What kinds of writing do people have the most trouble with?
People are struggling most with e-mail, which is often communicated at the speed of thoughtlessness. E-mail is a serious business tool, and you should treat it with the same respect as any other business document you write. Jobs have been lost, reputations have been ruined, and projects have been bungled because of poorly written communications including e-mail. Many firms also struggle with writing “winning proposals,” which have such a major impact on the bottom line. They think it’s adequate to respond to the particulars in the RFP [Request for Proposal]. What they don’t realize is that a proposal is a marketing and sales document. When you write a proposal, you must convince the reader that you’re the best and the most qualified. Projects aren’t necessarily won on price alone. For example, an architectural firm engaged me to write a proposal for a fixed-price school project. I took the firm through the process of identifying what made it different from all the other firms who would
