Why? Well, standard of your writing has always been important. Today, though, more than ever before, FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT. We are bombarded by written word in its many forms -- books, pamphlets, magazines, signs, e-mail, web sites and many other media.

We are all suffering from information overload and are forced to find ways of screening out as much as we can. We thus tend to make quick decisions on what to read and what not to. First impressions increasingly determine what we read and what we don't, and poor writing leads to a poor first impression.

The following list of tips should help you to avoid some of most common slip-ups.

1. Capitals: Avoid temptation to capitalize words in middle of a sentence Just To Provide Emphasis Like This. If you want to be more emphatic, consider using bold face, italics, color or larger text.

2. Commas: The most common use of comma is to join together short sentences to make a single longer sentence. We do this with one of following small joining words: and, or, but, yet, for, nor, or so. For example:

We have finished work, and we are looking forward to weekend.

Notice that two halves of this sentence could each be sentences in their own right. They thus need to be separated with a comma and joining word. In next example, though, we don't need a comma:

We have finished work and are looking forward to weekend.

The halves of that sentence could not stand alone, so no comma was used.

When you try to persuade someone, often you'll be trying to do one of these three things:

* confirm an existing belief;

* challenge an existing belief; or

* change an existing belief.

In order to be as persuasive as possible, it's important to decide before you begin writing which of these three you're trying to accomplish as they each need different strategies.

Clearly this is a topic that can have a great deal written about it, but here are a few starting points.

CONFIRMING

If you're trying to confirm a person's beliefs through your writing, don't simply provide them with information; rather, try to validate their beliefs and compliment them on them.

Try to make them feel comfortable, and remove any reason for them to doubt their existing choice. For example, you might say:

I recommend that we continue these environmentally sound procedures.

Words like "sound", "tried and true", "trusted", "fiscally responsible" and "proven" reassure and subtly flatter reader that their current choices are good ones.

CHALLENGING

If you're trying to challenge a person's beliefs, you'll try to persuade them to question them. You'll deliberately try to upset status quo and shake things up a bit. For example: