Writing: A risky business
07/01/2010

There are some stories that just stick with you for life. One for me is a tale I heard while taking my A’ Levels.

Urban legend had it that a philosophy student was sitting an exam. The question in front of him was simple: Define Courage.

After 3 hours he left the room along with his fellow students but had written just 9 words.

On the twelve page answer booklet that had been provided just two pages had text. The first page read: "Definition of Courage."

On the last page, having left the rest of the document empty, the student wrote in tiny letters at the bottom: "This is my definition of courage."

For me whether the story is true or not is irrelevent because the message is so clear. Courage is about risk.

When it comes to business communications or more specifically business writing, there is always an element of the unknown. Will your audience hear your message? Will it be the version you want them to hear, or a different connotation?

Making that move, the act of writing something down, has to be the right thing to do. By taking that risk, in actually doing something, you implicitly say something about you or your business. And the alternative of doing nothing, or worse still writing a document with no character, or distinction is simply not viable.

Good business writing and more broadly, good marketing practice isn’t always about what you include in a particular document, proposal or campaign, it’s often about the things you leave out.

In a world where choice dominates personal and organisational buying decisions, the need to market yourself or your brand away from the pack has never been more critical. It seems that playing it safe can in fact be the most risky strategy going.