Peer to Peer Magazine

79 WWW.ILTANET.ORG Tips on How To Improve Your Writing THE WORD ON WORDS things, and the devil-may-care informality inherent in its use inspires us not to worry about typos and grammatical slips and bloated phrases, even as we use it to develop business, assuage clients and convince regulatory agencies. Remember that each of us has three vocabularies: Our reading or comprehension vocabulary — by far the largest; Our writing vocabulary — in the middle; and Our speaking vocabulary — the smallest and least grammatical. When speaking, we use, and tolerate — to a point — others using, ers and uhs and sos and wells and likes, and confusing who with whom and lay with lie because most of us can't think fast enough when we speak to get it all grammatically correct; plus we have tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language to help us communicate. Our writing must be more precise than our speech because we have only words to convey our meaning. Email is a weird hybrid existing between speaking and writing. Because email is closer to "chaing," its ephemeral nature encourages us to write loosely, informally, sometimes carelessly and ungrammatically, even on important maers to business recipients. That's where the tension lies: While we're "chaing," those recipients are judging our emails — and us — by the far stricter standards of "writing." If we are to use email to connect with colleagues and clients, we must understand that tension between what is forgivable when we "chat" and what is expected when we "write," then err on the side of precision. For the next three issues of Peer to Peer, we will explore how to communicate through email, from addressing to editing to signing off. Enjoy your summer, and stay tuned for Guess Who's Coming to Email (Act II of IV). P2P GARY KINDER Gary Kinder is a lawyer and New York Times best-selling 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." Contact Gary at garyk@wordrake.com. RANDI MAYES 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. Contact Randi at randi@iltanet.org. Enjoy Gary's humor and expertise on a regular basis by by subscribing to his Weekly Writing Tips at www.wordrake. com/writing-tips. Find exercises and other writing tips on Randi's blog at connect.iltanet. org/blogs/randi- mayes. 1 2 3

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