During my extensive networking efforts of the last several months, an age-old communications reality has once again come into focus: people typically know want they want to say, but they’re not so sure how to write it and make it sound good.

“I can sell you a great bar code management system but don’t ask me to create a resume,” says the curly-headed sales team leader.

“I have a hard enough time writing a post-it note, never mind all this social media muddle” adds the astute accountant.

“Yeah,” agrees the bespectacled logistics analyst. “I’m used to numbers and data, not flowing sentences and fancy descriptions.”

For these people and any interested others, I offer the following writing guidelines.

Coming from a writing and broadcasting background, I’m used to interacting daily with people who have an extraordinary gift for written and verbal communications. They relish playing with words and making them sing. But the truth is that’s just one God-given gift in a world full of God-given gifts. On one hand, it accomplishes a great deal. On the other hand, it doesn’t fix your car’s brakes, it can’t discover a cure for cancer, and it won’t put food on store shelves.
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