Administrative Sparkle Blog

Writing is an art. It’s about providing information that is, not only informative, easy on the eyes, with the reader’s perspective as the objective. In reviewing written material, I come across the same issues over and over, and they are easy to overcome. Here are my observations and suggestions.

1. Use lists.

Lists break up thoughts and allow each item to “pop.” When used throughout a paragraph, it can make the paragraph long and cumbersome and the likelihood of passing over information can happen when reviewing later. A great example is writing about a process. It is easier for the eyes to follow down a list and make sure that a process in the series isn’t missed. Kind of like a checklist. Use a numbered list when it is important to follow a series of steps to a specific procedure. Use a bulleted list when the order in which you do things is not important.

2. Use heading formats, bold, and italics.

These will delineate thoughts and ideas, create sections of information, and allow certain words to stand out. Published works should always be italicized. Bolding is great for headers to divide sections, and also to make a word more emphatic for understanding, without using all caps and come across like yelling. Such as, “It is not required to include attachments or documents to your submission.”

3. In memos, letters, and reports, use full-justified paragraphs.

The page flows better and visually appears less choppy; your lists and headers pop more, and the page actually appears cleaner and more organized.

4. Clean up your commas.

I regularly see works where the commas are random. Commas are actually pretty easy if you have some guidelines and are the worst offenders in written material.

• Use in a series. When listing three or more things, put a comma after each one. Such as, “Chicken, fish, and salad are healthy choices.” When you say, “Chicken, fish and salad are healthy choices,” the fish and salad appear to go together. I will also see within the same document the comma used before the last item and not used in the last item in other sections of the document. I will comment about consistency in a little bit.
• Always put your comma inside the quotes. No explanation necessary here.
• When using sets of series, be sure to use a semi-colon. For example, “I have lived in Cleveland, Ohio; St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota; San Francisco and Sacramento, California; Atlanta, Georgia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Austin, Texas.” This clearly breaks up each one, defines each section, and eliminates confusion.
• Use commas for introductory thoughts or phrases. Such as, “such as,” “also,” “however,” “in reviewing….” Introductory clauses set up the sentence that is coming. Also, make sure that the sentence following can stand on its own and makes complete sense without the introductory sentence. Use a semi-colon or a period when both sentences each stand on their own and make sense.

5. Use em dashes when appropriate.

The only time you use one dash is in a hyphenated word, it is a hypen. Use an em dash when reinforcing a thought. Also put a space between the words on each side of the em dash so it does not appear as a long hyphenation. In Word, and most other programs, all you have to do is type two hyphens and when you hit the space bar it will automatically convert to an em dash.

6. Us the active voice when possible.

I discussed the active voice in a prior article, which you can access here. The active voice is just that, stronger and active.

7. Consistency.

Use consistency in your formatting, headers, footers, and overall look. Otherwise the piece will look unorganized and reduce the flow of clarity and readability. It creates a work that appears well-thought, organized, and professional.

These are just some very simple suggestions to the most common errors I come across. It is all in the presentation to the reader. If it is difficult to read, understand, or follow, your reader will move on. It’s all about presentation to keep the reader engaged and to clearly assist the reader in understanding the point you are trying to get across.

Please let me know your thoughts and ideas on best presenting written works. Also, what common mistakes do you come across? Also, if you like what you read here, pass this information on to your fellow professionals who could use little tips like this. And, thank you for coming by my little website.