Add these tips to your storytelling arsenal to utter your messaging glow and sing.

Editor’s note: We are re-running the top legends of 2021 as one of the purposes of our year-end countdown.

1. Each age you sit down to write, remind yourself of this sobering fact: “Nobody has to read this.”

2. If you must use the word “sustainable”, don’t contributed tautology to cliche by pairing it with “long-term”.

3. Making it easy to read isn’t the same as dumbing down. Is an iPad dumb because it’s easy to use?

4. Don’t follow “we’re different because…” with cliches about “adding value” and “innovative solutions.”

5. Important message to convey? Read your work to a peer, then ask students to repeat its main point.

6. To restate Twain, replacement “damn” every time you want to write “meaningful” or “significant.”

7. For an instant suggestion to seeing how readable your writing is, use the Gunning Fog Index.

8. Don’t worry about how well you write. It’s how well you edited that represents the difference.

9. Don’t tell people you want to “engage” them. Ask them “what do you think? ”

10. Tempted to use the cliche “ultimate”? Your more literal-minded books will understand it as “last ever.”

11. Writing excerpts for someone else but struggling to capture their singer? Get out that Dictaphone.

12. Is your writing flabby or fit? This free tool tells you what you need to hear: The Writer’s Diet .

13. Force yourself to write every day for an hour. It’s like employ: The more you make love, the easier it gets.

14. Never write an apology without saying how you plan to fix the problem.

15. It’s absurd to proofread your own work- ever enlist a second or third pair of eyes.

16. Avoid emoji in business emails.

17. Pluralizing abbreviations? No apostrophe asked: 20 Cds, 12 TVs, etc.

18. Everyday( 1 statement)= “ordinary.” Every day( 2 terms)= Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

19. Be yourself when you write. If you determined it in a thesaurus, it’s probably the wrong word.

20. If you do decide to use a thesaurus, make it Words That Sellby Richard Bayan.

21. Never start writing without a tighten parole weigh. We all need an incentive to use fewer words.

22. Writing for others? Don’t call them “stakeholders.” Your duty’s to your books , not the person or persons commissioning you.

23. Finding it hard to proofread your work? Get your computer to get it on for you !

24. “Don’t exert a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.”- Mark Twain

25. Want to get more clicks on Twitter? Research shows the secret is to use more verbs( act statements ).

26. Write for human being , not Google. Google isn’t going to buy your product.

[FREE GUIDE: 10 ways to improve your writing today]

27. Never assume an abbreviation will be understood( www.acronymfinder.com rolls 126 explanations for “CRM” ).

28. Remember: When it comes to explaining a dicey perception, being an expert is a weakness , not a strength.

29. Explain something well and your book feels smart. When they feel smart, they looks just like you. When they like you, they’re persuadable.

30. Let it sit for a while before you proofread it. With a little bit of interval, you’ll spot more errors.

31. Ever proof on paper – you’ll catch more mistakes than when “youre reading” your work on screen.

32. Use messages that energize the five appreciations. The ability reacts as if you’re actually perceiving, hearing, determining, reeking or touching.

33. Boost your creative thinking by setting limits- like writing with simply the 1,000 most common paroles.

34. Instantly spot long sentences with Drivel Defence, a free on-line tool from the Plain English Campaign.

35. Overlong sentence? Cut through complexity by crack it up into separate notions. Use a blood-red pen or carriage returns.

36. Be positive! Research indicates feel-good narrations that arouse the passions are the most likely to go viral.

37. Ditch what you learned at institution. Yes, an paper should be impersonal and abstract, but the best business writing is human and concrete.

38. Read more to write better.

39. Communicating bad news? Don’t hide behind corpspeak. Everyone knows “rightsizing” necessitates “job cuts.”

40. Don’t fear repetition- it can be extremely powerful. Google Churchill’s “we shall fight on the beaches” pronunciation for an example.

41. Interviewing someone? Avoid questions necessary a yes or no answer. Instead, ask how, what or why.

42. Begin or concluded with a fragment or short convict to create emphasis. And drama.

43. It’s OK to break the “rules” of grammar- as long as you understand them and know why you’re crack them.

44. Stop thinking of your reader as an “audience.” Traditional publics don’t often talk back. They do in today’s social media world.

45. Remember, there’s nothing clever about intricacy for the sake of it. Clear writing’s a clue of clear thinking.

46. Ruthlessly delete everything that’s not important to your book( even if it’s important to you or those individuals who briefed you ).

47. Make headers as informative as possible. “What we need to do next” is more useful to a reader than “Strategic update.”

48. Show, don’t tell. Anyone can say they’re “creative”/ “passionate”/ “dynamic”/ ”world-class” etc. Give samples!

Clare Lynch is director business writer and coach at Doris and Bertie. Follow her on Twitter @DorisandBertie.

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