What’s the best way to improve your writing? Walk away!

Patrice and Jake explore the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve. Photo by Michael Baum.

Here’s my favorite business writing tip: Write your first draft, taking time to re-read the copy and give it a good polish.

Next, walk away for an hour – or a day!

What do you get?
Perspective and objectivity.

Walking away helps to give you distance – literally and figuratively! When you come back, you’ll take a fresh look at the content you wrote. You’ll be surprised how much perspective and objectivity you will gain.

What do you do next? Edit to ensure content is crisp, clear, and compelling.

Now, go back to your writing. Pretend someone else wrote the content. Put on your editor’s hat. It’s time to edit ruthlessly!

Follow this 10-point checklist to edit your content:

1. Make sure there’s a clear benefit message. (Readers should quickly understand why they want to invest their limited time to read your content. What will they learn? Don’t make them guess!)
2. Write a more enticing headline.
3. Ensure every sentence is as clear as possible.
4. Check to ensure the overall structure makes sense. (For example, if you’re writing a case study, have you presented before/after events in chronological order?)
5. Add subheads to strengthen structure.
6. Trim the word count.
7. Add SEO keywords.
8. Proof to fix spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.
9. Fact-check as necessary.
10. Add a call-to-action at the end.

More on this business writing tip . . .

• Why do I consider this to be the best business writing tip EVER? Because “walking away” can help you to objectively look at and edit your article, blog post, worksheet, brochure, and book. Do this every time, and you WILL improve your writing – and your message.
• When editing, I like to print out the page(s). Surprisingly, reading a piece of paper – versus staring at the screen – adds even more perspective and objectivity.
• Also, when editing, I like to use a red pen. If you find red ink daunting (perhaps you’re haunted by harsh teachers wielding red pens), then use green, purple, blue, or black. The color doesn’t matter. What matters is taking time to thoroughly – and ruthlessly – edit your content.

In a nutshell, here’s why this is my favorite business writing tip …

When you walk away – then come back later to ruthlessly edit your writing – your content will be crisp, clear, and compelling.