The most famous speech in American history, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, lasted two minutes.

Amazingly, President Lincoln wasn’t even the event’s featured speaker. That was Congressman Edward Everett of Massachusetts. Everett spoke for over two hours. Remember learning about his speech? Neither do I.

Shorter is better.

You’ve probably heard these sayings:

Shakespeare: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”

T.S. Eliot: “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”

You: “Goodness! Is this email ever going to end?”

Never be afraid to write a short document. Even extremely short. Some of the most powerful, memorable and persuasive letters and emails are just a few lines. Make your point and get out. A brief document, one with no fat, packs a lot more punch than one that’s bloated with unnecessary words.

And that’s all I have to say about this.

Are your emails, presentations and other work documents a little lifeless?

It’s understandable. Most of us have learned in our careers to think of a well-written document as stilted, formal, humorless. And we’ve learned to write that way.

What a shame. Who says we should equate being professional with being boring?

Writing with a little humor reminds your readers that there’s a real person on the other end of the document. That can make a huge difference in how your readers judge both your written work and you.

As a young copywriter looking for clients, I often sent out a short pitch letter that ended with this message: “Want samples of my writing? Let me know. I can send you a few, a bunch, or enough to prop open your office door.”

Not the funniest thing you’ve ever read. Not even laugh-out-loud funny. But it served an important purpose: It humanized me for prospective clients. Many hired me from this pitch letter alone. And many made a point of telling me that they enjoyed this last line. People don’t expect to find anything even remotely amusing in a document they read at work. It’s a nice surprise.

Of course, when adding humor to a professional document of any type (email, report, etc.), you need to keep in mind some important rules:

– No profanity.

– No offensive or off-color humor.

– No humor that makes the reader or anyone else (except yourself) the butt of the joke.

– Use humor sparingly. You’re writing a professional document, not a comedian’s monologue.

– Start serious. You earn the right to be amusing only after you’ve demonstrated your document’s seriousness.

Not sure whether a line you want to use is actually funny enough, or even appropriate, for the document you’re writing? Ask a friend or colleague. Then use your own best judgment.

And remember: You can be professional… and funny. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Would you prefer to read a document at work that nearly put you to sleep, or one that gave you the same information but also made you smile a few times?

A friend recently told me a near-horror story about an email he almost sent to an administrator at the City University of New York. As he was wrapping up his email draft, his phone rang. So while on the call, my friend typed his subject line, “Attn: CUNY admin.”

At least, that’s what he meant to type.

He was ready to hit “Send” when his call ended, and my friend luckily had a chance to give his draft a quick review. Turns out, he missed the Y key in CUNY and instead typed another letter. Look at Y’s next-door neighbors—and imagine the worst.

The lesson: writing is a single-task activity. Study after study has shown that the multi-tasking strategy is a myth. Our brains can be devoted to only so many mental tasks at once. Try singing a song while adding a couple of three-digit numbers in your head. Or better yet, notice how a man turns down the car stereo while he’s looking for an address.

When someone is multi-tasking, they’re likely doing many things badly at the same time. And because writing requires so much of your brain power, it’s safe to say that almost any distraction while you’re writing can derail the whole process. So when it’s time to write, write.

Oh, and one final tip: don’t ever hit “Send” on an email while you’re on the phone.

Let’s say you’ve got to write an important document—a proposal, a tricky email response, a lengthy technical report—and you just can’t get started. It happens to everyone.

You’ll usually find that as soon as you start putting your thoughts on paper—no matter how disorganized they are—the document will start taking shape. But getting those first thoughts on the page is difficult. What should you do?  The key is just to start.

Following are some unorthodox but proven steps you can take to push through this difficult moment and get to writing.

1. Say it out loud first

If you’re stuck at the blank page, one great trick is to talk it out. Find someone who will listen, have that person ask you what you need to write, and then talk it through in casual, unforced language.

As you hear yourself articulate what you hope to accomplish with the document, you’ll find yourself jumping to your keyboard and saying, “Hey, I should use that.” You might hear an outline emerging for your document’s main sections, or a great point you want to make.

Because you’ve given yourself permission to organize your thoughts out loud—away from the blank page—you’ll tap into your creativity. Related tip: Make sure you’re near your computer.

2. Don’t start with a blank page

Why start with a blank page at all? Make it a non-blank page.

When you fire up a new document, immediately start typing something, anything, about the subject—whom the document is going to, when it’s due, a couple of ideas for sections, anything you can think of.

This has the psychological benefit of giving you something to stare at other than a blank page. It also gives you some content right away that you can fix, build on, edit, rewrite or delete—all of which are often easier than writing from scratch.

3. Push the page down

If Tip #2 doesn’t work for you, that doesn’t mean you have to stare at an entire blank screen. Let’s hide some of it.

Seriously. Grab the top of the word processor’s blank document (or blank email message) and drag some of it down “below” your screen, until only the top portion of the document is visible.

Now you can concentrate on only a small piece of blank real estate—just enough to focus on your title or introduction.

4. Write as casual an introduction as possible

Often our belief that what we’re writing needs to be formal—and perfect—keeps us from being able to start at all. One trick is simply to give yourself permission to start your document as informally as you can.

Imagine: You return from a tradeshow, where you gathered information for your organization. Your management team asks you to write a summary of your trip and send it to the executive staff. How do you begin? As casually as you can.

Hi Team,

I’m back from the industry conference, and I’ve gathered some interesting information about new solutions we should consider. Here’s what I learned:

That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now you have a jumping-off point, you’ve built the foundation for an easy-to-digest list to write your main points, and you’ve told your reader in just a few words what your document will give them.

Sometimes you’ll look back at your opening and think, “No, that’s too informal,” and you can rewrite it accordingly. But often you’ll find that the most casual introduction makes for the most professional and reader-friendly document.

5. Write a list

Lists are excellent written communication tools. They’re a great way to organize a lot of information into an easy-to-read format that everyone understands. In any professional document you write—a report, letter, press release, you name it—include lists whenever possible.

So, if you’re having trouble starting a document, figure out what list you can include—and start writing it, no matter where it’ll appear. The important thing is, you’ll have a psychological boost from getting started. Just type “1.”

Here’s a great story from economist and author Thomas Sowell.

A tourist walking the boardwalk of a famous city spots a caricaturist. He approaches the artist, asks for a drawing of himself, and sits down while the caricaturist does his work. Just four minutes later, the artist presents him with a brilliant caricature. The tourist is pleased.

“What do I owe you?” the tourist asks.

“Thirty dollars,” the artist says.

“Thirty dollars?” asks the tourist. “You’re kidding, right? That took you four minutes!”

“No,” says the artist. “It took me 20 years and four minutes.”

Writing is similar. We all have computers and word-processing software. And, in a literal sense, we all know how to write—we know spelling, grammar, punctuation, layout, structure and tone. Because of this, I think, many non-writers believe writing should be easy—and they get frustrated and discouraged when it turns out not to be.

So, why did I tell you this story? Don’t be so hard on yourself. Writing is damn hard work. And almost nobody—least of all a professional writer—is ever satisfied with what they’ve written.

Unintentionally funny tagline from a company that sold data about computer chips:

If you find a component in our database, it probably doesn’t exist.

Two things missing here:

1. A well placed “don’t” or “can’t.”
2. Proofreading!

This could have been a very powerful selling message for this company’s component database—if the writer had spent just a minute or two proofreading it.

The lesson: When you’re finished writing, put your document away for a while—at least a day, if possible—and then proofread it slowly. Better yet, have someone else proof it for you.

Spend more time than you think is necessary to review any written work before sending it out to the world. It’s always better to overdo your proofreading.

No matter what your profession, chances are you spend a good deal of time crafting documents to communicate or persuade—letters, emails, reports, presentations, descriptions of your product or service, newsletters, etc.

Avoid the following five common writing mistakes—and your written documents will be clear, persuasive, and will deliver you better results.

Mistake 1: Using big, impressive-sounding words

The English language contains roughly a million words. But the average adult knows only about 10,000 of them. Simple words work best.

Many people think their written work will appear more professional with academic or legal words—“hereinafter,” “utilize,” “as per your request.” But stuffy verbiage like this only distracts from your message, and in business writing your ultimate goals are clarity and persuasiveness. Some examples:

Don’t write…

After endeavoring to ascertain the origins of the problems within the customer service department, I am of the opinion that these issues necessitate more training, and, as per your request for suggestions, I recommend that new programs be implemented forthwith.

when you mean…

After searching for the source of the problems in our customer service department, I think the issue is poor training. The solution, I believe, is a better training program.

Mistake 2: Using several eye-catching fonts and FORMATS

If you want to call attention to a point in a written document, write your point more strongly. Don’t dress it up with capitalization, italics, bold, underline, different fonts or colors, larger type or other visual enhancements.

This actually has the opposite effect of your goal: It makes everything on the page look less important and distracts from your message.

A good rule of thumb for your text in a document:

– Use a single font throughout the entire document

– Use only two type sizes (one for headers, the other for body copy)

– Use only one type of text enhancement—for example, bold for headers

Mistake 3: Writing big, blocky paragraphs

Imagine: You return to your office and find two letters on your desk. One is a series of short, two- and three-line paragraphs. The other is written as one long paragraph, over half a page, singe-spaced. Which will you read first?

Use short paragraphs.

Big, uninterrupted blocks of text are such a turnoff visually that we often simply avoid reading them altogether.

Again, in business writing, your ultimate goal is to be clear and persuasive—and you can’t get your message across clearly and persuasively if people don’t read what you’ve written.

As a general rule, try to keep your paragraphs to four lines—preferably no more than three.

Mistake 4: Writing too much

Ideally, your business document should be exactly as long as necessary to clearly and persuasively make your case—and not a single word longer.

It probably comes in part from our training in school—“This paper must be five pages, no less”—but many business professionals erroneously believe that the longer their document is, the more important it will appear and the more effective it will be. Not true.

Remember, your reader’s time is important, and keeping your document to the minimum length possible shows you respect their time. Also, the longer your document is, the more of a chore it will seem. You don’t want your reader going into your document already disliking it.

A good strategy for keeping documents as short as possible:

1. Write a first draft that includes everything that seems relevant.
2. Go through your completed draft, ruthlessly cutting anything that doesn’t make your case stronger or otherwise justify its space.

Mistake 5: Forgetting to sum it all up

Always remember, the key to good communication is clarity. At the end of any business document, you should summarize the main points you’ve made.

Like writing in short, easy-to-read paragraphs, providing a summary helps make your business writing clearer, shows respect for your reader’s time, and increases the likelihood your reader will act on your points.

A good rule, especially in longer documents like reports or proposals, is to include a section—called Summary, Conclusion, or something similar—that clearly restates your main points. For shorter documents, like a letter, you might include a final short wrap-up statement that restates your case.

Note: This summary at the end of your document should be in addition to the conclusion you write early in the document.

Just by keeping these points in mind as you review what you’ve written, you’ll create clearer, more persuasive documents—and get the results you want.