If there is one person in the public eye who you'd have down as a
language pedant, it would be His Wordship Stephen Fry. Classically
educated and erudite, surely he would be first in line to smite
apostrophe-abusers everywhere. Well, it turns out that's not the case,
and everyone in business should listen to what he has to say.
In a recent podcast,
Fry berates the punctuation-whingers and grammar-grumps for nit-picking
their way into our attitudes to language. Instead of being intimidated
by the fear of getting something wrong, he says, we should be embracing
the richness of the english language. And there's no writing in more
need of enrichment than business writing.
The unforgiveable wrong
committed in most business communication is that all the life is
squeezed out of this vast and colourful language we share. More
importantly for business, it's commercially disastrous too.
If you
use pity or boredom to underpin your sales pitch, doing the writing
equivalent of standing quietly in the corner of the room or muttering
business-like phrases to anyone passing, good luck to you. People are
attracted to the interesting, the interested, those with personality and
something different to say.
So build your business with language that entrances, excites and entertains, and remember:
- be clear to be understood
- be interesting to be remembered.