Okay, so you have to turn in a big proposal or strategy document. You sit down and you labor for hours writing the thing. You condense your points, you support your thoughts with data and the whole piece comes together as a hefty two by four of your business savvy. Then you hit ‘print’ and are done.
WRONG! After your content is tight you should take at least half as much time designing and formatting your final draft as you did writing it. It never ceases to amaze me how many original, fast-thinking thoughts get documented using Times. Or Arial. For shame! Granted, these fonts are classics but you can find comparable and much more original-looking serif and san serif fonts out there. Grab fonts that will help support the voice of your writing.
What? I mean that your final document should look and sound like it came from you. Too often an over emphasis on business writing results in sterile text that reads like an instructional manual. Throw caution to the wind. Bend grammar rules like some copywriters (myself included!) do under the logic of “it’s necessary for marketing – it should sound like real people talk.” Guess what? Your report should sound like you talk. Don’t be afraid. To. Pause. And. Break. Things. Up. For. Emphasis. (That reads like William Shatner talks.) Embrace fragments and other imperfections if it reads more like you!
Once the voice of your piece is covered, play with the fonts and spacing. Don’t ug it up too much (consult a designer friend if you’re uncomfortable with this) but if you have a main point that’s a kicker, put it in caps. Or bold. Or bump the font size up to 36.
Check out any of Tom Peters’ books for a perfect illustration of written words that paint the speaker’s voice. (If you’ve heard Peters’ speak you’ll see in a sec that his newer books like Re-imagine! are spot on. If you don’t already have a resolution for this year, please read any of Tom’s books!!)
The Point? Any document you present, whether internally in the form of strategy docs and board presentations or external proposals, speak your words. The ante gets upped when the doc alone has to speak for you (without you present to glean key facts from it). The Point Even More Finely Whittled — The documents you crank out are a tremendous opportunity to say something about your personal brand. Don’t take it for granted.
