Short sentences sell - possibly because they are easier to read. Possibly they are easier to read because they reflect clarity of purpose. When I know what I want to say, I can say it simply and quickly.

When I'm not entirely convinced that I know what to say, I use more words to say approximately what I might want to say.

Do you know what you want to say? Then say it as simply and clearly as possible. Put your ideas on display. Let the world see you so it can agree with you.

Don't know what to say - or how what you want to say is related to what you think you should say? Don't write. Figure it out first. Then write.

What does it really mean to put something in writing? Whether you are dashing off an email or putting together a detailed proposal, you are making a commitment by writing. What you write will have staying power: it will endure through time and space in ways that are sometimes difficult to imagine.

Think first about what you are willing to be accountable for - whoever reads it, whenever it is read. Any document (hard copy or electronic) can travel anywhere once it leaves your hands (or your hard drive). Any document can be discovered years into the future. It's not likely. It is possible.

Think second about the "you" that you are putting into your writing. When you put something in writing, you create a written representation of who you are, what you are like, and what you do. Everything you write is public relations copy for brand you.

Are you just like everyone else doing your job or do you have qualities that make you different, interesting or exceptionally competent? It may be that you want to disappear into the wallpaper at work. If so, using only wording that is unsurprising and conventional will work for you. More often, however, you will want your writing to reflect the individual style you bring to all your other work.

This means that you will sometimes follow conventional rules, and sometimes you will introduce a twist on convention that allows you to be yourself in writing. You will find use phrases that you use in conversation: when writing for business, you will be the self you are in business. Your style is already customized to different contexts. Writing is another context in which you want to present brand you.

The third thing that you do by putting it in writing is to either involve the people on your team or make a personal statement. If you send email from your company email account, then you are writing on behalf of your company. You are telling people, through your format, that you are on the company team and the whole team will be supported or compromised by what you write. The same thing is true when you use your title or write on company letterhead.

Putting it in writing presents brand you in a format that moves through time and space and tells people that you are willing to be accountable for what you have written and, potentially, who else is also accountable for what you have written. It is powerful and affirmative action.

Reserve it for the things that you really are willing to put in writing.

Most of us would love to develop better communication skills, if only we could find the time. There are very few people who are not already very busy. Most of us are challenged to find enough time to keep up with what we are already doing. It is hard to believe that we have enough time or mental energy to tackle the problems with our writing.

Accept that. You do not have time for more problems. You do not have enough mental energy for struggle. You need more time for you.

Make time for you by writing. Write for five or ten minutes early in your day. Use this five minutes to allow yourself to say whatever comes to your mind (or your keyboard or your pen). You can focus on the day ahead or on your state of mind. You can allow yourself to open to hearing your own thoughts.

Five or ten minutes can clear the way for an exceptionally productive day. You can bring to mind what is necessary, what is important, and what is satisfying. You can tell yourself what you need and you can tell yourself that you already have what you need. You can listen to yourself.

After several weeks, you will find that having an attentive mind waiting to read what you have written is a remarkable incentive to improve what you write. You will find that when you expect writing to allow you to be your best self, you find your best writing. You will find that your writing is getting better.

You just need five or ten minutes early in your day. You can use your five minutes to clear your head or to set your strategy. You can become more productive while you practice writing.

How surprised will you be when you find that you are eager to write?

There are lots of ways to improve your writing so that your writing will eventually become an asset in your career. Most of them take sustained attention over a period of time. What can you do to improve the quality of your writing so that you start getting more of what you want today?

Many people are intimidated by writing. To "put it in writing" is to make a commitment, to take an idea and turn it into something that other people can reference and judge, now and in the future. Such permanence is different than the flow of thought and interaction that marks most of our communication. It is appropriate to be cautious about what you put in writing.

You are capable of knowing the difference between something you can consider and something you will stand behind or stand for. You are capable of deciding whether something is true some of the time or all of the time. You are capable of representing yourself with integrity. You have the basic attitudes necessary to make writing work for you.

What does this mean when you sit down at your computer or pick up a pen to draft a piece of writing?

You can think about what you will accomplish by writing. Is writing necessary? If it is, what advantages does it offer you? When you know that you are writing because it is the right thing to move you toward a goal, you will write with a much tighter sense of what needs to be said. Begin by knowing why you are writing.

Often you are writing so that someone else will have a particular response to what you have written. Think about that person or those people. If you were speaking to them face to face would you know how to get the response you want? What kinds of words and expressions would you use? How would you dress?

Now write. Write knowing that you will make changes later. Make a list of your ideas. Write in point form. Write in sentences that are too long and full of errors. Write whatever comes into your mind because writing is not like speaking. You will not be stuck with the first thing you say. You will have as many chances as you need to change and add and polish. The important thing is to allow yourself to get started so that you can see what you have to say.

When you have a draft, take a good long look. What do you need to change before your writing is in a form that will look good to the reader? Do you need to format? To change the length of sentences or paragraphs? Find a sample that looks the way you want your communication to look on paper. Make what you have written match your sample. Dress for success - in writing.

Now read what you have written out loud so that you can hear the voice that your readers will hear (internally) as they read what you have written. How does it sound to you? Is it easy to read or do you get stuck halfway through sentences? When your readers look at your writing you want them to hear your voice as it sounds when you are at your very best.

Make more changes. Choose words that you would actually say if you were face-to-face with your readers. Choose sentences that make your point as clearly as you would make it in person. Separate thoughts into paragraphs, just as you would separate a conversation into different points to give your listener a chance to respond or reflect.

Notice the information you have provided. Is there enough detail or too much? What else do you need to say so that your readers will respond the way you want them to respond? Do you have the right mix of fact and personality? Every piece of writing must connect with whole human beings - human beings who make judgments using their senses and their emotions, their experience and their reasoning. Have you treated your reader like a real human being?

When you've said what you have to say and made it look and sound the way you would look and sound if you were face-to-face with your readers, take another look. This time imagine that your boss (or your boss's boss) has stepped into the room with you and is listening to the conversation between you and your reader. How will you change what you have said so that your boss realizes that you are representing yourself and your business well?

Writing works for you when it represents you at your best. It works for you when it looks professional and sounds like the way you talk when you are clear, focused, engaging and at your best. Writing works for you when it represents you as you are on your best day: well-dressed, well- prepared, and well-liked.

There have been days when you have been well-dressed, well-prepared, and well-liked. There have been times when you knew what to say to get the results you wanted. There have been moments when you were absolutely clear about what you wanted to do. Those days are your best guide to creating writing that works for you.

No matter what you are writing - email, proposal, sales campaign or personal journal - the person who will spend the most time thinking about what you write is you! It always takes longer to write than to read, and the longer you spend working through a piece of writing, the more opportunity you will have to integrate the thinking it contains.

The first implication of this is that your writing must be ethical. You should not sell anything you are not willing to buy - really and metaphorically because you are the person most likely to buy into the arguments you make. If you regularly cut corners in the arguments you make, you will be teaching yourself to cut corners in all your arguments. If you regularly replace the truth with something more attractive, you will find that it becomes harder for you to deal with conflict or challenge. The patterns you use when you write will become the patterns you use when you think.

In fact, your writing always teaches you a strategy for developing or maintaining a particular belief, frame of reference or state of mind. In order to write, you must spend time and attention fixed in a particular mental landscape. If what you are writing requires that you enter hostile territory (if you have to write about something difficult or unpleasant), be sure that you also remember to write yourself an escape route. You do not need to get better at being frustrated, angry or depressed: you do need to stabilize those kinds of states in writing so that you can write your way to something better.

Finally, remember to treat yourself as well as you would treat any other reader. Begin with a genuine point of connection between your own experience and that of the reader, and then maintain that connection as you move through your material or argument. You will be most convinced (and most connected) by your writing when you maintain common elements in your voice, tone, language and mood as you move from one section to the next. Abrupt changes will strain your rapport with all your readers - but you are the reader with the best chance of noticing the strain and adding the steps that will relieve it.

Everything you write to influence others begins by influencing you. The stories you offer of hope or challenge; the sales pitch or the lecture: all of these will enter your mind and be encoded by the repetition that it takes to compose accurate writing. You may be giving instructions to someone else but you will be the first person to integrate those instructions into the way you get things done. Make sure the things you want from others are the things you want for yourself: when you write them, they are yours!