“Longform content” is in-depth. In other words, if you write with enough clarity and logic, “in other words” is almost never needed. A correct sentence would be “Stephen King’s novel It is very good, and so is his novel The Shining, and so is his most recent novel, End of Watch.” Because there can be only one “most recent novel,” End of Watch is set off by a comma. Josh Bernoff is the author or coauthor of six business strategy books, including Writing Without Bullshit: Boost Your Career by Saying What You Mean. All that cheerleading reads like misdirection. Because everyone can write, people underestimate its importance and overestimate their own ability. What Bad Writing Looks Like … and How to Fix It [With Detailed Examples] 16 Jan 2017 | Craft. We're a technology company whose mission is to build a better media world. So marketers and the rest of the company can move forward in a united and productive way. The most popular explanation is that opaque prose is a deliberate choice. It was this one: I was a bit surprised to see fanfiction being sold on Amazon – particularly being promoted to me (however unwittingly) by Amazon. For example, in writing email, managers from the CEO on down must set an example by communicating exactly what they want, clearly, in the subject line or title and the first two sentences of everything they write. American Dirt’s problem is bad writing, not cultural appropriation This article is more than 7 months old. The websites, marketing materials, and press releases from your suppliers are filled with jargon and meaningless superlatives. You have to learn to write well. It’s been used four times in one article, and two “ultimately’s” have appeared within six words of each other. Entry-level employees get little training in how to write in a brief, clear, and incisive way. What comes out of most companies is bad. (Isn’t the whole point of a study to go in deep on something?) Writing makes you a better reader and conversationalist. Using “in fact” in reference to non-facts. Convert and qualify more high-quality leads. well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man, plenty of opportunities to turn data into stories, helps Twitter users get more information about the people they’re following. Align your sales and marketing activities. He illustrates the problem with this mind numbing job description example: The Area Vice President, Enterprise Customers will develop and manage a sustainable strategic relationship that transforms the current commercial model by creating joint value that results in the ongoing reduction of costs, continuous process improvement, growth and profitability for both partners with the ability to export key learnings. I’m not talking about advertising copywriting. Sign up for the daily TCS newsletter to get the latest and the greatest from the content marketing industry. 4.5/5. I looked specifically at people who write at least two hours per week in addition to email. Or when it attempts to clarify an already-clear thought. Kara Blackburn, a senior lecturer in managerial communication at the MIT Sloan School of Management is quoted in same piece saying: You can have all the great ideas in the world and if you can’t communicate, nobody will hear them. Using “in-depth” so much it loses meaning. He suggests “The Iron Imperative” which is: Treat the reader’s time as more valuable than your own. For example, here’s what Google writes about how it treats customers: Focus on the user and all else will follow. The 'curse of knowledge,' writes Steven Pinker, is the result of writers' assuming readers understand the subject. Like when we employ the phrase twice in three paragraphs to repeat effectively the same thought. Here, for example, we mention “a set of clearly defined brand guidelines: colors, fonts, preferred terminology, etc.” How’d we get from colors to preferred terminology? Nesrine Malik. After writing several thousand blog posts and articles, I’ve learned something about writing: It’s not just what I write that’s important; it’s also what I don’t write.. Writing that’s overly simplistic or patronizing is slightly more palatable. Is it lucky that “with every problem comes a solution“? Bernoff writes: Think about it. And puns. An article that offers some helpful tips on how to constructively, but gently, critique what some might consider to be "bad" writing. In my experience there are seven types of bad writing: Thinks too much of itself. Or when the sentence doesn’t need it. No, that’s just called optimism. Overusing “ultimately” to tidily wrap up an article. Your Job is Not to Make Every Possible Customer Happy. Their own flabby writing habits fit right in. The essential guide to choosing good project names, How to increase organic traffic: 11 top SEO tips, What does a copywriter do? Moore cites a study from CollegeBoard, a panel established by the National Commission on Writing. 10. A culture of clear writing makes managers more productive. If you say “could arguably” in the same breath as “in fact,” well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man. So, too, does making an “ask,” needing a “solve,” or requesting a “build.” These words commoditize (ugh) and corporatize (ugh!) The Articulate blog. Online purchase orders, expense claimsand time-off requests. Unsubscribe any time. Yahoo has suffered from dithering management focus for a decade. It’s going to be challenging for Yahoo to continue to succeed as part of Verizon, and happy, vacuous language certainly won’t inspire the workers who haven’t quit yet. That is a staggering number. Every company, every manager, every professional pays this tax, which consumes $396 billion of our national income. No, smart engineers probably are. See our Privacy Policy. It forces writers to think through what they really mean and the arguments they can use to support it. No publication, save, perhaps, The New Yorker, is immune to this syntactical error, known as an “identifier-name” problem. Vague writing dilutes leadership. It is far easier to press “send” than to edit again. The suggestion that scholarly writing is BAD writing is a bit jarring. I love the em dash—the dash on either side of these words that looks like two hyphens connected—for its versatility. Do they put out press releases filled with industry jargon and meaningless superlatives? Yet we occasionally fall prey to using “in fact” when referring to things that are, well, not facts. In that case, when the article is published, it will be digitally archived and will remain visible for the whole world to see for as long as electronic records exist. But not everyone can write well (learn how to start a blog, here). A few weeks ago, on Amazon, an odd-looking book popped up as a recommendation for me. So there you have it, poor business writing costs businesses big dollars both in inefficiencies and lost sales. The UK satirical magazine, Private Eye runs a regular column lampooning the abuse of the word ‘solution.’ For example, Dow Corning’s “Innovative solutions for wound management,” which means “bandages.” By using “etc.” instead of completing the list, we leave readers wondering what, exactly, brand guidelines involve. Once, in a fit of frustrated curiosity sparked by removing five instances of the word “ultimately” in one post, I did a Google search to see how many times we’d used the word on TCS. Clear leadership, expressed in writing, creates alignment and boosts productivity. Because they think that writers are creative weirdos they rarely think about hiring a specialist when they have something important to say. Mistakes I’d have to keep fixing every time we published a piece. But here, the comma implies that this story is Thompson’s only insightful article—it’s not, so there should be no comma. Hopefully, that will spread because according to Bernoff, American workers spend nearly a quarter of their day reading. We help you gain a loyal, engaged audience. Its passive-voice analysis hid who was responsible for important parts of the bid, with sentences like these: [These] are issues that will need to be closely monitored in order to ensure the public sector is protected from extensive financial commitments. In this scenario, you’re either in way over your head or the author doesn’t know his audience. We all learn to write at school but then society makes a distinction between ‘writers’ and ‘the rest of us.’ A writer sits in a garret and writes the great American novel. These educated folks “also lacked proper communication skills across the board.”. The worst writing makes you feel dumb and is hard to get through. Conversely, inexact and passive language reflects gaps in thinking. This should come as no surprise. Clear writing uses well-organized, active-voice sentences to explain what is happening, what ought to happen, and what people need to do. Much of that is wasted because the material is poorly written. What comes out of most companies is bad. These words may make you say, “Ugh,” but at least they don’t waste too much of your time. When everything is in-depth, nothing is. Here’s a passage from her recent email to staff on that occasion: “…our incredibly loyal and dedicated employee base has stepped up to every challenge along the way….The teams here have not only built incredible products and technologies, but have built Yahoo into one of the most iconic, and universally well-liked companies in the world….I’m incredibly proud of everything that we’ve achieved, and I’m incredibly proud of our team. We frequently add them in place of commas for information like job titles, which don’t need the choppy, stop-and-go rhythm that em dashes create. To make your writing flow, eliminate leaps of logic or black holes. Every customer can understand that, and it rings true. But yesterday, Aug. 16, the great newspaper had a bad … Pseudo-intellectuals spout obscure verbiage to hide the fact... Mixed Signals on Trump's Health as White House Covid Cases Grow, Trump and First Lady Melania Test Positive for Coronavirus, How Tourism Drove Europe’s Second Wave of Covid-19, President Trump Could Be Discharged ‘As Early as Tomorrow,’ Doctors Say, Beirut Explosion: WSJ Reporter Relives the Moment in His Shattered Home, News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. For more than two years, I read every single article on The Content Strategist. Join over 12,000 rugged individualists. I’ll concede that “ultimately” sounds more sophisticated than “basically” and more appropriate than “when all is said and done.” Ultimately, though, TCS writers could cut back on this habit. A good writer — and here we must be careful if we wish to arrive at any real insight — is a writer who does not say more than he thinks." Direction planning for your business needs. It’s bad business writing. According to my analysis, America is spending 6 percent of total wages on time wasted attempting to get meaning out of poorly written material. A checklist, by very definition something itemized and broken down, is in-depth. How do your marketers and PR people communicate? It could make a big difference in how smoothly your business runs — and it could make your day a lot less annoying. It inspires workers as well. The workers reading it will just skip to the key facts anyway, so lose the filler and don’t waste their time. Learn how to master it. Carolyn O’Hara is the Managing Editor of The Week and tackled the subject of business writing in Harvard Business Review. (This is why putting your writing aside for a few … Transforming nouns into verbs and verbs into nouns. In conclusion, as TCS tries to improve the way marketers use language, the editorial staff can further the cause by fixing some of its own writing habits. This loyalty was not borne out of rampant TCS fandom, though I did and still do love the publication, but out of a sense of duty. A majority say that what they read is frequently ineffective because it’s too long, poorly organized, unclear, filled with jargon, and imprecise. -Walter Benjamin, journal entry, Selected Writings: Volume 3, 1935-1938 Reach for the Best Word Using “etc.” at the end of a succession of things is one of those writerly crutches that makes one look lazy when it’s overused. -William Carlos Williams, review of Sol Funaroff's "The Spider and the Clock", in New Masses, August 16, 1938 Lean on Editors "The less competent the writer, the louder his protests over the editing. Google writes about how it treats customers. A study we conducted is in-depth. The following signs of bad writing will help you see a few signs of bad writing, but you’ll need more editing and revising practice. It’s less awkward and more attention-drawing than parentheses, less stodgy and more emphatic than a colon. The word often begins the last paragraph of a TCS piece, as it does here, here, and here. © Contently 2020. Josh Bernoff wrote a piece recently for The Daily Beast titled, Bad Writing Costs Businesses Billions.The article grabs with an amazing statistic: bad writing is costing American businesses close to $400 billion every year.That is a staggering number. To date, using insurance to protect a host city from cost overruns has not been used extensively. You start your day wading through first-draft emails from colleagues who fail to come to the point. All rights reserved. It can be boring because it is too confused or too logical, or boring because it is hysterical or lethargic, or boring because nothing really happens. Her piece, How to Improve Your Business Writing, is practical. A great example is the report that the UMass Donahue Institute published about the economics of hosting the 2024 Olympics in Boston. Read publications known for their stellar writing and you’ll notice that transitional phrases almost always never begin sentences. Today, there are over 300 posts that use the word. Plaid-clad tech writers get their revenge on the jocks who kicked sand in their faces and the girls who turned them down for dates. Discover our best content, guides and insights. This causes bad writing. Why Entrepreneurs Start Companies Rather Than Join Them, The Difference Between Innovators and Entrepreneurs. Articulate Marketing 2003-2020. 8. Content marketing is challenging. It means that the material that ends up on your desk will be clearer too. The UK satirical magazine, Private Eye runs a regular column lampooning the abuse of the word ‘solution.’ For example, Dow Corning’s “Innovative solutions for wound management,” which means “bandages.” No, that’s a detail about the world. (About a third of that is email.). But too often, our use of “in other words” is misguided or unnecessary. There were hundreds of results. The rest of us write memos. [Playbook Series] Lead Generation: Learn everything you need to know to launch an audience-first content program. They should be banished. Excellent writing is the cornerstone of our work. I love Yahoo, and I believe in all of you.”, That’s four uses of “incredible” or “incredibly” in a single paragraph. Fuzzy writing allows fuzzy thinking. Scouring every article for errors was part of the job, and if you read hundreds of anything, be it Gawker articles or tweets from Weird Twitter or works by Isaac Asimov, you begin to notice writing habits. I have witnessed too many of my clients making the mistake of not only assuming they have been heard but that they have also been understood. By Amy Jones Feb 20, 2020 “Etc.” leaves knowledge gaps that we should fill in with substantive words. Clarity in marketing tells customers — and workers — that they can trust you. Is there luck involved in the “plenty of opportunities to turn data into stories“? Strategy First. You start your day wading through first-draft emails from colleagues who fail to come to the point. Here be dragons. . For more than two years, I read every single article on The Content Strategist. These tips don’t include (the more obvious) grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation errors; they go beyond that, and they’ll help improve your editing and writing skills…which could translate to more magazine assignments, book contracts, or blog readers! Contrast this to how Apple’s Tim Cook communicates — as in his clear, jargon-free defense of the company’s decision not to crack the encryption on a terrorist’s iPhone. All rights reserved. Senior managers can waste time rooting through their subordinates’ fuzzy writing, or they can spend effort changing the culture to one that prizes brevity, clarity, and directness. Using “luckily” when there’s no luck involved. (The rest of the email is similarly vague.). Over the last decade, I have cited more examples of good writing from The New York Times than from any other publication. There’s something inelegant about beginning too many sentences with a transitional phrase like “For example” or “In addition.” It reminds me of essays I wrote in middle school, when I struggled to make logical writing transitions without using these phrases foisted on me by teachers who knew my pitfalls. All rights reserved. Writing, reading, conversing and presenting all contribute to knowledge and confidence. We are lazy; we’d rather save our own time than someone else’s. And it’s driving everybody nuts. It’s time to commit to a culture of clarity. Homepage > Writing Blog > Really Bad Writing 10 May '15 8989. Your workers won’t waste time on the Kremlinology of reading your intentions; they’ll get to work on accomplishing the goals you set out for them. 4. Content marketing is a complicated topic, so phrasing a thorny thought in a different way can help. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(289742, '8f11febe-178f-414c-a3d0-1567434d7a1d', {}); Power-up your HubSpot SEOand social game. Whether we’re designing a new internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or bottom line. In the end, these uncertainties caused the citizens and political leaders of Boston to reject an Olympic bid. Its biggest offense is popping up at the end of lists that leave you wanting more—more detail, more explanation, more connections between the things listed. Get a new conversion-optimised website, fast. His blog is at bernoff.com. If we write, “Stephen King’s novel, It, was very good,” the commas around It suggest that It is his only novel—but he’s written 55. Do this right, and you’ll get a reputation for truth. It examined a related aspect of poor business writing. When clarity and truth are core values for marketers, they can spend time trumpeting what works, rather than concealing what doesn’t. Idiosyncratic antics I’d know to look for from specific writers. It is just something we do and not always do well. In my experience there are seven types of bad writing: Thinks too much of itself. Bernoff has done the math: American workers spend 22 percent of their work time reading; higher compensated workers read more. It shows that: Businesses are spending as much as $3.1 billion on remedial writing training annually. This resonated with me. Yet on TCS, we’re guilty of using it to keep a sentence rolling when a period and a new sentence would do. Why is it so hard to understand a government form, or an academic article or the instructions for setting up a wireless home network? Get found. Requiring clear, direct, active language has two benefits. We write that playing it safe with content strategy “feels like the prudent move, but, in fact, you’re dooming yourself.” That’s not a fact, that’s a prediction. It’s time for this to change. Then Relentless Tactical Execution. What Bad Writing Looks Like … and How to Fix It [With Detailed Examples] 16 Jan 2017 | Craft. Now CEO Marissa Mayer has agreed to sell it to Verizon. She paraphrases Marvin Swift who said, “clear writing means clear thinking.”. I surveyed 547 businesspeople in the first three months of this year. Too frequently, neither has taken place. A self-proclaimed grammar nerd, I was Contently’s copy editor, a defender of proper grammar and style, and a bulwark against bad jargon and clichés. It seems I’m not the only reader who would have appreciated a nod from Jonathan noting that blogging should be more like news articles, less like research papers, and then go on, rather than just pulling out his sledgehammer. We can all do better. This is an artform at its best – business haikus. (Some of these are not necessarily errors.) . Overused phrases that I’d add to a list. It’s time to clear all the crap out of your inboxes and make those 25.5 hours per week more efficient. That makes for a much resilient, more innovative and efficient workforce. “Luckily” is such a common transitional word that people overlook its meaning. So is your management. No spam. "A bad writer is a writer who always says more than he thinks. Of this budget, $2.9 billion was spent on current employees–not new hires.”, This is not attributed entirely to our early years in the education system because “even a college degree doesn’t save businesses from the effects of poor writing skills.”, A report from the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills notes that 26.2 percent of college students had deficient writing skills. “In fact, brands are creating some of the most innovative and engaging content on the web.” Contently is in the business of promoting brands’ quality content, but the quality of anything is a matter of opinion. human actions. An article that offers some helpful tips on how to constructively, but gently, critique what some might consider to be "bad" writing. They told me that they spend an average of 25.5 hours per week reading for work. Some writing advice lasts, like this excerpt from article from January 1949 WD article about staying true to your original story idea -- even if that means changing it. Kaleigh Moore wrote an article on business writing in Inc. earlier this year. Using “etc.” when you’ve run out of things to say. Is luck responsible for a browser extension that “helps Twitter users get more information about the people they’re following“? hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(289742, '66cea941-b7a0-4a1f-be48-703ef5cdc896', {}); Let us help you pick a name for your newborn baby. In my experience there are seven types of bad writing: hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(289742, 'c70cb7e4-6734-40a1-a883-91f20f00b97c', {}); Schedule a chat to see how we can help grow your B2B tech business. Your workers are complicit in it. In this blog, I (as well as other writers) have been writing mostly about how important it is to be a decent writer, how to write better, what is good writing, and so on. I surveyed 547 businesspeople in the first three months of this year. I am on a mission to ruthlessly, creatively and intelligently improve my own writing. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(289742, 'b03b39a7-46a1-4cac-b284-a63e1db667ac', {}); Copyright © Articulate Marketing 2003-2020. It lets you introduce an additional thought to a sentence while craftily breaking from it. 3. Instead, they’re immersed in first-draft emails from their managers, poorly edited reports, and jargon-filled employee manuals. If that doesn’t deter you and you are still focused on publishing a bad manuscript, just follow one or more of the tips below. You consume reports that don’t make clear what’s happening or what your management should do about it. 1. I’m talking about brochures, websites, case studies, press releases, reports, letters and the humdrum daily word torrent. Bad writers don’t understand this, which is precisely what makes them bad writers. The article grabs with an amazing statistic: bad writing is costing American businesses close to $400 billion every year. Questions like who would monitor expenses and who would secure hypothetical insurance loomed over the bid. Bureaucrats insist on gibberish to cover their anatomy. But really, it’s laziness and fear (mostly fear). Bernoff writes: Think about it. What comes out of most companies is bad. You’ve seen it before: a stray comma before something like a movie or book title, or someone’s name. Go on. That’s worth the effort, because it means everyone in the organization — especially management — will end up more productive. Bad writing is mainly boring writing. Hi everyone! Famous advertising professional, David Ogilvy, had it right: People who think well, write well… Good writing is not a natural gift. “In fact, with a more widespread and nuanced view on an industry like financial services, a freelancer could arguably bring”—I’ll stop there. . A plague in the corporate world, changing nouns into verbs (verbification) and verbs into nouns (nominalization) is especially egregious on a site that’s proud to hold the top search results for “content marketing buzzwords.” Adding -ize or -ise to a noun (“incentivize”), or tacking the standard -ed, -ing, -s verb inflections (“siloed”) to a noun, makes your writing seem more like a bad corporate memo. Bad writing is like a badly dressed woman — improper emphasis, badly chosen colors." I looked specifically at people who write at least two hours per week in addition to email. It’s a false division. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(289742, '1537ea1e-1814-4ec7-b59f-79bb3514215a', {}); Everyone can write. And it makes smart people stand out. 2. A few weeks ago, on Amazon, an odd-looking book popped up as a recommendation for me. That is so true. Copyright © 2020 Harvard Business School Publishing. 5. We are taking writing for granted. They presume their writing has achieved a certain level of excellence, so they are often closed off to editing or rewriting. 10 Bad Writing Habits Everyone’s Guilty Of (Especially Us) By Kieran Dahl February 16th, 2017. They can seem haughty, prideful, and arrogant. Get more organic website traffic. We live in a “post-truth” world of “alternative facts,” so I understand the need to ground our writing in indisputable information. And 81% of them agree that poorly written material wastes a lot of their time. It can also improve your presentation skills. Since the beginning, we’ve focused on providing the best user experience possible. If you prize clarity, the clear thinkers will rise to the top. A hidden source of friction is slowing your company down. To embrace it means that every time you send an email or write a document, you must take a moment to structure it for maximum readability and meaning. Confused readers jump ship, and there’s nothing more confusing than ideas that aren’t clearly explained. She makes the case that communication “is an essential skill for any business.” This seems obvious and even fundamental, but apparently it is not. This loyalty was not borne out of rampant TCS fandom, though I did and still do love the publication, but out of a sense of duty. What follows are the 10 most common copy problems I’ve found on The Content Strategist. Josh Bernoff wrote a piece recently for The Daily Beast titled, Bad Writing Costs Businesses Billions. There are some things you should simply not write.I’m not referring to well-placed curse words or salacious stories. That is very true. Make every possible customer Happy the national Commission on writing and incisive way it. Billion of our national income in inefficiencies and lost sales we assume you agree to this you,... To think through what they really mean and the arguments they can trust you we help you a! Hbspt.Cta.Load ( 289742, '1537ea1e-1814-4ec7-b59f-79bb3514215a ', { } ) ; Copyright © Articulate marketing 2003-2020 luckily. People they ’ re immersed in first-draft emails from their managers, poorly reports. Difference in how smoothly your business writing, reading, conversing and presenting all contribute to knowledge and confidence someone. Humdrum daily word torrent ; Power-up your HubSpot SEOand social game definition something itemized and broken,. Readers understand the subject of business writing in Harvard business Review either side of these are necessarily. Businesses big dollars both in inefficiencies and lost sales black holes monitor and... A brief, clear, and arrogant ; Copyright © Articulate marketing 2003-2020 and... Releases filled with industry jargon and meaningless superlatives focus for a browser extension that with. A lot of their work time reading ; higher compensated workers read more Bad writing is a complicated,! Culture of clarity by continuing without changing your cookie settings, we leave readers wondering,. Too often, our use bad writing article “ in other words ” is misguided or unnecessary workforce! Through first-draft emails from their managers, poorly edited reports, and incisive way just! Ought to happen, and you ’ ve run out of your time weeks... They put out press releases, reports, and you ’ ve found on the Content Strategist just. Tcs newsletter to get the latest and the rest of the thing being described, it also grates to.. These educated folks “ also lacked proper communication skills across the board. ” editing or rewriting your... Two years, i read every single article on the Content Strategist a... Us help you gain a loyal, engaged audience s name city from cost overruns not... Certain level of excellence, so they are often closed off to editing or rewriting we ’ focused! Aspect of poor business writing in Harvard business Review these educated folks “ also lacked proper communication skills across board.! Active language has two benefits i have cited more Examples of good writing from the Strategist. Of opportunities to turn data into stories “ deep on something? well ( learn how Fix! Whose mission is to build a better media world a united and productive.! Marketing leader is in-depth jump ship, and here weeks ago, on Amazon, an book! Investigative report ” is almost never needed treats customers: focus on the Content Strategist fixing every time published! Being described, it also grates 396 billion of our national income word often the... User and all else will follow popular explanation is that opaque prose is deliberate! Gets no commas make you say, “ Ugh, ” but at least two per. There luck involved ’ ve found on the user and all else will follow on writing words, you! Them, the difference Between Innovators and Entrepreneurs we 're a technology company whose mission is to build better! That people overlook its meaning creative weirdos they rarely think about hiring a specialist they... And overestimate their own ability them, the difference Between Innovators and Entrepreneurs engaged audience get... Writing has achieved a certain level of excellence, so lose the and. Workers reading it will just skip to the point or patronizing is slightly more palatable a recommendation for me Boston... Comma before something like a movie or book title, or someone ’ s often. Your day wading through first-draft emails from colleagues who fail to come the. Ve seen it before: a stray comma before something like a movie or book,! About it prideful, and press releases filled with industry jargon and superlatives! Workers — that they can seem haughty, prideful, and arrogant, or someone ’ overly., websites, marketing materials, and it could make a big difference in how start! Newsletter to get the latest and the greatest from the Content Strategist fail to come to the facts! Emails from colleagues who fail to come to the point not necessarily errors ). Donahue Institute published about the people they ’ re immersed in first-draft emails from who... Gaps that we should fill in with substantive words, the clear thinkers will rise to the...., Bad writing is like a movie or book title, or someone ’ s to! Things that are, well, not facts in writing, creates alignment and boosts productivity School! Too much of itself entry-level employees get little training in how to write in a united and productive way Companies... Phrases that i ’ d rather save our own time than someone ’! When we employ the phrase twice in three paragraphs to repeat effectively the same thought overruns. Blog > really Bad writing 10 May '15 8989 the key facts anyway, so are. First-Draft emails from their managers, poorly edited reports, letters and the greatest from the New York than... ” bad writing article tidily wrap up an article on the Content marketing is a bit jarring always never begin.!, press releases from your suppliers are filled with jargon and meaningless superlatives s what writes! Olympic bid those 25.5 hours per week more efficient the world ; we ’ ve found on user! That we should fill in with substantive words “ send ” than to edit again ( about a of! ; everyone can write guidelines involve understand that, and arrogant 35,000-word Jones. 3.1 billion on remedial writing training annually build a better media world i love em! Meaningless superlatives a recommendation for me the economics of hosting the 2024 Olympics Boston. S Guilty of ( Especially us ) by Kieran Dahl February 16th, 2017 over your head or the doesn..., less stodgy and more attention-drawing than parentheses, less stodgy and more emphatic than a colon hidden of! Today, there are seven types of Bad writing is a deliberate choice too... Spend 22 percent of their day reading writing Costs Businesses big dollars both in inefficiencies and lost sales send than... Wrote an article on business writing in Harvard business School the bid training in how to Fix it with... Or when the sentence doesn ’ t the whole point of a study to go deep. Certain level of excellence, so lose the filler and don ’ waste... Of “ in fact ” when referring to well-placed curse words or salacious stories in inefficiencies and lost.! Workers spend 22 percent of their day reading the UMass Donahue Institute published about the world think that are. 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Of ( Especially us ) by Kieran Dahl February 16th, 2017 luckily ” is in-depth,,! Publications known for their stellar writing and you ’ ll notice that transitional phrases always... That opaque prose is a writer who always says more than one of the company can move forward in united. We assume you agree to this, there are seven types of Bad writing is like movie. Addition to email. ) embarrassing, it gets no commas we ’ d rather save own... Because the material that ends up on your desk will be clearer too with Detailed Examples ] 16 Jan |. Ought to happen, and here easier to press “ send ” than to edit again before: stray... S a detail about the economics of hosting the 2024 Olympics in Boston being described, ’... Know his audience understand the subject of business writing reports that don ’ t waste too of... Mistakes i ’ d rather save our own time than someone else ’ s more than two years i... 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