Truth 3. Forget yesterday—write for today

Your challenge: Write an e-mail message to the Planning Committee setting a time for an important meeting. Here are two ways you could do it:

Yesterday’s way

On June 18th, 2009, at 2 p.m., a meeting has been scheduled to follow up on our previous conversation of May 10th, and I would ask you to make arrangements to be in attendance. It is anticipated that approximately two hours will be necessary to cover the agenda thoroughly. Please advise me of your availability.

Today’s way

Can you come to a meeting next Thursday at 2 p.m.? I’d like to follow up on all the great ideas I heard when we talked a few weeks ago. I hope you can give this about two hours. Please e-mail back that you can be there.

Which is better? Why?—The traditionally written Yesterday’s Way version is wordier, passive in tone, takes longer to read—and takes more time to write. Furthermore, it sets the meeting participants up to expect a dull old time.

Today’s Way is much closer to what you’d actually say to someone: It’s clear, spontaneous sounding, and enthusiastic. The writing is transparent, meaning that the reader notices the message, not the writing itself. In Yesterday’s Way, how the message is written actually slows down understanding.

Also, framing the message as a personal contact prompted the writer to include more persuasive content about the event’s nature. If you received this version, wouldn’t you feel better about committing two hours of your time?

We know that many business meetings can’t promise a sparkling agenda. But when you’ve got something positive to work with, flaunt it.

Try saying it—To see how the “saying it” idea can help, try this: Think about something you have to write about, like the answer to a question. It can be along the lines of, “What’s important about Project X that I’m working on?” Or, “Why will my new idea about Y be an improvement over what we do now?”

Then say the answer—preferably aloud—the same way you would say it to a friend or colleague in person. Act as if it were a phone conversation with a particular person. Then write it down that way.

Next, look at what you’ve written. You may be surprised at how close you’ve come to a good written version of your statement, and how fast you accomplished it without any trouble at all.

What you wrote is probably not perfect. You might need to adjust it to conform to the written language, eliminate unneeded repetitions, or fix the grammar or structure. Or you may notice that what you’ve said is confusing or that something is obviously missing. This tells you that your message needs more thought, and that you must get your facts and ideas in order before writing.

The bottom line: You already possess the most important tool. Your own language and conversational skill give you the “say it” foundation that we recommend for writing.

There may even be a scientific basis for why this works. Researchers are finding that different parts of the brain function in highly specialized ways. For example, color and shape are processed separately and then coordinated. Written language and spoken language may be processed in different regions of the brain, and this would explain why most of us can be perfectly lucid when we talk about a subject, but become stilted and confusing when we write about the same thing.

So when you have a writing problem, see what happens if you try to talk about it, as if you were speaking to a specific person. You may find yourself much more articulate, and can then go on to develop a good written version. The approach works just as well with complicated documents, like proposals and reports, as it does with e-mail memos.