Tips for making your writing for EE Magazine even brighter

Ways to draw more readers to your article!

We welcome all writers, magicians of words, conveyors of information, insights and inspiration, and storytellers. How can you best craft your piece in service of EE Magazine’s readers?

Purpose

As you are writing, remind yourself of the purpose of your piece. Ask whether it enlivens the readers and yourself.

As well as contributing to the movement of next-stage initiatives, this is also an opportunity for you to describe your own next-stage organisation initiatives and projects and get feedback from the community.

Readers

Remember who you are writing for. Many readers won’t have the depth of knowledge that you might have, so be mindful to use inclusive, human language and avoid jargon.

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What are their needs? If they are busy people, for example, make your point early, in the simplest, most compelling way. Respect for the reader’s time, says one author,  “led me to constantly challenge myself: How can I say what I need to say with the smallest number of words, and still be unambiguous?”

Tone of voice

connectionThe tone of voice we use is important because it can have a huge impact on our ability to influence and connect with others. A great person to model is Frederic Laloux, author of Reinventing Organizations.

Here are his words of advice:
When I write something, I try to subtly marry a tone that is both solid and also personal. My sense is that many people are tired of things that are so professional it creates a distance, a disconnection, that it comes across as corporate. I think there is a big longing for simple, everyday connection, for humanness in our exchanges. It’s subtle territory, because I notice I also quickly get turned off when something comes across as too new agey, too “it’s all about me, my feelings”.

So consider how you can marry a tone that is both solid and personal in your writing. You’ll notice Frederic also uses evocative, multi-sensory words like ‘solid’, ‘longing’, and ‘tired’ which naturally draw us in. These are great storytelling tools because as human beings we are deeply emotional.

Return to Writer’s Guidelines page.