Get to the Point! Making your words count as an Engineer.

Published

30 October 2023

Engineers neglect writing at their peril. Compared to hard skills like coding, writing can seem soft and therefore pointless. But writing is the fundamental skill. If you want to found a business, give a talk, or even get a date, you have to write. At the higher levels of your career, knowing how to communicate, persuade, and get things done becomes more important than good coding. Before you can do anything you have to imagine it, writing is what gets your ideas out of your head and into someone else’s. Engineers who can write well get buy-in for their ideas, get promoted, and get ahead.

Technical documentation sucks. It’s written by people who don’t want to write it, read by people who don’t want to read it. The results are lifeless, confusing, documents that are a slog to produce, and tough to read.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Learning to write clearly and persuasively is simple. There are a few mindset shifts, strategies, and tactics that when you adopt your writing sings. The basics of which can be taught in a couple of hours, and require only a few months of deliberate practice. This post outlines them, and points you In a direction where you can learn more. If that’s what you want.

Strategy: Have a point.

Clear writing is precise thinking. You can’t make a point, sell a point, or stay on point, unless you have a point. All good documents start with something to say, then they do about selling that point. Knowing your point is 80% of the work.

Saying ‘have a point before you start writing’ is like saying ‘eat your vegetables.’ Everybody knows it, nobody does it. Instead they barrel right into the text, because they don’t know what a point is. Without a point they don’t know what they’re talking about, and it shows in their writing. A point couldn’t be simpler: a point is a proposition. It’s something––anything ––you can argue, defend, illustrate, or prove [1]. It’s what journalists call the lede, or copywriters call the value proposition. Everything else gets subordinated to the point.

A point isn’t a topic. That’s something your document is about, like the British Civil War, or healthy eating. Documents can be about any of these things, but they won’t have a point.

What is a point? Fill in this sentence [1]:

I believe _____

If you’ve created a complete sentence, then congratulations! You have a point. “I believe The British Civil War” isn’t a point. “I believe the British Civil War didn’t go far enough: instead Cromwell should have eliminated the Aristocracy too” is a point.

Here are some points you might find in software engineering:

Tactic: you have a point! Too often we dismiss ourselves early. But you have plenty to say — you just don’t know it yet. Here’s a cute exercise: write about pizzas for 8 minutes. First, last, best, worst. 2 minutes a pizza. You’ll find you have plenty to say. At the end take a moment to reflect. What’s your point? [2]

So what? Why should I care? A lot of people have points: not all of them are good. “I believe Christmas is good” is a point. So is “I believe whisky is for drinking.” Who could argue with that? Once you’ve found your point, sharpen it like a Japanese chef knife by asking “So what? Who cares?” The more often you press your points like this, the further it will penetrate.

For example “I believe that Whisky is for drinking” isn’t a great point. It’s inarguable. “I believe Whisky is a better nightcap than Brandy.” Now, there’s something to chew over.

Once you’re convinced that you’ve got a point, and that the point is worthwhile, the next step is to ask “Why?” This is like drilling down to gold. Asking “Why?” adds specificity to your point. A good “why?” will make people care. It’s the secret sauce that separates a good point from a great one. So how do you make people care? Three ways.

  1. Eliminate bad adjectives.
  2. Cut to the feeling.
  3. Add a value proposition.

Examples of bad adjectives are: good, great, excellent, amazing. Good adjectives are: profitable, efficient, unprecedented, urgent, costly. Good adjectives are specific. They imply a reason, a timeline, a scale, a meaning.

Tactic: Go through your points and identify the adjectives. Then replace them with something better.

One way to choose better adjectives is to identify an emotion. People are emotional. They won’t remember what you said, but how you made them feel. So make your point emotional! “Profitable” speaks to your audiences’ prudence, “urgent” to their anxiety. Make a list of emotions and adjectives to add colour to your point, then choose the best one.

Even better than a strong adjective is a specific value proposition. Ads for weight loss don’t say that you’ll lose weight quickly, they say you’ll lose 20lbs in 10 weeks. Your point is valuable. Sell it!

For example:

Is a point. You could even care about it: efficiency is something valuable. Although an Engineering Manager could just give AWS more money to make the problem go away. Here’s the point with the adjective eliminated entirely.

That’s something which will turn heads!

Strategy: Make your point.

Like the seam of gold in a mountain, once you’ve found your point the real work begins. Because once you’ve got a point, you have to make a point. Points aren’t any use in your head, jotted on a napkin, or spoken in a voice message. Points are only useful when they’re presented to an audience.

Fortunately, your writing doesn’t have to be stylish, funny, or even informative. It just has to make your point. The document succeeds if it makes your point. You can even do a kind of shitty job, if you make your point. The document only fails if you don’t — even if it’s knowledgeable, detailed, and correct.

So start your document with your point. Don’t waste your reader’s time: let them decide if the document is relevant. There’s no need for introductions, or to clear your throat. All this does is delay your point. So get straight to the point!

Tactic: Grind, then don’t [2]. Don’t inhibit the flow of language. Writing is easier when you put the first thing which comes to your head on the page. Choose simple solutions to prose problems. You are more natural this way. The document will be easier to write, but also easier to read. Your point will come across regardless.

Tactic: Write your introduction first. After the conclusion, the introduction is the most important part of a document. It might be the only part of the document people read. Make sure you state your point, make it relevant to your audience, and tell them why your solution is the obvious way forward. You can’t spend too long on your introduction!

Tactic: write like you talk.

Tactic: Mise en Place.

Strategy: Sell your point.

Your points are valuable, don’t just make them: sell them. Business documents are too factual: they focus on the who, what, when, where, and why. Instead focus on:

Your documents are a sales pitch, not a book report.

Tactic: How can you sell your points? Go through all the documents you need to write this week, and decide how you can sell your points.

When you’re selling something, you have to make it all about the reader. They’re the other half of the equation. Who will read your document, and what is relevant to them? Focus on the problems your audience faces, then position your solution as the obvious one.

Tactic: who is your audience, and what do they want? Write a draft of your point but address it to a specific person. If you need to know what they want: ask them! Tailoring your point can be that simple. My boss wants the outcome and the impact, so that’s what he gets.

Get clear on what you want them to do, and what will motivate your specific audience to take your specific action. Say

Instead of

When you sell, you propose, recommend, suggest. These are strong verbs, much better than explain, align, ideate.

Don’t defend against other people’s points. This takes you off point. A document is an opportunity for your ideas, not theirs. Respond by making your point again.

The most important part of a document is the end. It’s what your audience leaves with. So stick the landing! End with your point.

Conclusion

Writing persuasively is a case of having a point, and selling it to your audience. Persuasive writing is the key skill to advance your career. It’s how to get your ideas known, get people on side, and get into the real world. Writing doesn’t have to be difficult: just have a point, sell your point, and stay on point!

If you like what you’ve read, and you want me to help you, let’s set up a conversation!

[1] Get to the Point! by Joel Schwartzberg.

[2] I got this exercise from Sasha Chapin. You could take his course, Hate Writing Less, which has a unique focus on making writing easier, for people who really hate writing.

[3] Style isn’t the disreputable littler brother of substance, it’s a first class citizen of the writing world. Style is inherent to writing, it’s folded into what you say like butter in a croissant. Don’t put the cart before the horse: focus on knowing your point, making your point, and staying on point. Some good resources for stylish professional writing: