Put It In Writing

By Albert Joseph

PUT IT IN WRITING, by Albert Joseph, is the most widely used business writing book in the English-speaking world. Mention the course at AT&T, Boeing, General Motors, Ford, or any number of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, and thousands of their employees will agree that it put them on the way to a better job or career.

In the corporate sector, AT&T alone trained more than 60,000 engineers, scientists, sales executives, and upper management employees through PUT IT IN WRITING. Thousands more were trained at Ford, General Motors, Shell Oil, and DuPont.

In the U.S. Government, thousands were trained at the Social Security Administration and Comptroller of the Currency. The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) made the book a requirement. Says the California Franchise Tax Board: “Managers applaud PUT IT IN WRITING because it enhances the image of our employees. Employees like it because it makes it easier for them to do their jobs well. Get this book any way you can!"

PUT IT IN WRITING tries to undo the damage colleges have done to our students in English classrooms. Even though our colleges graduate hundreds of thousands of brilliant people every year, the ability to write clearly, concisely, and professionally has almost become a lost art.

The hallmark of the corporate training world for decades, PUT IT IN WRITING is now available for the first time as an eBook. And it also includes Mr. Joseph’s best-selling Executive Guide to Grammar, a fast-paced, enjoyable way to learn about an admittedly boring topic. It’s a grammar book with an attitude: as the subtitle says, “no one needs to know what a gerund is except someone taking a test asking what a gerund is.”
Albert Joseph almost certainly taught more people to write than any educator who ever lived. He believed that "your job is to tell as much as possible, as clearly and accurately as possible, in as little reading as possible." In 1972, Mr. Joseph co-founded the Plain Talk movement in Washington, D.C., a consumer advocacy group that was instrumental in getting approval for state laws requiring clearly worded legal documents. The organization still exists today.

PUT IT IN WRITING is a must have for any ambitious, intelligent person who realizes the importance of written communication as a key to success and a key to a good job.

Read these fantastic reviews!
“Joseph’s grammar is approachable, his reasons for caretaking clear”—Christian Science Monitor
“An attractive, informative, useful, and even entertaining book”—National Council for Teachers of English
“An invaluable reference...our review copy is going in between Webster’s and Roget’s”—Training Magazine
“As a teacher of business writing and a grammar maven, I sigh with envy to know that he, not I, wrote this terrific resource” —Robert E. Kelley

• Language: English
• Publisher: Albert Joseph
• Release date: Dec 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301232567

Albert Joseph

The authors career encompassed over 35 years as a Civil Engineer, during the course of which he authored several hundred technical proposals, letters and reports. After his disability in 2008, the author decided to pursue his passion for writing and sharing jokes, reaching out to a broader audience.

Book preview

Put It In Writing

By Albert Joseph

Fourth Edition

Copyright 2012, Albert Joseph and International Writing Institute, Inc.

All rights reserved

No parts of this book may be reproduced without written permission

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Published by International Writing Institute, Inc.

Electronic adaptation by www.StunningBooks.com

Read these fantastic reviews!

An invaluable reference…our review copy is going in between Webster’s and Roget’s

—Training Magazine

Joseph’s grammar is approachable, his reasons for caretaking clear

—Christian Science Monitor

An attractive, informative, useful, and even entertaining book

—National Council for Teachers of English

As a teacher of business writing and a grammar maven, I sigh with envy to know that he, not I, wrote this terrific resource

—Robert E. Kelley

There are no special kinds of writing...

You've got to look at it this way: There is only one English language and the principles for using it effectively are the same, regardless the subject. In that sense, there are no special kinds of writing. If the subject is technical, it is technical writing. The same for financial, or legal, or any other kind. There is just writing.  And the things that make it easy to read and understand are the same—regardless the subject.

Albert Joseph

To the Reader

This book has four major objectives: Clarity, Speed, Image, and Correct Grammar.

By the time you have finished this book you should be able to write more clearly—so clearly your reader cannot possibly misunderstand your message. You should be able to write faster—perhaps twice as fast in many cases—without wasting time fumbling over false starts and rewrites. And you should be able to present your valuable ideas in a way that pleases the reader and presents a pleasant, dignified image of you and your organization.

Furthermore, you should achieve these goals with no sacrifice in the accuracy, dignity, or detail of what you write.

Your writing should also gain considerable beauty, if you care about that, for the same characteristics of language that make writing clear also give it beauty. In addition, this book should make you a better reader, speaker, and listener. Especially your reading should improve, for knowing how to recognize and analyze weaknesses in writing will surely help you overcome those weaknesses as you read.

The book is divided into three sections. In the first section, you will learn how to write more clearly. We will give you six principles of clear writing. We will explode some widespread taboos—bad advice about writing that you probably learned some time in your life. And we will give you a simple and famous formula by which you can measure how easy (or hard) your writing is to read.

The second section will deal with organizing. You will learn how to organize your reports and letters based on the reader's needs. You will learn how to get started, how to beat the deadline, how to avoid sexism, some special advice for letters, and how to review and edit the writing of others. We will also examine how computers can (and cannot) help in the writing process.

The third section will deal with grammar.  Grammar is, basically, a set of rules for using language, and most of these rules regulate the arrangement of words and punctuation marks between one capital letter and its accompanying period. Therefore, this section ties together the concepts you learned above and allows you to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and effortlessly go about the important task of getting your message across clearly and with precision.

After each section, please try to apply the principles in your writing on the job as soon as you can. You should be able to notice improvement immediately after the first section. ABOVE ALL, REMEMBER: Language is a transportation system for ideas—nothing more.  A means to an end, not an end in itself. That is true whether you are writing a business report or the great American novel.

Your purpose is to convey to your reader as much information as possible, as clearly and accurately as possible, in as little reading as possible. That is the only reason you write. It is the only reason cultures create language. Remember, too, that throughout this book you can mentally substitute typing for writing, text or email for letter, and the screen on your electronic device-of-choice for paper and/or page.  

AJ

Cleveland, Ohio 2012

Table of Contents

Section One—On Clarity

Clarity—Your First Objective

Speed—Your Second Objective

Image—Your Third Objective

Why People Write Poorly

Six Principles of Clear Writing

Principle 1: Prefer Clear, Familiar Words

Principle 2: Keep Most Sentences Short and Simple

Principle 3: Prefer Active Voice Verbs; Avoid Passives

Principle 4: Get People into Your Writing

Principle 5: Use a Conversational Style

Principle 6: Gather All Your Information before You Start Writing

The Five Taboos

How Important Is Brevity?

Measuring Your Clarity

The Gunning Fog Index

On Official Tone

On Legal Writing

On Scientific Writing

Before You Begin Section Two...

Section Two—On Organizing

The Best Advice Ever on Organizing

The Inverted Pyramid

A Recommended Format for Formal Writing

The Inverted Pyramid's One Disadvantage

How to Outsmart the Deadline

Guidelines for Politically Correct Writing

Paragraph Structuring

Ways to Add Emphasis

Reviewing and Editing the Writing of Others

A Warning about Word Processing Programs

Section Three— Grammar

Why Does It Matter Whether You Follow Rules, If People Understand You?

The Eight Parts Of Speech

Do You Really Know the Eight Parts of Speech?

Phrases and Clauses:  Building Words into Ideas

Nonrestrictive or Restrictive

A Clause Is…

Independent or Dependent?

Nonrestrictive or Restrictive? (Part Two)

CLAUSES USED AS ADJECTIVES:

CLAUSES USED AS ADVERBS:

CLAUSES USED AS NOUNS:

The Noble English Sentence

The Simple Sentence

Syntax: The Art of Making Sentences Effective

Punctuation

The Bread and Butter Marks

The Elegant Punctuation Marks

The Common Mistakes

Dangling Participles

Subject Verb Disagreement

Noun Pronoun Disagreement

The Missing Second Comma

Commonly Misused Words

Glossary of Grammar Terms

About This Book

Section One

On Clarity

Clarity, Speed, and Image: Your Primary Objectives

The Six Principles of Clear Writing

Changing Some Old Attitudes

The Five Taboos

How Important Is Brevity?

Measuring Your Clarity

The Gunning Fog Index on Official Tone

The Tone of Your Writing

The source of bad writing is the desire to be something more than a person of sense—the straining to be thought a genius. If people would only say what they have to say in plain terms, how much more eloquent they would be.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

English poet, famous for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Clarity—Your First Objective

The first thing we ask of the language is clarity—that it transfers our ideas to our readers clearly, accurately, and efficiently—so the message received is the one that was sent.

Of course, we can also paint beautiful word pictures with language, through literature and poetry. But even then, the author of the poem or novel tries to get some point across. You have done your job as a writer, as the sender in the communications link, only when your ideas are so clear that your reader, the receiver, cannot possibly misunderstand them.

Toward the end of this chapter I will be introduce you to a mathematical formula, the Gunning Fog Index, which measures the clarity of writing.

Most people have a tendency to overcomplicate. Perhaps because they do not really know (nobody ever taught them) what makes good writing, they try to sound as scholarly as possible. In the process, they may destroy the ideas they are trying to transmit. This is a major problem in business, industry, and government agencies.  

Here is an example of what can go wrong. This is what we mean when we say readers do not receive ideas accurately when you write in an overcomplicated or academic style. This is an actual piece of writing from the files of a government agency.

Technical assistance to institutional administrative staffs is authorized in determination of the availability and appropriate utilization of federal and state entitlements designating assistance in resolution of problems occasioned by requirements of handicapped children.   (33 words)

What does that say? We defy you to figure it out. Here is what the author meant:

We can help your staff determine if federal or state funds are available to help meet the needs of handicapped children. We can also help you plan how best to use those funds.   (33 words, perfectly clear)

It isn’t likely that any reader would get that message, no matter how hard he or she worked at it. The original passage may sound dazzling, but it does not communicate. No Aha! moment occurs. An important idea is broadcast but not received,.  

That is not enough. Communication does not take place until the idea has been received accurately. And your job as a writer is to do whatever is necessary to be received accurately.

The Penguin Joke

A truck delivering a load of penguins broke down on the way to the zoo. The day was hot, and the driver was aware that his precious cargo could not last long without air conditioning.  He ran to the street, flagged down the first empty truck that passed, explained the emergency to the driver, and quickly transferred little darlings to the good truck.  Then he handed the other driver $50 and instructed: Take these penguins to the zoo.  Later, his truck fixed, the first driver headed back to the garage.  As he passed an amusement park, he saw penguins everywhere on all the rides, even standing in line for food.  He slammed on the brakes, ran into the park and found the other driver, pushed him against the nearest wall and yelled, I told you to take them to the zoo!  I gave you $50 and said, ‘Take these penguins to the zoo’ And the other driver said, I did. And we had money left over, so I brought’em here!"

The moral of this story?  No matter how clear you try to be, someone will find a way to misunderstand (And if you don’t try to be clear, everyone will misunderstand

Speed—Your Second Objective

Most people take far too long to write. A complicated style slows you down. As an example, just examine this passage from a company email:

from other cities in advance. All meetings will be in the conference room except   Tuesday, June 28, which will be in the main cafeteria. Management has become cognizant of the necessity for the elimination of undesirable vegetation surrounding the periphery of our facility. (19 words)

Compare that with what the writer really wanted to say:

from other cities in advance. All meetings will be in the conference room except Tuesday, June 28, which will be in the main cafeteria. Please kill the weeds around the building. (7 words, perfectly clear)

We admit this example is exaggerated. But the overcomplicated style usually uses about twice as many words as necessary—sometimes even more. That means twice as many words you must put on paper and twice as many head scratches for your readers. Whether you write them or type them, twice as many words means twice as long getting them recorded. Then consider this: Management has become cognizant of the necessity for the elimination of undesirable vegetation surrounding the periphery of our facility. Those words do not come naturally. You must sit and wrestle with the words and with the sentence you will construct of them.  This also slows you down.

But again, that awful passage meant Please kill the weeds around the building. Those words come naturally; they are easy to write.

For those two reasons—the extra words and the extra time it takes to structure them—the unnecessarily complex style wastes your time and your readers’. Most intelligent adults should be able to write twice as fast as they do—perhaps even faster. That is the second objective of this book.

Image—Your Third Objective

Whether they should or not, people judge you all your life by the way you use your language, just as they judge you by the way you look. More and more today, your contact with others is through writing, which includes emails, texts, and tweets. To influence others, you must first have valuable ideas. But that itself is not enough. The way you express those ideas will have much to do in determining whether your reader accepts them with confidence.

If your reader is your subordinate, we are describing an aspect of leadership. If he or she is your boss, it is persuasiveness. If you are writing to a customer, this same characteristic is an important part of selling.

Career advancement is at stake. It is no accident that the outstanding leaders in business and industry, government, the arts—in fact in all fields—are excellent communicators. That is how important writing is to your career. It is probably your second most important skill, regardless what field you are in. It is reasonable to assume that several times in your life your ability to write will make a difference in the advancement of your career.  It may have done so already.

Why People Write Poorly

What causes people to write so often in that overcomplicated style we have described? You may write that way yourself. The odds favor it to some degree. There are four common reasons for this bad habit:

Honestly misguided.  The first reason is quite innocent: Most people write in that complex style because we honestly think it is the correct way to write. Who can blame us? We see it all around us on the job. We have probably been encouraged to write that way in college, especially at the graduate level. We have also read a lot that is hard to understand on the