If you’re stuck, shut down the word doc you’re working on and start again, from scratch, in an email (putting the name of a close friend in the “To:” field can help). —Matt Weston —Write how you speak (Business Bricks)
While I don’t think the adage “write how you speak” applies universally, it makes good sense in the context within which Weston presents it (on a website for small business owners), and at any rate this e-mail suggestion is a good tactic.
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My sense is that the audience for the Business Bricks is small business owners who are probably good at talking, but who tend to get bogged down — either in marketese or annual-reportese — when trying to do routine written communication tasks.
As an academic, I’m used to communicating on one level to my students, and on another level to my professional peers, so I think I’ve developed a variable approach to complexity that serves me pretty well.
Is writing as you speak different from reading papers aloud? I remember that as something Dennis suggested for me to do when I work on a paper, which is extremely helpful when I write papers in graduate school, since talking through a point helps me control flow and tone better.