In this video I will give you Two Writing Tips for Work.
I will answer a question from a subscriber who writes:
“My name is Anna. I work for an international organization. I struggle in writing business / Military letters (condolence letters, memos, thank you letters, and regrets and invitation letters) and was wondering if you had any tips for me. I have read you book Stop Essay Pain and found it very helpful as well as the ‘How to add 300 words to your essay in 15 minutes.’ I hope you have material for me to study on. Very Respectfully. Anna.”
Okay, Anna, great question. So, thanks for the message and for your comments about the ebooks. Now to answer your question.
Writing for Work – Tip #1
Remember – the kinds of letters that you mention – condolence letters, etc. – some of these are expository, but most are not. Now here’s what I mean.
When you write a condolence letter or a memo, you are not necessarily making a statement or an argument and then trying to support it using evidence. I understand that.
However, you still can and often should use the structuring methods that I teach in my videos, on my website, and in my products.
Keep in mind – any letter will have some kind of a structure. Even a condolence letter needs to be organized.
For example, you could break it into you introducing yourself, then stating the fact of a loss, then expressing your condolences, and finally offering some kind of support. See? That’s a structure.
Writing for Work – Tip #2
People will always believe you to be more sincere and trustworthy if you support your statement. For example, if someone says, “oh you’re such a good speaker,” you might be flattered but you may not take it as a serious comment or feedback necessarily.
Now, if they tell you that you are a good speaker and then give you some details about that, like two or three things about your speech that they really enjoyed and why, then their compliment becomes much more credible.
They could say, “oh – you use your voice in such and such a way; your body language projects confidence,” and so on.
And if they do, you will believe them much more readily. And you can do this in any letter.
In general, try to support your wishes, compliments, requests with some reasoning or justification behind them. And the concepts you’ve got from my ebook will help you accomplish that.
I always do it myself, and it helps me to not only create quality content but to also make statements that other people would want to read.
I hope this was helpful. Again, great question from Anna. And if you have questions about business writing or any kind of writing you need for work, then post your question in the comments below.
I will do my best to either answer it in a video or on my blog. I read all the comments.
Cheers!
TP
