In baseball you only get three swings and you’re out. In rewriting, you get almost as many swings as you want and you know, sooner or later, you’ll hit the ball. – Playwright Neil Simon
There are two situations in business writing where this wonderful statement by Neil Simon particularly applies:
1) Rushing, particularly with email
2) Trying to draft and edit at the same time
Rushing
Each time you write an email, envision your reader and ask yourself if the message contains all of the information needed for that reader (and no more). If it doesn’t, let it sit an hour or overnight and edit it again. You have all the swings you need.
Particularly with email, it’s very costly to send an unclear message because everyone who receives it will have to spend extra time deciphering the action you are requesting, or worse, will take incorrect action. Add up the wasted time or multiple recipients, and you’ll see that the extra time you spend clarifying your message by revising is well spent.
Draft and Edit Short-circuit
If you are frustrated writing a business document, you are probably trying to draft (a creative, right-brain process) and edit (an analytical, left-brain process) at the same time. You short-circuit, waste time and get frustrated.
Instead, envision your reader, then relax and just draft. This isn’t the time to worry about spelling, typos, the perfectly crafted sentence or even the exact word. Just write out the content relevant to your reader.
Once you’ve completely written your content out in your draft, then shift to an analytical mindset and edit. Check that your content is complete and not over-written, check for style and lastly, check for correct grammar.
Swing your revision bat as many times as needed, then send it. You’ll save time for both you and your reader.
