• First place in Magazine Section Editing – for my work in 2008 on the National Association of Electrical Distributor’s NAED Direct section in TED Magazine.
• Second place in Writing for the Web (Web content written for corporate or for-profit organization sites) – for the text I wrote for the Cutter’s Kitchens and Baths website.
• Honorable Mention in Special articles, Business – for articles I wrote for IMARK Marketfocus Magazine (see Results for the articles). I’d write down which ones it was here if I had finished putting away all my files after we moved offices!

The awards will be given away at NFPW’s national conference in September. Now I have to decide if I’m up for a trip or not!

But I’d like to focus on a website that I love: dictionary.com.

I’d like to give them a shout out because this website is simple, does it’s job well, and connects to a great thesaurus. It’s handy in a pinch, and I like the way it is organized. I use it several times each week when I’m writing, especially lately, because some spell checkers like Indesign don’t recognize popular words like “sustainability.”

I don’t even know who owns dictionary.com, but I’m glad it works well and is not a pile pop-up spam! Thanks!!!

Our awards in the 2009 Communications Contest: 

• First place in Special Articles: Business
• First place in Web Writing, For-Profit Business
• First place in Magazine Section Editing
• Second place in Special Articles: Science (Energy & Green Issues)
• Third place in Magazine Feature Story

I submitted it to one of my husband’s favorite personal finance blogs, GetRichSlowly.org. The editor, J.D. Roth, liked the post and offered to publish it. It went online yesterday at GetRichSlowly.org.

Yesterday, I got my Google Alert on Coleman Unlimited. The post was picked up everywhere! Plus, on the GRS website, it’s caused quite a stir with 54 comments already. This has really illustrated the speed and intensity of the web to me–no wonder newspaper reporters and PR people feel overwhelmed.

I was also surprised to find that not everyone thought my story was funny! Some thought I was smug. Others inferred that I was calling the customer service lady dumb. Still others loved it. Now that I have a little taste of celebrity, I know that, with exposure, comes criticism. It’s an interesting time for communications, that’s for sure!

Check out the post at Get Rich Slowly.

Yesterday, thanks to a Twitter post from Peter Shankman of Help a Reporter Out, I read a post on the 10 Best Social Media Tools for PR Professionals and Journalists on mashable.com. I love this post, and I’ll probably be spending some time tomorrow checking out all these tools.

The list includes Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out, as well as tools like PitchEngine and ReportingOn. I was especially excited to see Media People Using Twitter and Twellow, because I find Twitter’s search functionality difficult to use.

Why are these tools so wonderful? Because accessing the right people for an effective PR pitch can be an expensive and time-consuming job–not easy for those of us with smaller budgets. However, this enables us to get great, well-written information into the right hands. I guess I’m becoming a bit of a social media junkie.

Here’s a few more tips to follow to improve your writing process:

• Read out loud. After writing, speak what you write. This unveils awkward phrasing, gaps in the structure, and areas that need revision.
• Strengthen verbs. Replace ho-hum verbs like “go” and “made” with powerful action verbs like “build” and “discover.” Look for spots where other modifying words are watering down your words, “like trying to communicate.” Drop the “trying to.”
• Evaluate the tone (or attitude). Is your writing friendly, funny, professional, intense, curt, pushy or cold? I get a letter from my health insurance that always starts with, “To get the most from your benefits, you need to understand how your plan works.” The bossy, arrogant tone of this first sentence irritates me every time I get the letter. Sometimes a small tweak can drastically improve the mood of what you’re writing.
• Keep it brief. One of the tricks I learned from years of working with a magazine is to cut the word count by 100 words if possible. This will help you to tighten the article, get rid of any duplication and focus your message.
• Get feedback. Find someone to review and proofread your work. You will make mistakes. But with an extra set of eyes, you can avoid a lot of embarrassment and reap a great reputation for you and your company.
• Double-check people’s names. Last stop before completion: fact-check names and other pertinent details. It only takes a minute, and it is worth it every time.

Take to the time to produce great writing. Fine-tune your efforts, and you’ll get more return on your time investment. (And you can avoid looking stupid…who wouldn’t want that?)

Writing has never been more important as we all spend hours every week writing emails. Although this list applies to nearly all business and promotional writing, I wouldn’t suggest applying it to essays and creative writing.

This is, however, a great checklist the next time you sit down to write anything. I know I’ll be using it to polish up the article I wrote last week.

Here’s a few tips to follow to improve your writing process:

• Determine the purpose. Start out by jotting a few notes: Who is going to read this? What main points do you want to make? What actions do you want to inspire the reader to take?
• Structure the outline. Even a simple business letter or email improves drastically with a little forethought. Clarify what you are communicating and plan the flow of the piece.
• Keep paragraphs short. My general rule is to keep paragraphs under 3 sentences for most purposes. Think about thick, black blocks of impenetrable text. Don’t you find that daunting as a reader?
• Use bulletpoints, highlighting, and subheads. These “reader entry points” help a reader scan and follow along with what you are saying. They make reading easier. Plus, they often show the writer when a point or paragraph is unclear.
• Know your style. Most people don’t realize that many writing styles exist, each with its own set of rules. Most business people are familiar with Modern Language Association (MLA), which is taught in English class. Publications use Associate Press (AP) style or Chicago Manual. The science and education fields use American Psychological Association (APA).

So often, bad writing results from rushed, sloppy words. Good writing can evoke joy, teach new skills, inform and entertain, and improve lives, not to mention increase your paycheck!