Making Your Writing Memorable

By Deb Rolfes, Market Development Strategist

In the blog age it seems like everyone has something to say, and that’s great (unless you’re Andrew Keen, guest speaker at SHSMD 2008), but it also means that people who don’t necessarily consider themselves writers are now writing for the public to read. Some tend to write with a thesaurus, just trying to stump their reader. Others seem to forget their point and go off on tangents. 

And all of this made me recall a book, The Sharper Mind by Fred B. Chernow, on how to make your writing better. Thought we could all use a refresher.  I quickly zeroed in on Chapter Five, “Making Others Remember What You Say and Write.” In many businesses, professional and sometimes even personal settings, we are asked to write marketing copy for brochures, proposals, scope documents, press releases and blog posts. So why not refresh our writing skills with some tips and hints from Mr. Chernow.

Most of the tips are refreshers from training we’ve all been exposed to:

1. Identify the purpose of the writing -are you educating, persuading, or simply recording (as in meeting minutes)?
2. Identify your audience -will it be your colleagues, sales prospects, parents, or donors that will be reading your writing?
3. Choose the right form to deliver your message – is it via a snail mail letter, email, blog post, post card, etc.?

Chernow describes the cardinal rule for writing as the way the reader will remember; it is good conversation in print. Memorable conversations, like memorable writing, share the following characteristics:

• They were pleasant.
• The other people were easy to talk to, or easy to read.
• The language used was familiar and not difficult to understand.
• The other people did not put on airs or in any way make the listener or reader feel intimidated.
• The speaker or author came to the point and did not beat around the bush.
• They ended on a positive note.

The bottom line is readers want clear, simple writing that conveys its message and has no hidden agenda.

So, how did I do? Was my blog to the point? Pleasant? I know I didn’t use difficult language, and if something was hard to understand it was Chernow’s fault not mine.  See, now I even made it memorable.

Just remember, when you set out to write think about your audience and try to make what you say clear and memorable.