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This book can change the way you write and therefore improve what you can do at work. Survey after survey shows that executives value writing but see little writing of value at work.

Writing is an important part of your job. I don’t care what your job is. Today, more than just office writers produce memos and reports. Almost all employees write on the job. A few years ago, a company asked me to provide writing training to people who work on the assembly line of a dental manufacturing plant. Manufacturing hard goods is the last place some people expect to be writing memos. That was once true but it is no more. All employees today write down what they are doing so that managers can stay on top of efficiencies. In addition, in today’s complex businesses and public agencies, people make decisions on paper. If you want to suggest an idea, you have to write it down or forget it. Expressing your ideas clearly on paper or on a screen is necessary so that people in various levels of your company can all evaluate the same thing. If it is not written down, it doesn’t exist. It’s a rumor.

Work has changed. Writing has changed. That is why I make this challenge to you. Everything you think about writing is wrong. Like Terry, who struggled at the opening of this chapter, maybe you remember a few tips or ideas. Maybe you retain several ideas from grade school. Perhaps you did all right with term papers in college. Maybe you have read other writing books.

I put this statement in your face: prove it! Prove all of it. Begin again by throwing out everything. Examine every assumption, rule, tip, concept or notion you have about writing. In these pages, I will show you a way to write that has worked for hundreds of people who have successfully completed the Write at Work seminars. The ideas and exercises I give you form the basis of how you can start all over again.

Does that mean I have control and you don’t? No, just the opposite. The ideas in this book must work for you, or they don’t work. Examine each one, understand it, practice it. Then if you find you don’t like it, throw it away. Fine with me. Just replace it with a better idea.

You may find that some of the ideas I challenge may work. Okay, keep them if you can prove they work. The single biggest impediment I see for people who want to improve their writing is that they cling to outdated notions about writing. They hold themselves back by feeling that somehow they are not following a rule they learned ten or twenty years ago. Don’t do that. Take control. Master the ideas in this book. Add back your original assumptions if you meet my challenge and prove they are worthwhile. At the end you will have rebuilt yourself into an effective writer—your way. One thing that will happen for you as you read this book is that you will see things you are doing right. This book is not about finding what is wrong with people’s writing and taking potshots at them. It is about building a better way and feeling comfortable and confident every time you begin to write.

Throughout this book there are exercises for you to do. Many come at the end of chapters. You may believe that you don’t need such exercises, and I am sure I cannot change your mind so I won’t try. But there are what I call six “core exercises” especially designed to help you identify and master your own individual writing style. These exercises come in the main text of the book and at the end of chapters. I highly recommend that you actually write them out.

The core exercises are:

1.Freewriting

2.The unlocked door

3.Focused Freewriting

4.A return letter to say “no” and

5.Perception

6.Writing a brief report based on a newspaper.

If you take my challenge and complete these exercises, you will improve—no matter who you are or how well you write already.