of the National Broadband Network’s corporate plan – shows a Reading Ease of 34 (classified as difficult). The Grade Level (13.8) indicates that the text can be understood by an average English speaking reader who has attended school up to the age of 18 in the USA.

Articles from recent editions of The Age and Herald Sun (Melbourne’s daily newspapers) had grade level scores of between 8 (standard) and 15 (difficult), with the average being 10 (fairly difficult). Random samples taken from the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge^® ranged in grade level from 12 (difficult) to 18 (very difficult).

When writing documentation with a high level of technical and business content it’s almost impossible to register a score of anything less than difficult. However once your writing hits grade levels of 15+ (Reading ease: very difficult) then you have to ask yourself if you’re informing – or confusing – the reader.

* * * * *

Consider the following extract from a software development manual:

* Whilst using a small number of user representatives where a large number of users are involved is not an ideal solution, that problem is a direct consequence of undertaking a large system and will exist no matter what development approach is used.

This paragraph has a grade level of 20 and is not the easiest to read or to understand.

In contrast, a simple re-write gives a grade level of 7 and a reading ease of standard:

* Where there are a large number of users, you may use a small number of user representatives. This is not ideal but is a direct result of building a large system. No matter what development approach is used, you will have that problem.

As you will notice, using short sentences is one of the easiest ways of making text more readable. A sentence which only makes one point (if there are a large number of users you may use a small number of representatives) is much easier to understand than a sentence trying to make several points at once. People tend to absorb facts one at a time.

Short paragraphs with fewer sentences are another useful technique. Most documents are read online these days so breaking text into scannable chunks will make it easier on the reader – and more likely to get read. Use paragraphs to make your main point and use the sentences within that paragraph to cover the most important individual points.

Of course just because a document is well written doesn’t mean it will get read – but then that’s another issue!

This article has a grade level of 10.7 and a reading ease of fairly difficult.

If you liked this article, you may also enjoy:

An Introduction to Technical Writing

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Just Enough Documentation

The post How Clear is Your Writing? appeared first on IRM Training.

Yet how many times has poor communications led to incorrect decisions or even downright confusion?

We’re not alone either – look at this extract from public documents issued by one of the world’s leading banks:

“Trade finance is designed to assist meet cash-flow shortages arising from a mismatch in the timing of making payments for goods or raw materials for use in manufacture of goods and the receipt of payments from the onselling of these purchased or manufactured goods”

You have to read this 2 or 3 times before the meaning becomes clear.

Governments can be equally guilty – as you can see here in this example from some recent legislation:

“For the purpose of making a declaration…
a) treat a particular event that actually happened as not having happened; and
b) treat a particular event that did not actually happen as having happened…”

It looks like no organisation has a monopoly on poor writing skills and with the move to “online everything” we’re further tempted to cut corners as SMS, e-mail and online publishing become the mediums of choice.

Whilst we don’t advocate a return to “formal, grammar school English” we do need a balance, particularly when documents such as reports, manuals etc. spill over several printed (or online) pages. Traditional skills such as document structure, writing style, audience identification, grammar etc. are timeless – and essential if we want to connect with our readers.

In the following introductory chapter from IRM’s Technical Writing Skills workshop we look at what defines good writing and how to get started.

Read full paper here: Introduction to Technical Writing

If you liked this paper, you may also like:

Writing Better Requirements

How Clear is your Writing?

Just Enough Documentation

The post An Introduction to Technical Writing appeared first on IRM Training.