Alphabet Soup: Concocting A Delicious Submission
by Judith Ellison Shenouda
Submissions are a form of promotion. Like a job interview or a meeting with a prospective client, you are selling yourself, and modesty is not an advantage. Rather, demonstrating your capabilities with confidence and conviction should be a primary goal. A good way to remind yourself that you are talented, skilled, and unique in many valuable ways is to save all those nourishing words you receive from time to time and uncover the useful kernels.
Though I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent, here are emails that I have received from clients directly or via my business’s knowledge workers – technical and marketing communicators, training designers and developers, project managers, localization editors, graphic designers, desktop publishers, and others. When I submit a proposal or query, pondering these kernels may provide just the right ingredient to establish credibility and receive a letter that starts, “Congratulations. We love your idea and are eager to work with you.”
Take a look at the words I collect, read, and reread for nourishment. Then think about what nourishes your success.
A is for Alice
“Alice was wonderful in helping to convert that PowerPoint file I received from my subject matter expert. She not only converted it for me immediately, but sent me the URL address so I could download a free PowerPoint viewer as well. Thank you for putting me in touch with her.”
- We are competent and cooperative.
C is for Carol
“This is just to confirm that we are working towards having all final files to you by end of business today. I don’t see any problem with that, thanks to Carol’s efficiency in getting all feedback to us for our start of business!”
“Carol, thanks, and please note that I am grateful for this dedicated support and enabling (another) important Time-to-Market Gate 3 success story. Great job!”
“Carol did an excellent job once again. Again is the operative word. Regardless of the workload, complexity, or the specific nuances, Carol continues to see that each job is a high quality, on schedule delivery! She is a blessing to have on our/my team, and is solely responsible for the success of so many projects where the leadtime has been devoured away and there’s no time left in the schedule.”
- We are efficient in our use of time, committed to our clients’ success, and consistent.
E is for Ed
“Ed, thanks for picking this up so seamlessly. Excellent job, as usual! You are truly a project chameleon, and we are lucky to have such a unique talent supporting us daily!”
- We are adaptable, flexible, and quick studies.
F is for Fran
“Fran, thanks so much for your hard work and perseverance to get this work done on time! You made my job of ankle biter so much easier! I appreciate your efforts; it’s a pleasure working with you, too!”
- We persevere and get the job done, on time.
J is for John
“Just wanted you to know (but can’t imagine you don’t anyway) what a pleasure it is to have John as our IT person. As evidenced by the attached string of notes, he always goes out of his way to help and doesn’t quit until questions or problems are resolved. His help with remote access issues and software requests has been invaluable.”
“Thanks, John, for chasing the computer system bug and killing it!”
“John went above and beyond to help get the order through. He kept me in the loop with status and sent appropriate reminders to the parties involved to remind them of the time sensitive nature of this purchase. We would not have been able to successfully deliver without everyone’s efforts!”
- Here’s more testimony to our perseverence and communication skills. We keep others informed.
L is for Larry
“Larry outdid himself today in tackling numerous bugs and issues – quickly troubleshooting and resolving. Fantastic work!”
“Thank you, Larry, for your help!”
- Here’s further indication that timeliness matters – particularly when troubleshooting.
M is for Mary
“I can’t thank you enough for coming into my class this past week. As you always are, you were a hit.”
“I’m writing to report on the Strategic Roundtables Program – a program that benefited from your generous volunteer support last year. All told, some 72 individuals representing these 15 organizations participated in the sessions with more than 100 professional marketing and communications professionals volunteering. A full 100% rated the session either exceptional or very good, with the same amount indicating that they were surely or highly likely to incorporate ideas garnered at the session into their work. As you can see, this program is truly valued by participants. Thanks again for your wonderful participation.”
- Volunteering and community service show a commitment to sharing our knowledge so others can benefit.
N is for Nancy
“Nancy worked until the work was done on Friday to ensure we had all our materials. She made a special trip in on Saturday to help with a couple of last details.”
“Nancy, I want you to know how much I have appreciated your dedication to this project. You have been terrific, upbeat, and ready to rock and roll. When these sites go live, know it is absolutely because of your good efforts!”
- We go the extra mile with good humor.
P is for Pat
“Pat, thanks for your ongoing support and assistance. I appreciate you always taking the time to help out and share your knowledge.”
“I wanted to let you know how much I appreciated Pat taking time yesterday to do a little training on what he does to images to ready them for use. He’s great to learn from because he is so thorough and gives you time to take some notes. I’ve taken a couple of Photoshop courses, but there’s nothing like seeing it actually be put to use for work and as with many kinds of software, there are a lot of little tricks of the trade.”
- Taking time to teach others elevates the learner – and the teacher.
S is for Sam
“Hi Sam, thank you so much for all your work on our behalf. You’ve always been thorough, efficient, and conscientious. It makes our work so much easier. I also appreciate your taking the time to actually read our material, instead of just plugging the document into the correct format. We make mistakes in grammar, punctuation, spelling, and sometimes context. After working on a document repeatedly, the eye glosses over the mistakes since the brain fills in the missing parts. So we always welcome input on what we do wrong and how we can do it better. Please don’t stop.”
- We improve the quality of our clients’ written communications.
W is for Will
“Will, the work you and the team do is exceptional. Thanks for your help. Your work is perfect!”
“Will has been a huge help on the project. I appreciate all the support he has provided!”
“Thanks for all your great work. Your responses were quick and helped us out getting key documents promoted. Much appreciated!”
“You were awesome! Thanks so much for the superb help you provided, Will!”
- Quality, quality, quality – it matters!
Communally, we are competent, cooperative, efficient, and committed to our clients’ success. We are adaptable, flexible quick studies who persevere and get the job done, on time. We solve problems and keep the lines of communication open. By volunteering, performing community service, and taking time to teach others, we share our knowledge. When we go the extra mile with good humor, others notice. And, last, but certainly not least, doing quality work matters!
Now, go ahead and own up to your talents. Build your confidence and show your stuff when you concoct your next submission letter.
Editor of Technical Communications
Judith Ellison Shenouda is principal of Shenouda Associates Inc. She earned a Master of Arts degree in Literacy Journalism from S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, USA. She completed additional courses in curriculum design and development, group dynamics, information studies, publication management, and project management; and has New York State Certification to teach Secondary English. Prior to starting Shenouda Associates Inc. in 1986, she taught English and Language Arts courses, provided academic support and career services, and worked as a freelance writer. She is a senior member of the Society for Technical Communication, a member of the Project Management Institute, a member of Toastmasters International, and a frequent presenter at local, national, and international conferences. She would be pleased to speak to your organization on topics related to starting a business and keeping it going; creating effective technical, business, and marketing communications; and managing the projects in your professional and personal life.