Writing with Confidence that’s Contagious to Your Reader

How confident should mission-based writing be? You need to make your reader feel confident in your work and in you, even when you may be writing about things you are unsure of, like what you can do with funding you’re not at all sure you will be awarded. How do you balance your fear of over-promising with the need to promise enough to entice participation and support? Does it sound like vain assumption to write like you are sure your work will be funded, or does it sound insecure to write like you’re not sure? If you come off either too insecure or too vain, then no matter how well you demonstrate the merits of your work, you will turn people off and won’t be successful.

Let’s start by thinking about what it looks like to write too humbly. How many words or phrases do you see in the example below that express uncertainty?

Birch Park is just a small wildlife refuge with a few educational programs, but we believe that if you decide to fund us, we should be able to maintain our paths and clean up litter every week or so. We will also try to start keeping records of some of the species in the park, so that we might be able to tell if their populations decline, and then see if we can help them.

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There’s Not Enough Room! 6 Tips to Edit Shorter Without Cutting Content

Ever notice how it’s often harder and more time-consuming to write something short than to write something long? When you’re not worried about length, you can just say everything you want to, but when space is limited, you have to edit over and over to say it all in less space. Whether you’re agonizing over how to fit into word or character counts in a grant proposal, make your one-pager really one page, or write website copy short enough that visitors will actually read it, here are 6 tips to cut length without cutting content.

1. Orient yourself to the type of length limit you have

  • Character Counts – Your goal is to use fewer and shorter words and fewer punctuation marks.
  • Word Counts – Your goal is to use fewer words, which could mean using some longer words and increasing the character count; you don’t need to worry about punctuation.
  • Space Constraints – Your goal is to cut the number of lines, which can mean cutting words or characters from one line, so you can bring up words from a line below and ultimately cut a line. This can also mean reordering words to place longer ones on a line that does not go all the way to end, so you can shorten the line below and eliminate the line below that.

 

2. Switch to shorter or fewer words and phrases that convey the same meaning.

Original sentence:

Many families do not make enough income to always feel confident that they will not find their cupboards bare and their wallets empty when their next paycheck is still days away from arriving.

208 characters, 33 words, 3 lines

Shortened by using fewer and shorter words:

Many families with low incomes live in fear of running out of food and the money to buy more.

94 characters, 19 words, 1 line

Shortened to use fewer words only. This version uses fewer words, but more characters and lines.

Many families with low incomes continually fear running out of both food and money for buying more.

99 characters, 17 words, 2 lines

 

3. Restructure sentences to remove less meaningful words.

Often, the first way you write a sentence is not the shortest way it could be written. Think about how you could restructure or reorder the sentence to remove conjunctions, linking words, forms of the verb “to be,” and/or or repetition.

Original Sentence:

To mitigate hunger in our area, our program provides services to people who are facing food insecurity; these services are free and include giving people food and information about nutrition, as well as providing them with referrals to other services that can help them to meet their basic needs.

297 characters, 49 words, 4 lines

Shortened by cutting unnecessary words:

Our program mitigates local hunger by serving people facing food insecurity with free food, nutrition information, and referrals to other basic needs services.

159 characters, 23 words, 2 lines

 

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How to Organize Your Writing: Quick Tips
that Illustrate Their Own Points

Most people probably don’t think very deeply about this topic, but the choice you make will affect your readers’ experience of your writing. Whether you want to organize complex items or emphasize simple ones, and whether you want your reader to pay attention to every one of a long list of items or to compound them all together, your choice of when and how to use lists will either aid or thwart the impression you actually want to make. The following quick guide includes a bullet list to describe when you might want to use a list, a numbered list to illustrate when you might want to use a bullet or numbered list, a sentence-form list to explore when you might want to use one of those, and a non-list paragraph to discuss when you might be best off not using a list at all.

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Be Concise and Show All
the Positive Impact You Make

You want all of the people who benefit from or assist work – or who might do either one – to understand the full positive impact of all you do. It is crucial to quickly and effectively impart this understanding to your actual and potential clients, constituents, referral sources, staff, volunteers, donors, funders, investors, and promoters. If they all know how great the work is, you will get more and better suited recipients, more and better quality volunteer and staff work, more and larger financial and in-kind contributions, and more and better quality promotion.

Yet all too often nonprofits and mission-based businesses express only the most basic and obvious ways that they make a difference, and don’t paint a vivid picture of the depth and breadth of benefit they provide. Frequently this omission is in the name of conciseness, yet it is possible to concisely describe each level of impact, and it is very worth the space, for it may be the most powerful way to inspire people to come receive or give as much as they can. A concise bullet or numbered list of every level of impact is an excellent piece to use in websites, brochures, donor solicitation letters, social media posts, grant proposals, and more. It is quick and easy to read, and the list format emphasizes that there are many levels of positive impact that people might not immediately see.

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Endings Matter:
How to Leave Behind the Right Impression

Endings linger. They remain in our minds after we look away and move on to check email or cook dinner. Have you ever read a book or watched a movie that was great right up until its ending left you feeling completely let down? Most of us have, and I’d be willing to bet that whenever you remember it, you think, “It would have been good, but it had a bad ending.” Yet how much attention do you pay to the ending of the marketing or outreach materials, grants or articles you write to advance the great work you do? Here are two tips on writing good endings.

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The Most Common Mistake I See:
Can You Guess it? Are You Making It?

Whether I am drawing from previously written materials to write new content, or editing copy drafted by my clients, I see many people’s writing. In this Flight Log, I will discuss the most common mistake I see, both because it’s possible you are making it, and because your competitors probably are. Excelling in areas where your competitors are weak is a great way to stand out from the crowd and get the attention you want.

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