Circumvent a few writers’ pitfalls, bad habits and erroneous assumptions. Follow these random guidelines to achieve clear, effective writing.

• Organize yourself to move through a writing project efficiently.
• Devise a system for highlighting and indexing notes from interviews and research. Review everything and let your subconscious work with the material for hours or even days. Identify key messages. Create an outline detailed enough to suit your needs. Sit down and write the first draft without self-editing too much. Let it “gel” for a while. Review the piece and self edit for content, grammar and punctuation before presenting it to others.

• A sentence is not a kitchen sink. Neither is a paragraph nor an article, for that matter.
• For the greatest reader comprehension, focus an article on one main idea. Explore smaller, supporting ideas in each paragraph. Limit sentences to explaining no more than two aspects of an idea each.

• Take your time with every statement.
• Creative, tight prose often takes longer to write than clichéd, wordy prose.

• Opt for the active voice.
• Steer clear of the passive voice whenever possible.
• Avoid: Wizco’s carbon footprint was reduced 20 percent last year by employee telecommuting.
• Better: Employee telecommuting reduced Wizco’s carbon footprint 20 percent last year.

• Be brave! Resist corporate-speak and corporate clichés.
• Weigh your decision based on clear communication. Too many terms cloud crucial messages. But if a term summarizes something complex, define it and then use it judiciously.
• Appearing on the ever-expanding list of corporate-speak terms are: going green, managing change, communicating change, advocating change, action item, business solutions, staffing solutions, integrated solutions, to leverage, bandwidth, strategic planning, synergies, fostering teamwork, fostering change, to empower, seamless integration, best practices, paradigm shifts, granular, cutting edge, corporate impact, customer-driven, to incentivize, to interface, to facilitate, to utilize, tasking, benchmarking, team player, to level the playing field, best-of-breed, making the business case, performance management, system administration, deliverables, to leverage assets, synopsize, mission-critical, price-optimize, critical path, target completion date.

• Make quotes work hard.
• Instead of repeating previously stated factual information or using the predictable response, choose a quote that reveals something provocative or takes the subject in a new direction.

• Avoid gender-specific pronouns in general references, but use “their” only in the plural form.
• This situation is one of the English language’s shortcomings. Using his/her is awkward. And using “their” when you mean “his” or “her” is wrong, too. Instead, structure sentences in the plural form.
• Avoid: The employee who loves his or her job will thrive.
• Better: Employees who love their jobs will thrive.
• Avoid: Be sure that each employee has responsibilities that are appropriate for their position.
  
• Better: Be sure that employees have responsibilities that are appropriate for their position.

• Observe subject-verb agreement with “there is” and “there are.”
• Avoid: There's three Austin Healys and two Maseratis in her sports-car collection.
• Better: There are three Austin Healys and two Maseratis in her sports-car collection.

• Understand the difference between essential and non-essential clauses.
• Use “that” for essential clauses (those that necessarily define a subject); use “which” for non-essential clauses (those that would not alter the sentence's meaning if they were deleted).
• Avoid: Lunch meetings which Chez Pierre caters are always well attended.
• Better: Lunch meetings that Chez Pierre caters are always well attended.
• Avoid: Achieving the perfect risotto that is tender and slightly creamy depends on constant stirring and the gradual addition of hot broth and wine.
• Better: Achieving the perfect risotto, which is tender and slightly creamy, depends on constant stirring and the gradual addition of hot broth and wine.

• Know who does what to whom.
• This one gets lots of people. “Who” is a subject. “Whom” is an object receiving the action of a verb.
• Avoid: The shareholders disagreed as to whom should lead the company.
• Better: The shareholders disagreed as to who should lead the company. (“Who” is the subject because it “should lead.” Put the statement in question form to check: “Who should lead the company?” is correct. “Whom should lead the company?” is incorrect.)
• Avoid: Jane Smith is the woman who I want to lead the company.
• Better: Jane Smith is the woman whom I want to lead the company. (Smith is receiving the action of “I want,” so it’s “whom.”)

• We would make fewer mistakes if we understood more about “less.”
• Use “less” when describing collective amounts. Use “fewer” when describing individual objects.
• Avoid: Less people today drive SUVs, given higher gas prices. (“People” are individual entities. Note how you use plural verbs with “people.”)
• Better: Fewer people today drive SUVs, given higher gas prices.
• Better: Less SUV traffic on the roads today could be attributed to higher gas prices. (“Traffic” is a collective noun. Note how you use singular verbs with this noun: Traffic gets my goat.)

• It’s its, or is it?
• The apostrophe is never used in the possessive form with “its.” It’s only used when you intend to say “it is.”
  
• Avoid: As for the stray dog, it’s fur is full of fleas.
• Better: As for the stray dog, its fur is full of fleas.
• Avoid: Its high time we get an espresso machine in the break room.
• Better: It’s high time we get an espresso machine in the break room.

• Periods go inside quotes.
• In the United States, journalistic and corporate writing style calls for putting periods inside quotation marks.
• Avoid: Buzz was known as the procurement department’s “go-to guy”.
• Better: Buzz was known as the procurement department’s “go-to guy.”
• Avoid: Desiree was known for confidently stating, “I’ll own this company one day”.
• Better: Desiree was known for confidently stating, “I’ll own this company one day.”

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