4 Ways to Cut the Clutter From Your Business Writing Part 1 of 2 by Dianna Booher
Channel: Dianna Booher - Communication Strategist & Author
Date: 16/05/2013

http://www.booherresearch.com  1-817-283-2333
Executive Communication Expert Dianna Booher

While working on his masterpiece Ulysses, the novelist James Joyce ran into a friend who asked him how the writing was going. Joyce responded that he'd been working all day and had produced only 2 sentences.  The friend asked, "You have been seeking the right words?" 
 "No," said Joyce. "I have the words already. What I'm seeking is the perfect order of words in the sentences I have."
It took Joyce 7 years to write his novel.  You probably don't want to spend that kind of time writing your typical reports, proposals, or emails.  Yet, I've never met a business writer who intended to be wordy. The problem comes in seeing what to leave out.  Consider these four tips to help you cut the clutter:

Don't Write Too Soon   
Just as in a sprint or a marathon, it doesn't matter how slowly you start; what counts is your finishing time.  Some people dash off an email or report as if they have no strategy at all.  They write at full speed, keying in whatever thoughts come to the mind, organizing and rearranging on the fly.  By the time they get to the end of the document, they've collected quite a few details in their path as they've cut through to the conclusion.  The only problem is that the reader has to follow the same obstacle course, through the same clutter, to arrive at the same conclusion.
Often, you can bypass much of the clutter if you take your time at the start to think about where you want to end the race:  What's the key message you want to get across?  What detail is essential to arrive at that destination?  What detail would be irrelevant and distracting if included?