The permanence of the written word

Writing is communication that lasts. If you don’t believe me, Google for the phrases antiquarian books or rare manuscripts. You’ll see books, codices, manuscripts, scrolls, and tablets going back millennia.

With storage going for pennies a megabyte and getting lower every year, you should just plan on everything staying around forever. Technical white papers are stored for future reference. Progress reports are passed up the chain and stored as a permanent record of accomplishment. Journal articles are entered into vast bibliographical databases to support other research. And e-mails are stored indefinitely on hard drives all over the world. No matter what you are writing, write well the first time, every time.

Obviously you’ll have drafts of work in progress that won’t be your best work, and you may even share this work in draft form with coauthors for early input. When creating their first draft of a document I know many people who sit down and, once the ideas start coming, let them flow unedited, uncensored, and uncorrected. This is a great approach to getting started with your product because it is often easier to edit than create (you can’t correct a blank sheet of paper!). But the first time something goes out of your immediate group, or up the chain in your organization, spend the effort to make it as clean, tight, and clear as possible. Get your first draft done, and the main ideas captured, as quickly as possible if that’s your style, then edit, edit, edit.