The Power of Writing Well

By Pete Geissler

"A bad writer has no rights whatever. Any mercy shown to him is wasted and mistaken." H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956. 

I wrote THE POWER OF WRITING WELL to address everything managers, leaders, engineers, scientists and others need to be better senders and receiver s, not to cover everything they need to know about the language or to be the perfect sender or receiver; nobody is. 

The many books on writing and communicating that claim to be everything to everybody fail simply because they are overwhelmingly complex, full of jargon and useless labels and distinctions such as participial phrase as opposed to gerund phrase, or transitive verb versus intransitive verb. Most of us outside of academe don’t care, and we shouldn’t since they are not relevant to our needs. 

This short book condenses the habits and techniques—your tools—that work most of the time for most of the people who write at work and want to be happier in all parts of their lives: nothing more, nothing less . It is also a true and accurate reflection of my forty years of writing for business and of teaching writing at two prestigious universities and many professional societies and companies. You can trust that what I’m telling you will improve your abilities to communicate and think, and make you more productive, promotable, and happy. It will also make your organization more efficient and profitable. 

I guarantee it, and my students attest to it . 

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Expressive Press
• Release date: May 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781933704067

Pete Geissler

Pete Geissler is an outspoken advocate of good communications and behavior. His eight books, and hundreds of articles, speeches, and classes examine why and how to be articulate, to write well, and to treat people respectfully and ethically. His accomplishments include authorship of a publisher's best seller and a finalist in best books 2014, and writing more than three million words that have been published or spoken in formal settings. Pete is founder and CEO of The Expressive Press, a publisher of books in several genre. He also teaches and coaches engineers, scientists, and business persons how to write and to use writing to boost their productivity, value, and careers. He serves on the Board of Directors, Opera Theater Pittsburgh, and chairs its planned giving committee.

Book preview

PART I: FUNDAMENTALS

FOREWORD, CAVEATS, AND TIPS FOR CREATING YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

A bad writer has no rights whatever. Any mercy shown to him is wasted and mistaken. H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956.

I wrote THE POWER OF WRITING WELL to address everything managers, leaders, engineers, scientists and others need to be better senders and receivers, not to cover everything they need to know about the language or to be the perfect sender or receiver; nobody is.

The many books on writing and communicating that claim to be everything to everybody fail simply because they are overwhelmingly complex, full of jargon and useless labels and distinctions such as participial phrase as opposed to gerund phrase, or transitive verb versus intransitive verb. Most of us outside of academe don’t care, and we shouldn’t since they are not relevant to our needs. 

This short book condenses the habits and techniques—your tools—that work most of the time for most of the people who write at work and want to be happier in all parts of their lives: nothing more, nothing less.  It is also a true and accurate reflection of my forty years of writing for business and of teaching writing at two prestigious universities and many professional societies and companies. You can trust that what I’m telling you will improve your abilities to communicate and think, and make you more productive, promotable, and happy. It will also make your organization more efficient and profitable.

I guarantee it, and my students attest to it.

The book also reflects how I’ve taught and still teach, which I think is unusually effective. Basically, I’ll introduce a useful tool in abstract terms, and then illustrate it with examples, often with before-and-after examples to demonstrate the transformation from bad to good. In that way, I’ll put the tool into the real world: yours, where it belongs.  Then I’ll comment as you read, and then summarize with more before-and-after examples, some of which I hope you’ll resonate with—Aha; I’ve read or written or heard that before — and be amused by.

The before examples—correctable or improvable— are always italicized; the after—corrected or improved—in regular type.

You can create your personal competitive advantage by understanding your incentives and adhering to all the tools, connecting them in your mind to create  a cohesive whole,  applying them in the more complex before-and-after examples in Chapters VIII and X, then applying them immediately to your everyday writing.

Enjoy, learn, profit.

Pete Geissler

CHAPTER I: UNDERSTAND YOUR INCENTIVES. WHY WRITE? WHY WRITE BETTER?

Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good or evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to use them.  Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804−1864.

Writing is the basis for speaking and thinking; therefore, it is the basis for wealth, happiness, and leadership.  To wit:

Writing is far more than words on paper or in your computer; it is a permanent reflection of your thinking, your intelligence, your logic, and your abilities to explain complex ideas to yourself and to others. As such, it determines your future in commerce probably more than any other skill. Think of your writing this way: muddy thinking yields muddy writing, and vice versa: Muddy writing displays muddy thinking. You don’t need that.

Writing better than your peers puts you in the lead for promotion or for success as an entrepreneur, as explained below. It also makes you a better speaker, your more public display of your intelligence.

The rewards far outstrip the efforts, and they permeate every part of your life. If you aren’t convinced of that, please read my book, The Power of Being Articulate.

To be more specific, good writers are:

More productive simply because they know and can expeditiously apply the techniques of good sending and receiving, and, therefore, more quickly become practitioners.  Productivity continues to rise for these folks in a never-ending circle as they realize that their sending and receiving are improving. Receivers realize it too and compliment the senders, and senders become more confident of their abilities to express their thoughts and want to send more. One inevitable result: practitioners  become more valuable contributors to their own wealth and happiness and to the success of any organization from families to giant corporations, and are ...

More promotable since they display their intelligence via their words. Most of us automatically label folks who mangle the language as not too bright, and label those who express themselves clearly and concisely as impressive or brilliant.

The Wall Street Journal, in a special issue of September 9, 2002 that is as relevant now as it was then, reported that ...employees  may get by on their technical and quantitative skills for the first few years out of school, but soon leadership and communications skills come to the fore in distinguishing managers whose careers really take off.

Good practitioners also tend to be ...

More creative since most of us think more in words and less in numbers or pictures. We connect known concepts in words to create new concepts—the essence of creativity—and the more words we know the meanings of and can use the more creative we can be. Practitioners also  are ...

More respected since they exploit the techniques of writing to cleanse their thoughts of irrelevancies; they are insightful and it shows in their words.

The personal benefits of good writing trickle up, down, and sideways in every organization from families to businesses to governments to create tangible benefits that accrue to everyone involved. They are:

More profitable and efficient via higher productivity of employees/members.[1]

More competitive and sustainable via more creative responses to requests from clients, members, and associates.

More directed via clear leadership, as I point out later.

The bottom line is perhaps expressed most succinctly by John Yasinsky, former EVP of Westinghouse and former CEO of GenCorp.: I am totally convinced that articulation, expressed most often in good writing, is the tiebreaker in everyone’s professional, financial, and personal lives. In other words, they are wealthier, happier, and better leaders; their organizations are more productive, profitable, and their brands more identifiable.

Others have expressed the same thought throughout history. A sampling:

A mighty thing is eloquence...nothing so much rules the world. Pope Pius II. 1405—1464.

The pen is mightier than the sword. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and poet. 1803—1873.

Words are, of course, the most powerful drugs used by mankind. Rudyard Kipling, English author. 1865—1936.

YOUR  PATH TO WEALTH AND  HAPPINESS IS PAVED WITH YOUR WORDS

You, the sender/receiver→ good writer/listener → more promotable, productive, profitable/efficient.

Writing reflects your intelligence, your #1 asset, so: 

  know your subject and what you want to say about

  say it clearly, concisely, on-point.

As a result, you inevitably become:

  More promotable

  your intelligence is displayed and applauded. 

  More productive, as will your

  receivers, including your boss, clients, family, firm, organization.

  More profitable/efficient, as will your

  family, firm, organization.

CHAPTER II: LIVE THE EIGHT EVERYDAY HABITS OF SUCCESSFUL SENDERS

Become an analytical receiver; when you do, you will be a more analytical sender.

No less a writer than Ernest Hemingway said that the first prerequisite for being a writer is to develop a built-in, infallible, s**t detector—which literally demands that you be a careful, attentive, empathic listener.  I start you on that road with my before-and-after examples, and then you must carry the ball. Edit everything that you hear and read, no matter how trivial, to develop the habit. Then edit everything that you write and say, and watch your sendings of all types improve. It’s fun and profitable; trust me.  You can start with this book; surely you can find places to improve it and you’ll let me know.

Always meet the eight definitions of ‘good’; they’re your goals.

Good writing is defined by its characteristics. It is:

Clear: your words are understood at first careful reading or hearing; they cannot be misunderstood.

Concise: you’ve used only the words and thoughts needed to meet your  purpose(s) and those of your receivers. Not too brief, not too wordy; either causes the tag games that erode productivity.

Purposeful, aka on-point or focused:  Every sending has a job to do, and, in the broadest sense, it is always to influence receivers to act or behave in new ways, usually in ways that benefit senders and receivers. (Please see APPENDIX I for a detailed discussion of the techniques of influencing.) The purpose of non-fiction in business is always to buy your gizmo or service; in fiction, it’s to buy your book or story to entertain; in politics (a form of fiction) it’s always to be elected. I guarantee that knowing your purpose will create a sending that gallops to its point most quickly and dramatically (your ‘hook’) and will keep you on-point; you will be most clear and concise on what is important and what isn’t. 

Good writing is defined by its results. It:

Raises profitability by one to ten percent of sales, based on my informal survey of some twenty