How To Write

I have recently coma across the website Letters of Note, a wonderful and well-curated website that "gathers and sorts fascinating letter, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos". It really is worth bookmarking or subscribing to it, as it rewards quickly and often, with such presents as a young David Bowie's letter to an American fan, a "Jerry Maguire" memo from Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Stephen Hawking's tongue-in-cheek answer to a request for a Time-travel equation ("If I had (one), I would win the National Lottery every week.")

The website's sister-site is Lists of Note, which aims to do the same thing with lists written and sent (or not) by well-known people, or on well-known themes. It was here that I came across this fantastic memo written by advertising guru David Ogilvy to all employees of his advertising agency, reminding them that writing is a skill, and should be treated as such.

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well.

Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing*. Read it three times.

2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.

3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification,attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.

6. Check your quotations.

7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning—and then edit it.

8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

10. If you want ACTION, don't write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

*Writing That Works, by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson

I can quite easily count how many times I've given the same -or similar- advice to people looking to write more effectively in business; every time I am asked!

Of course, there is nothing in the list above, or in George Orwell's famous Rules for Effective Writing, which in itself requires study. However, it is definitely worth putting in front of you beside your monitor for daily reflection.

As I have said before, I have yet to receive a complaint regarding my own work, or the work of my colleagues, that it was too easy to understand! It is very difficult to suggest that you are not happy with someone's communication because you know exactly what he means!

Making things short, simple, and well-structured means that you are sure you're getting your idea across. And if you're getting your idea across, there's a bigger chance that people will agree with you.

Cultural Awareness with fries, please!

There is a large difference between academic knowledge and intelligence, between theory and practice. A reasonably bright child will be able to explain how to drive a bus, but I wouldn't get on a bus that had a child as its driver! Society protects itself by placing age limits on doing certain things -for example only people over the age of eighteen can drive a car. Qualifications and procedures also prevent people from doing things they shouldn't -For example, only qualified surgeons working at a particular hospital can performa surgical operation.
In business, however, the childish and incompetent are free to do what they want, with only heirarchy and internal procedures stopping them. The result is that quite often businesspeople have to make decisions that they are not qualified to make. For this reason, we prefer it when intelligent people with some kind of experience are in decision-making positions. Sometimes, though, especially when a business is doing something new, the decision-maker has to use her or his own judgement. Because there is no heirarchy or procedure in place to control, the person must make a decision and then see what happens. Sometimes the results are quite unexpected. Hoover's famous free flights fiasco, or the famous Mitsubishi Pajero example come instantly to mind. However, the latest example is really quite upsetting as far as executive thinking -or lack of thinking- goes.
In the 'Global Market', local marketing is quite important, to show that, although a company is a multinational conglomerate, it still thinks about the locals. Good examples of this are McDonalds, who even ditched their trademark red colour to use a blue sign in Israel to show that the restaurants serve kosher meals, and Canal+, who finance so many programmes and films in each of the countries it operates in, the locls often forget it is actually a French company. A very bad example has been made by Burger King, who wanted to advertise its Texican Whopper, and chose a symbol of success and wealth to promote it. Their choice? the Hindu deity Lakshmi, goddess of Wealth and Beauty. At no stage of the marketing and advertising project did anybody involved point out the fact that beef is forbidden in Hinduism.
The Texican whopper includes an all-beef patty, a beef chilli slice, and egg-based Cajun mayonnaise -all of which are forbidden by Hinduism. Displaying one of the religion's most popular deities about to eat this unholy trinity of products is sacrilege.
The advertisement ran in Spain, with the slogan "La merienda es sagrada" -the snack is sacred.
Hindus around the world protested, and Burger King quickly removed the ad and apologised, stating that it was not their intention to offend anyone.
They have also recently offended Mexico with an advert featuring a dwarf, a cowboy, a mask and a Mexican flag.
Perhaps for the executives at Burger King, it is time to think in a new area, and make the decision to change the advertising company?