Reflection Shorts - "Win that Communication" - episode #12

Maximize returns in your writing!

When investing in equity, you want to have the largest monetary returns..

Similarly, you would want to write a minimum of words to convey the most and ‘to the point’ information in written texts.

Unfortunately, we are so used to having clutter in our writing that it impacts our ability to land impact.

🌟 We need to challenge every word in our document.

🌟 A word should be present only to convey either content or tone.

🌟 The goal is to make it effortless for our reader to understand our ideas.

Use these tips to make your writing effective, crisp, and fluff-free.

1. Drop ‘Zero’ words and lengthy sentences.

Zero words are those that don’t add any value most of the time.

❌ “Currently, we have 40 staff members” —> ✅ “We have 40 staff members”

❌ “During the course of…” —> ✅ “During…”

❌ “At the conclusion of this talk” —> ✅ “After this talk”

2. Avoid confusing constructions

❌ Former and later: Avoid it. The problem is that you have to look back into the sentence you read to match former and later.

❌ And/or and using “/” in general: Pick one. It’s confusing when we say “easier/simpler” or “Let’s say Joe and/or Nick would do it." Do you mean easier and simpler, easier or simpler, or both? Would Joe and Nick do it together or would one of them do the task?

❌ Mid-Sentence Parentheses: If useful, move the sentence towards the end. Parentheses in the middle create diverging ideas.

3. Use the best possible shorter words.

Cut ‘-tion’, ‘-ment’, ‘-ance’, ‘-ing’, ‘this’ like words, and other weak verbs.

❌ “He made a statement that he was dropping out of the race” —> ✅ “He stated that he is quitting the race”

❌ “The process for reviewing documents is flawed. It doesn’t meet out needs” —> ✅ “Our process for document review fails to meet our needs”

❌ “The report missed one key number. The department didn’t report error. This led to poor decisions”. What does this refer to? —> A better line is ✅ “This inaccurate number led to poor decisions.”

4. Active and passive voices done right. Missing Actor is also valuable

Nike:

Active voice: “Just do it!” ✅

Passive voice: “It needs to be done” ✅

Missing the actor, a person or thing, when writing is also acceptable for legal writings:

“No admittance is permitted without authorization." ✅

That’s it for today. If you are wondering “What’s a Reflection Short?” Read here.

References

• Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond

Interesting Reads

1. What the world's #1 YouTuber can teach you about being a badass software engineer by Jordan Cutler

2. How I Almost Didn't Become A Staff Engineer by Raviraj Achar in collaboration with Steve Huynh

3. From The Challenges - Cut by John Crickett

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👋 Hey there, I am Gourav. I write about Engineering, Productivity, Thought Leadership, and the Mysteries of the mind!

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