Scott Flood established Scott Flood Writing in 1995 after 13 years with advertising agencies in Chicago and Indianapolis. The Chicago native is a frequent author on copywriting and marketing topics for business websites and publications, has authored two books of local interest, and is also the author of 100 Years: The Story of the Western States Machine Company.
An active community volunteer, Scott has served on the School Board for the Plainfield Community School Corporation since 2000, was honored as Indiana’s outstanding local school board member in 2021, and named Hendricks County Leader of the Year in 2007 by Leadership Hendricks County. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Communications & Theatre Arts from St. Joseph’s College.
Isn't business writing supposed to be grammatical?
That's one of the great misconceptions. Let me step back and say that I absolutely love and adore English teachers. They're amazing people and anybody who can get bored sophomores to get interested in literature and poetry deserves my praise. But one of the unfortunate things that comes out of English class is that people learn a particular way to write. They learn the highly grammatical academic style of writing, which is used nowhere but the academic world. When you get out into the business world, really what's far more effective is to communicate in a more informal way, particularly a very conversational way. So I always advocate for conversational copy.
Is there a simple way to tell that something I've written is conversational?
I think the easiest way to do it is to read it out loud. Once we get out of grade school, we don't often read what we write out loud. But it's good practice because if you pick up something that you've written and you read it out loud, or even let's just say it's a paragraph from you're writing a blog post and you're not sure if it's doing a good job, read that paragraph out loud.
If you find it's easy to read it out loud, if you find that everything comes easily, you've probably done it great. But if you find yourself stumbling or pausing or running out of breath, you probably need to rewrite. It's probably too complex for the situation. That's the easiest trick I can give people.
Connect with Scott!
https://sfwriting.com/
The Smarter Strategy for Selecting Suppliers
sflood@sfwriting.com
276: Cultivating Collaboration to Accelerate Success - With Olympia Hostler
275: How to Become a Go-Giver - with Bob Burg
274: Live an Epic Life on Your Terms - with Rock Thomas
273: Gaining Referrals by Nurturing your Network - with Amanda Schneider
272: Building a Blog Post that Provides Real Value
271 : Building your Brand Culture on Social Media - with Cheale Villa
270: Creating Systems that Grow your Business - with Simon Severino
269: The Value of Networking in the Real Estate Industry - with Adam Collins
268: Keeping it Real on LinkedIn - with Kate Paine
267: Creating a Strategy to Reach your Ideal Customers - with Nicole Bernard
266: The Top Line is Vanity, the Bottom Line is Sanity - with Rocky Lalvani
265: The Value of Sustainability - with Ann Riphenburg
264: Never Stop Building your Network with Lorraine Ball
263: Traveling the World and Gaining Entrepreneurial Knowledge - with Kirby Wilkerson
262: Networking with Authority and Authenticity - with Ruthie Bowles
261: Boosting your Network with AI - with Chad Burmeister
260- Being a Servant Leader in Business and Networking Situations - with Paul Griffin III
259: Build Relationships by becoming a Successful Thinker - with Corey Jahnke
258: Using Connections to Make a Difference in your Community - with David Belman
257: Nurture and Grow your Community through Facebook Groups - with Cierra Lueck
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
NABOR® TALKS
U.S Property Podcast
Aligned Money Show
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money