In public relations, we do a significant amount of writing. A large percentage of every work day is spent crafting emails, press releases, articles and plans. These documents must be clear, persuasive, demonstrate valid reasoning, and be grammatically correct.

For me, writing is like working on a puzzle. Each word, like a puzzle piece, needs to be placed in the right spot – for clarity, conveyance, and to support an argument. Sentences and paragraphs are arranged and rearranged until the picture is clear and complete.

Also, like a puzzle, its best to assemble the edge pieces first. By this, I mean first come up with the outline or thesis for your piece and, only after you feel good about it, should you move on to bring the subject to life with examples, concreted details and commentary.

Finally, once the first draft is complete, step back to admire and review it to see if you can improve the vocabulary, structure, style and tone.

Many times, writing can be challenging. For instance, when ghostwriting an article for a CEO, you have to come up with compelling content and present it in a manner that is authentic to his or her style and tone. This means you need to know how the executive likes to construct an argument. It is also valuable to understand the person’s lexicon and personality.

Capturing your client’s unique voice and style will go a long way toward producing content that he or she feels confident about making public. So how does one do that?

Here are some of my thoughts based on more than 25 years of experience working in public relations and strategic communications:

1) Experiment with style and consider A/B testing. Recently, we produced two versions of an article and sent both to our client. Option A contained short, concise paragraphs, whereas option B followed the Jane Schaffer method of writing and had longer, more formally constructed paragraphs. We asked our client which style he preferred. Now moving forward, we have a stylistic model we can follow.

2) Pay attention to your client’s vocabulary. What words does your client use to describe his or her business? What experience or connotations do those words create for you? How do others perceive the language?

3) Collaborate with your client to come up with the right image, examples or idioms. Before sending over the first draft, consider picking up the phone to discuss how to best illustrate your key points. Statistics, examples and metaphors are essential to supporting an argument or bringing a piece to life, and it can be helpful to know which ones resonate with your client.

4) Scrutinize the structure of your work. Do you have the information in a logical, compelling order? If you re-arranged the structure, would the article or email be stronger or weaker? If you are writing an article, will your client like the placement of the nut graf? And remember: It pays to read your piece out loud. If you stumble, it’s likely your reader will as well. 

5) Consider the tempo of the words and argument. Does the article move along at the right pace? Sentence and paragraph can play a role in the cadence of a piece. Be careful not to over-explain, which can slow the reader down. Finally, you want to anticipate and address the questions readers may have.

In closing, as you review your work, ask yourself one final, but important question: Can you articulate a rationale for each area of writing – content, grammar, vocabulary, organization, style and tone? After all, as the narrator, you have made deliberate choices in the construction and composition of your piece. Your choices should be reasoned ones versus decisions made without forethought.

For more tips on writing, please check out the following article:

• Writing the Winning Press Release
• 11 Quick Tips to Enhance Your PR Writing Skills
• Writing Checklist: A Simple Guide to Becoming a Better Writer
• Thoughts on Feature Writing