Peer to Peer Magazine

WWW.ILTANET.ORG 85 We will help you produce clearer, more concise reports, proposals, emails, blogs, website copy, press releases and engagement letters — all written communication aimed at others within and outside the firm. Our mission is to help you impress others that you are smart, competent and reliable; because getting it right on paper enhances your reputation in everything else you do. Now let's get real. Thursday morning when the dishwasher leaks across the kitchen floor, and you've got 20 people coming for Thanksgiving dinner, do you comb the Internet looking for a plumber who knows the difference between "that" and "which?" No, but think about this: If that plumber can't string together two grammatical sentences, we sometimes wonder if he did a good job with the plumbing. Weird, isn't it? No connection whatsoever, yet that's the way people often think. We lose confidence. You might be brilliant in IT, HR, marketing, training or administration, but when you try to communicate, if your user interface is not clear and concise, you seem less brilliant. It's the impression. So you have two reputations to protect: the firm's and your own. With our new column, we will help you protect both. We don't care how much you write, how little you write or how well you write; we will show you how to use words appropriately, how to persuade, how to organize, how to punctuate, how to find and delete the words that add no meaning to a sentence: We will show you how to improve your writing and enhance your reputation. Because when we get it right (and the smart people around us know that many people don't get it right), it impresses them, and they think, "This person is smart. She must be a great systems analyst." Here's one simple idea to get us started. Put people in your sentences. It enlivens your writing. We are amazed at how many professionals work hard to avoid using even one word that refers to a person. Things get attached, enclosed, completed, performed and worked on without one person in sight. It's as if robots do half of the business in this country. Or magic. Gary Kinder is a lawyer and New York Times bestselling author. He has taught over 1,000 writing programs for the American Bar Association and for law firms and corporate law departments around the country. He is also the creator of WordRake, the clear and concise editing software, which Harvard Law School recently recognized as "Disruptive Innovation." Randi Mayes is the Executive Director of ILTA where she is responsible for oversight of all operations and serves as editor-in-chief of the association's numerous publications. A member of the American Society of Association Executives and the Texas Society of Association Executives, she has spoken and written on topics related to leadership development and association management. She's more than a little nuts about good writing. Instead of: Try: It has been a pleasure to . . . I have enjoyed . . . Steps are being taken . . . Rolf Rosenthal is working to . . . Our goal is to continually . . . We at Smith and Smith will continue . . . Quick progress has been made . . . Tamika has quickly progressed . . . It might not be necessary . . . You might not need to . . . The ILTA track will cover topics such as: • Data Privacy – Emerging Information Governance Challenges • Inhouse E-Discovery – Is It Right For You? • Managing Big Data to Reduce Costs • Mobilit y, Risk and Policy: The Triumvirate of Information Governance • IG Assessment for Law Firms ARMA Live! 59th Annual Conference & Expo October 26-28 in San Diego, CA Join us for the ILTA track at ARMA! find more information and register at arma.org/conference

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