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    Business Writing for Technical People: The most effective ways to get your message across
    Business Writing for Technical People: The most effective ways to get your message across
    Business Writing for Technical People: The most effective ways to get your message across
    Ebook137 pages1 hour

    Business Writing for Technical People: The most effective ways to get your message across

    By Carrie Marshall

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    About this ebook

    Business writing is all about effective communication and persuasion. Technically-minded people can struggle and many businesses get it wrong, losing their readers in avalanches of acronyms and jungles of technical jargon. It doesn’t have to be that way.

    In this book you’ll discover how to give your communication skills an upgrade, exploring the tips and tricks that will enable you to write effectively and persuasively for any audience. You’ll discover how to optimise your words for maximum impact, which terrible traps to avoid and how to make your expertise and enthusiasm even more infectious.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
    Release dateJul 6, 2018
    ISBN9781780174433
    Business Writing for Technical People: The most effective ways to get your message across
    Author

    Carrie Marshall

    Carrie is a writer, broadcaster and musician from Glasgow. She’s the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR, a familiar voice on BBC Radio Scotland and has been a regular contributor to all kinds of magazines, newspapers and websites for more than two decades. She has written, ghost-written or co-written more than a dozen non-fiction books, a radio documentary series, and more.

    Read more from Carrie Marshall

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    Book preview

    Business Writing for Technical People - Carrie Marshall

    BCS, THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE FOR IT

    BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, champions the global IT profession and the interests of individuals engaged in that profession for the benefit of all. We promote wider social and economic progress through the advancement of information technology science and practice. We bring together industry, academics, practitioners and government to share knowledge, promote new thinking, inform the design of new curricula, shape public policy and inform the public.

    Our vision is to be a world-class organisation for IT. Our 70,000 strong membership includes practitioners, businesses, academics and students in the UK and internationally. We deliver a range of professional development tools for practitioners and employees. A leading IT qualification body, we offer a range of widely recognised qualifications.

    Further Information

    BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT,

    First Floor, Block D,

    North Star House, North Star Avenue,

    Swindon, SN2 1FA, United Kingdom.

    T +44 (0) 1793 417 424

    F +44 (0) 1793 417 444

    www.bcs.org/contact

    http://shop.bcs.org/

    © BCS Learning & Development Ltd 2018

    The right of Carrie Marshall to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

    All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted by the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, except with the prior permission in writing of the publisher, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries for permission to reproduce material outside those terms should be directed to the publisher.

    All trade marks, registered names etc. acknowledged in this publication are the property of their respective owners. BCS and the BCS logo are the registered trade marks of the British Computer Society, charity number 292786 (BCS).

    Published by BCS Learning & Development Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, First Floor, Block D, North Star House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, SN2 1FA, UK.

    www.bcs.org

    Paperback ISBN: 978-1-78017-4457

    PDF ISBN: 978-1-78017-4426

    ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78017-4433

    Kindle ISBN: 978-1-78017-4440

    British Cataloguing in Publication Data.

    A CIP catalogue record for this book is available at the British Library.

    Disclaimer:

    The views expressed in this book are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute or BCS Learning & Development Ltd except where explicitly stated as such. Although every care has been taken by the author and BCS Learning & Development Ltd in the preparation of the publication, no warranty is given by the authors or BCS Learning & Development Ltd as publisher as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained within it and neither the authors nor BCS Learning & Development Ltd shall be responsible or liable for any loss or damage whatsoever arising by virtue of such information or any instructions or advice contained within this publication or by any of the aforementioned.

    BCS books are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sale promotions, or for use in corporate training programmes. Please visit our Contact Us page at www.bcs.org/contact

    Publisher’s acknowledgements

    Reviewers: Oliver Lindberg and Justin Richards

    Publisher: Ian Borthwick

    Commissioning Editor: Rebecca Youé

    Production Manager: Florence Leroy

    Project Manager: Sunrise Setting Ltd

    Cover work: Alex Wright

    Picture credits: Shutterstock/DenisProduction.com

    Typeset by Lapiz Digital Services, Chennai, India.

    CONTENTS

    About the author

    Preface

    1. WHAT IS BUSINESS WRITING?

    Why bad writing is bad news

    2. LEARNING TO WRITE WITHOUT FEAR

    Take your time

    Borrow bright ideas

    Key takeaways

    3. THINK BEFORE YOU INK

    Selling the sizzle: an IT example

    Lights, email, action!

    Key takeaways

    4. CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS

    Know your audience

    Pick your platform

    Hope for the best and plan for the worst

    Take a picture

    Key takeaways

    5. FIGHT THE FLAB

    Unnecessary expertise

    The passive voice and weak verbs

    Too many words

    Long sentences and endless paragraphs

    Showing off

    Clichés

    Woolly writing

    Take advice from George Orwell

    Key takeaways

    6. JUNK THE JARGON

    What is jargon?

    Bad buzz

    Why you should banish buzzwords and junk the jargon

    Key takeaways

    7. MAKE YOUR CASE

    How to win friends and influence people

    Writing presentations

    Three is the magic number

    It’s a shame about ROI

    How to present your business case for a large project

    ROI: plan for the best but try to predict the worst

    Key takeaways

    8. WRITING FOR ROBOTS: BUSINESS WRITING FOR THE INTERNET

    Writing for Google

    SEO: how to do it the right way

    TL;DR

    What to do about long documents

    Writing for email newsletters

    Someone invented a new way to get readers; you’ll never guess what happens next!

    Key takeaways

    9. BE YOUR OWN AUDIENCE

    Let go of your ego

    Simplicity

    Brevity

    Accuracy

    Effectiveness

    Key takeaways

    10. COMMUNICATING GOODWILL AND DELIVERING BAD NEWS

    Goodwill hunting

    Now for the bad news

    Key takeaways

    11. WHAT TO DO WHEN THE WORDS WON’T COME

    Have a deadline

    Break it into bits

    Write an outline

    Don’t start at the start

    Don’t stop

    Forget about perfect

    Have a KitKat

    Go and do something else

    Key takeaways

    12. THE BUSINESS WRITING HOUSE OF HORRORS

    Aviva accidentally fires its entire workforce

    Elop needs some helop

    Proof that spell

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