Wow! That’s an expensive used truck.

… you check your iPhone while you’re talking face-to-face.

Comedian Steven Wright jokes that once, right in the middle of a job interview, he took out a book and started reading. When he asked his interviewer a question from the book, and the interviewer didn’t know the answer, Wright responded, “Forget it, then. I don’t want to work for you.”

The reason that’s a funny bit is that it points out an extreme example (reading a book while someone is interviewing you for a job) of a common and annoying trait many of us exhibit in conversation: failing to give the other person our undivided attention.

It’s simply not possible to have an outstanding and memorable conversation if all of the participants are not fully engaged. Your undivided attention is probably the most important gift you can bring to a conversation.

So then why, when we’re talking with colleagues, friends, spouses, children — even our supervisors — do we so often look down at our smartphones to check missed calls/voicemails/texts/emails/? It can derail your train of thought; it can keep you from hearing and fully comprehending what your fellow conversationalists are saying; and it signals to the other participants that they don’t have your undivided attention — which makes the conversation less fun and meaningful for them.

We all want to be known as engaging, interesting, insightful — great conversationalists. Here’s one very simple (not easy, I understand, but simple) step you can take to differentiate yourself from many of your colleagues and friends. When you’re engaged in a conversation, stay completely engaged. Don’t allow any electronic distractions.

When you prepare a report, PowerPoint presentation, spreadsheet, or just about any work-related document, chances are it will include details you’ve found on the web or in other documents, answers you’ve received from colleagues, and data you’ve tracked down from other outside sources.

Suggestion: Create a separate folder for each document you prepare that includes all outside research you’ve gathered. The folder should include the document file itself, plus all research-material files — PDFs, white papers, even emails from colleagues who supplied you with answers to your research questions.

You should also create a “links” document, in which you can place the links to all web pages where you found information you used in your document. You might also want to include below each link on this page a short summary of the data/stat/quote/whatever you pulled from the website, so you know at a glance what the link provided and you won’t need to open up the web page again to remind yourself.

There’s always the possibility that you will need to refer to those original sources later — for an update to your PowerPoint presentation, for example, or because a co-worker asks you where you found a specific statistic. If you’ve captured it all at the time you created the document and placed it in your document’s folder, you won’t have to hunt it down later.

When writing an email message, make filling in the ‘To’ and ‘CC’ fields your final step. That way, you’ll always have a chance to proofread and edit the message without any chance of accidentally sending it out before it’s ready.

Most email programs automatically drop the cursor into the ‘To’ field when you open a new message. As a result, we’ve been trained to start by filling out the email addresses of our recipients before we even type the subject line, let alone the actual body of the message. If I were designing email software, I’d set the default so the cursor dropped into the body of the message first.

But until that happens, my advice is that when you open a new message, your first step should be to get your cursor out of the ‘To’ line, drop it into the message body, and start writing.

Doesn’t matter that your written communication is private. Doesn’t matter that you trust your recipient. “Private” documents/emails/texts/instant messages find their way into the public. So…

Never mock, insult or ridicule friends, colleagues, supervisors — anyone — in writing.

Mistakes happen, like this one, where a private communication can end a career.

People often ask me, “Is it difficult to become the copywriter for a corporation, government agency, charity, or other type of organization? Can anyone become a working copywriter?”

By “copywriter,” they mean the employee who writes the organization’s website text, press releases, presentations, memos, form letters, newsletter articles, advertisements, brochures, employee manuals, and all of the other materials that need to be written in the organization’s voice?

Short answer: Yes. Anyone can become a working copywriter. And breaking in is not as difficult as you might think, if you’re a strong writer.

But you’ll also need several other, less obvious skills. It might surprise you, but these skills will be just as important to your writing career as your ability to write.

People skills.

One of the reasons I got into the corporate writing game was that I was shy. I thought if I could be a good enough writer, then my employers would gladly give me a desk in the basement of the office and I would work alone, away from the crowd. Big mistake. The keys to success as a corporate writer are similar to success in other professional fields — building relationships, becoming part of your team. You can’t do those things from a desk in the basement.

Versatility.

So you’re the best press release writer in public relations history? Glad to hear it! But if that’s your only writing skill, you’re going to have trouble as a working copywriter. If you can’t shift gears quickly — often within 10 minutes of finishing your press release draft — and write an executive bio or brochure, you won’t make it in the corporate writing field. You can’t be good at just one type of writing — you’ll need to be great at just about every type. (Except poetry. You can usually let your poetry muscles atrophy.)

Thick skin.

You’re going to have your work trampled, verbally spat upon (and, in the worst cases, actually spat upon) by colleagues and superiors. Writers are, by nature, sensitive people. But you’ve got to separate yourself from your corporate writing work. Your colleagues are not criticizing you personally — only the work. If you can’t see the distinction, you’ll burn out quickly as a corporate writer.

Business sense.

This is especially true if you want to work as a freelance writer for several clients. You’ll need to determine how many hours each project takes you, how you should bill for your time, and how to say no to a bad project.

The ability to check your own preferences.

Often you’ll have to write about products or services or people that you’re not excited about personally. Sometimes you’ll have to write for things you’d never buy for yourself. But as a corporate writer you’re there to serve a corporate interest. And you’ll have to write about that item like you were its biggest fan. Otherwise you’re not doing the product, your employer or yourself justice. It’s even a bit unethical to write with less enthusiasm than you’re capable of, just because you’re not a personal fan of the item.

Not turned off or scared away yet? Great! Go for it – and please tell me about your progress.

Do what you say you’re going to do.

In the preface to his great book, The Great Money Binge, longtime Wall Street Journal editor George Melloan writes that “it felt like light-years since”… well, it doesn’t matter what. Our takeaway here is that a light-year is not an amount of time; it’s a specific distance (namely, about six trillion miles).

My new theory: You can tell a lot about what a culture values by what it sells and what it gives away for free.

I’ve been playing around with iTunes lately, and something very disturbing just hit me: On iTunes U, you can download thousands of hours of actual lectures from Harvard/Yale/MIT/Stanford professors… all subjects, all free.

But the song “F**k You” by Cee Lo will set you back $1.29.

Not a good sign.

I just had a fun interview with DorobekINSIDER host Chris Dorobek, broadcast on Federal News Radio (1500 AM) in Washington, DC, to discuss tips from my e-book Become a Master Communicator. (Yours, free.)

Here’s the audio clip.