But here is a tip to make it easier to proofread, to ensure that your document is squeaky clean before anyone else sees it.

No sweat. You don’t need to know all the reasons to blog. Just one very good one. A blog makes you somebody.

Actually, the big question most people ask me about blogging is ‘whether?’ That is, whether it’s a good idea to have a blog at all.

Case studies have become one of the most indispensable tools of marketing in general and internet marketing in particular.

As a tool, they are more like a garden implement than, say, a hammer. Case studies are cultivators, helping you take what you have sown - a relationship with a satisfied customer - and help it grow into something more powerful - tangible evidence of your products’ benefits.

The horse’s mouth

Having a few case studies in your marketing materials and/or on your website can vastly increase your credibility as a company as well as providing vivid testimony as to the value of your product(s).

Case studies give detailed evidence direct from the horse’s mouth about how your product (or, in some cases, service) has made a real difference to the consumer.  More credible than corporate copywriting, and more vivid than testimonials, case studies are what consumers crave: solid, believable proof.

Writing a 300 - 1,000 word case study, though, can be daunting, so I’m offering tips to help make that task easier. As with all writing projects, case studies can be made much simpler by breaking them down into manageable components.

Warning! This is a rant. But it’s a rant directed at banks, and let’s face it, they have it coming.

One word can make a hell of a difference. Now that they’ve helped (see? I’m not blaming them completely) immerse us in a financial mire, banks and other ‘financial institutions’ are getting a lot of airplay, talking about ‘products’ that will help us cope with the present and prepare for the future.

Products?!

A ‘product,’ is something real, something you can touch. An apple is the product of an apple tree. A car is the product of a Toyota factory.

When banks use the word ‘product’ they are attempting to position themselves as providing something tangible, when what they are offering is almost always purely conceptual - like love … or ‘the willies.’

A lot of people look at proofreading the way men look at dusting. It’s something they suppose some people care about, but, really, what’s the big deal? Who’s even gonna notice?

They dash off business letters, emails, blog posts, reports, web content, etc, with no serious concern for correctness. Often, it’s only when something is going to be printed - at significant cost - that they pay much attention to spelling, punctuation and grammar. That’s when they hire someone (like me!) to ‘make sure the spelling and stuff is okay.’

That’s if we’re lucky. Often - far more often than you may realise - glaring errors make it into glossy brochures, annual reports, even expensive signage designed to illustrate a company’s professionalism!

Call me pernickety. Call me pedantic. Call me a picker of nits. Call me, as many people do, a stickler. Fine. I am. And for good reason.

Because I want to impress upon you the simple truth that the ‘little things’ like spelling, punctuation and basic grammar actually matter.

- HM Tomlinson, Between the Lines

Writing is about making decisions. As I mentioned in my first post about the writing process, writing can be hard work, primarily because there are so many decisions to be made:

• Is this the right word?
• Should I make this sentence shorter?
• Is this clear?
• Am I being interesting?
• Will this sound too flippant?
• Does my bum look big in this?

Well, maybe not that last one. But still. Lots of decisions. And far too many answers to every question, because, let’s face it, there are lots of ways to convey the same basic information - as many ways, in fact, as there are writers.

It can wear a person down.

But there’s one way to answer virtually every question you face. Really. It’s this: The Reader.

You know, when you think about writing a book, you think it is overwhelming. But, actually, you break it down into little steps any moron could do.

- Annie Dillard

 It’s probably become clear to you by now that my tips to make writing easier are essentially an outline of the writing process that all writers go through.

The process comprises six steps:

1. Prewriting
2. Drafting
3. Feedback
4. Rewriting
5. Editing
6. Proofreading

 Most people jam these first four together, trying to do them all at once or, worse, ignoring a vital step such as prewriting. No wonder writing seems so difficult!

This is why I’ve presented these first four steps as tips to make writing easier. It’s a way of breaking any writing project down into ‘little steps that any[body] can do’ (to politely paraphrase Ms Dillard).

The last two steps could be called ‘tips to make your writing flawless,’ or something like that. I’ll be dealing with them in future posts, because they are not so much about making writing easier as about making it more professional.

And that brings me to The Rewrite.

Once you’ve received some helpful feedback - whether from yourself or from others - you are ready to incorporate your new perception into a rewrite.

After putting in the last period (full-stop) in your piece of writing, the temptation is huge to just be done with it. You’ve made it through to the end! Congratulations. But to write well, and with real confidence in your work, you need to take another (probably painful) step.

If you want your work to really shine - you aren’t quite done. You need to be prepared to subject yourself to ridicule, humiliation or, at the very least, constructive criticism. You need feedback.

Okay. You’ve had a go at one or more prewriting techniques, and you’ve finally reached that itchy and inspired state … you’re ready to write!

Then you sit in front of a blank screen and it starts staring back at you. Maybe you type a few words … see immediately how absolutely idiotic they are … delete them … try again. It seems hopeless. Nothing you write seems as good as what you imagined. Certainly nothing seems as good as what you’ve read.

You consider the possiblity that you may be the stupidest person on earth.

You’re not stupid; you have BPS (Blank Page Syndrome). It’s the most common disease among writers and would-be writers … and it can lead to the more serious form ‘Writer’s Block,’ where you simply can’t bring yourself to write at all.

But there’s a cure! It’s called The Rough Draft.