How Social-Political Realities Affect What You Write

On the job, your reason for writing letters, memos and proposals can get caught up in a variety of social and political forces, causing your readers to react emotionally.

People may try to look at office issues objectively, rationally, but they often make decisions based on fear, jealousy, bias, anger, revenge, envy, ego clashes, power struggles, charter battles, hidden agendas, sacred cows, office romances, and other emotional factors. Think about your purpose and your readers. Are you lighting a fuse?

Office politics and personal relationships can undermine your purpose, no matter how justified or promising it may be. Such forces can rarely be detected ahead of time, but to charge headlong without at least trying to assess your situation is like skipping nonchalantly through a minefield:


A Checklist

Are you sending an appropriate message to an appropriate audience at an appropriate time?

Will your purpose ignite any smoldering issues between you, management, supervision, peers, subordinates?

Will you be aggravating any existing personality or ego clashes among friends, enemies, supporters, neutrals?


Ear to the Ground

Is your purpose consistent with your organization's culture and climate"?

Is anything at stake? Recent or pending promotions? Favors due, debts owed? Pride, image, recognition on the line? Sacred cows in jeopardy? Territorial disputes, charter squabbles, responsibility issues?

Is the air foul on this subject? If something goes sour, could you defend your position?

What is your credibility with this audience? Should you first get preliminary approvals, opinions, advice, support?

Are there any pressures or priorities that could block your purpose? Do any laws, policies, or regulations apply?

What objections or resistances could your purpose create? Are you putting anyone, including your boss, on the spot?

Are you reacting emotionally? Emotions subside, but the printed word remains.


REMEMBER: Once you let go of what you've written, it could end up anywhere — even on the evening news.

Finally, to thine own self be true.

Business Writing: Time for Change

The business community is rarely singled out for excellence in written communication, primarily because the people who practice it day after day are not professional writers. Letters, emails, proposals, presentations, reports, etc., are still infected with convoluted, Victorian language.

While poor composition skills continue to erode the quality of the writing itself, one of the most corruptive forces today is the Federal Express syndrome, or “when you absolutely, positively have to send it before you can make it intelligible.”

The pace of work in the 21st century, the email glut, and quick-fix editorial software are derailing the need for thought. Conditioned to a life of hurry-up day in day out, more and more workers are rendering important messages in fragmented “bullet” formats or hastily plagiarizing unverified sources. Deadlines dictate content, and expedience rules the moment.

The language has always had guardians, people who labor to preserve its heritage, but in the business world there are many who have not labored at all. They are the ones who unwittingly perpetuate poor writing because they do not recognize faults. And we must live with their oversight because they have the authority to say what will be said. We can fault them, but we can not blame them. They are not writers, they are not communicators, and their priorities rarely include the effective use of language.

It will always be up to us to exorcise the bad and preserve the good. We can only hope that, with the help of educators everywhere, a new breed of professionals will occupy the offices of tomorrow, people who will have learned that the ability to communicate effectively is a required business skill, not an elective.

New and veteran communicators alike must also continue to find ways to demonstrate their value to an apathetic management. Communicators are too often perceived as workplace “baggage,” people whose contributions have little or no effect on the bottom line.

Senior managers, who usually measure success in quantitative terms, will listen only when we can show them that purposeful communication does in fact contribute to a company’s success. To do that, we must find ways to show that good writing is important, and not something to be left to professional writers and editors sitting in the corner.

“There must be a change in the attitude toward the function, power, and role of communications. This is too important to be left to professional communicators alone. It’s an all-hands job.”

James D. Robinson, former chairman, CEO
American Express

The Student as Writer: A Path to Understanding

It is rumored that a few students pursuing degrees in science and technology do not like to write. Such a judgment may be too harsh. Instead, let’s suggest that people with analytical skills look forward to writing assignments the way language lovers look forward to solving algebraic expressions.

I have not found any evidence that writers can use writing as a path to understanding the abstract regions of the sciences, but there is ample evidence that those who do feel at home in those regions can use writing to help them better understand their own studies and investigations, no matter how specialized or arcane their program content may be.

In his book, Writing to Learn, former Yale professor William Zinsser declared, “…writing is no longer the sole possession of the English teacher but is an organic part of how every subject is taught.”

If the rumor is true, that “techno-types” tend to shun the analog world of writing, then it’s possible that students in other specialized fields – music or nursing, for example – might also want to walk the other way when writing assignments are handed out. But are they selling themselves short when they do?

Ann Garwick, a professor of nursing at Gustavus Adolphus Collage, tells us that she asks students to search pertinent journals for one article that interests them, then write an annotated summary.

“Writing helps them organize their plan of health care,” she says, “and also expands their thinking and raises further questions they should be asking.”

Not only can writing help students learn how they think and feel about a given subject while they are in college, good writing can also help them later in their careers, when and if they want to publish on a much larger stage.

Notable examples of those who did include astronomer Carl Sagan, whose down-to-Earth approach gave us a new and entertaining look at the universe. As I recall, he was the first to introduce the mathematical origin of “Google” to the general public. Rachel Carson, in her books, Silent Spring and The Sea Around Us, used factual observation and lyricism to draw our attention to a neglected environment.

Finally, there is the engaging style of Albert Einstein. When he set out to explain how rivers carve channels in river bottoms, he began, “Imagine a cup full of tea, with several tea leaves floating on the surface.” And when he thought about how to explain his theory of relativity, he began, “Pretend you are on a moving train and you drop a stone to the ground.”

Could it be that we have access to the minds of Sagan, Carson, and Einstein only because they learned to write in ways that helped us relate our world to theirs? They learned to use writing as a tool, and it served them well. Not all students will reach the international stage the way they did, but do they have to? No they don’t. To help them excel on their own stage, all they need do is embrace writing as a way to explore, to discover, to learn, and to understand.

"Writing is not simply a way for students to demonstrate what they know. It is a way to help them understand what they know. At its best, writing is learning." (The Neglected "R," the Need for a Writing Revolution, The National Commission on Writing, 2003)

Meet Victor Barnacle

The woman kept scanning the organization chart, looking for a vacant slot. There had to be something the little man could do. Scribe? Wig weaver? Sconce scrubber? At least he was a Type A personality; she could definitely count on him for relentless persistence.

It was cold that morning in 1820, and a fog was beginning to descend upon the castle when Queen Victoria pulled on a velvet cord and summoned Victor Barnacle to the courtyard below. Victor tugged his waistcoat down over his bulging stomach and peered up into the mist.
"You pulled, my queen?"

"Vic, I've got a job for you," the queen said, gazing out over her queendom.
"Go thee into the land and tell the masses to pen their memos and things in a matter befitting my supreme greatness. You know, ornate and flowery. I want to be remembered."
"What?" Victor replied.
"Get a bunch of quill pens and be off with you!"

Victor bowed away, loaded his cart with 400,000 quill pens, and whipped his donkey into the hither and over the yon, handing out pens to lords, surfs, masters, slaves , and entry level administrators.
"Here, write like the queen! " he shouted. "Don't say THE CARRIAGE WHEEL BOLTS ARE WORN OUT...Say IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THE WEARING OF THE CARRIAGE WHEEL BOLTS HAS REACHED A MAXIMUM LEVEL."

From clothier to comptroller to banker to bard, the dauntless pair plodded on through storm and sludge, month after month, year after year, stopping only to requisition more quill pens. Like Paul Revere, like Johnny Appleseed, Victor Barnacle had become one with his mission. CAST OUT CLARITY! DIP THY PEN IN THE ORNATE! SCRIBBLE THE FLOWERY! It was the winter of his content, but all that travel was just too exhausting. In his final hour, the darkness descending, he was still urging his donkey onward.

Like all spirits with missions unfinished, Victor's refused to cross over. Even now, his portly specter pushes on, clinging to a time and expression long in the bygone. His voice is still among us, ageless in its obsession, still coaxing, still commanding: "Don't say THE SOFTWARE IS INCOMPATIBLE...Say IT CAN BE SEEN THAT A SOFTWARE INCOMPATIBILITY IS PRESENTLY IN EFFECT."

Today, 170 years after Victor went forth for the queen, we still hear the sound of quill pens scratching. We still see letters and emails that begin with HEREWITH. Don't look now, but there's a long-eared ghost in visitor parking.

THE END