(Note: This originally appeared on LinkedIn, here.)

Could the best business school be no business school at all? After 25 years in business, I’m convinced that my journalism-school education prepared me perfectly to succeed in business.

I admit I thought about majoring in business in college, but two things stopped me: I didn’t want to take accounting, which at that time was required for business majors, and I really liked writing and journalism.

No complaints on that front; writing has been good to me. I’ve been able to write books for Marvel Entertainment and travel stories for The New York Times, and even break the story of finding Elvis’ first – and rarest – record.

However, the skills I acquired in J-school have probably been most beneficial in my business career.

Photo credit: Daniel McCullough via Unsplash.

Here are six things I learned as a journalism major (the hard way, in some cases) that I use in business nearly every day:

Start with what’s important.

In journalism it’s called “the inverted pyramid.” Put the most important facts at the top, then supporting details, quotes, additional details, and so on, with the least important information at the bottom of the story. This dates from linotype days, when a story needed to be written so it could be cut at any point.

The business equivalent of the news story is the executive summary or maybe the touch-base meeting, but how many executive summaries are so practically constructed that they could be cut halfway through and still convey their point?

In business, you should always expect to be cut off before you’re finished – so get out the key points first. Oh, and one more thing about the inverted pyramid: It's the best way ever to organize your thoughts.

Be concise.

The best writers and editors sweat every word. Businesspeople are not nearly so conscious – of words and of time. Two-hour meetings to accomplish 45 minutes’ worth of work are as egregious as a three-page memo to tell two paragraphs’ worth of facts.

Say what you have to say, do what you have to do, and move on. There’s more work to be done.

Don’t know? Ask an expert.

Journalists have to sound learned on everything from Roberts’ Rules of Order to quantum mechanics – and believe me, they’re not experts in everything.

How do they sound informed? They find experts, talk to them, and learn from them.

The implications for business are huge. You don’t have to be a IT developer or a cost estimator, but you can to talk to them about what they do in such a way that you can understand and explain IT development and cost estimation.

It’s okay to admit you don’t know about something; it’s better to admit it and then ask an expert.

Ask the right questions.

In the journalism world, I’m a mediocre interviewer. In the business world, I’ve been told many times I ask great questions.

Interviewing is a skill; it requires the interviewer to listen intently (and take notes, oftentimes) while s/he is analyzing what’s being said to determine what to ask next.

How many people in business approach important interactions like they’re news interviews? You can learn a lot over the course of a working day by putting on your best Barbara Walters.

Use multiple sources.

The hardest part of writing for The New York Times was working with fact-checkers. They checked and cross-checked everything, and if I wrote one thing that I knew or assumed but hadn’t confirmed with multiple sources, it left the story.

In business, the truth rarely lies with one department. To understand things as they really are often requires talking to sales and accounting and product development and legal. It’s more work, but the best decisions are made when you know the whole picture and corroborate your facts.

Grammar, usage, and spelling matter.

When I was teaching social media and public relations at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, I told my students, “You have to build your presentations expecting there’s one person in the room who is going to judge your work based on whether you spelled all the words right, used the right form of ‘it’s,’ and put the commas in the right places. Because one day that person will be in the room.”

It’s true – and sometimes that person is me.

You don’t have to be a great writer; if you present facts coherently and let them speak for themselves, you’ll largely stay out of the deep thickets of grammar and usage.

But don’t ever be afraid to find the best writer in the building and offer to buy her a beer if she’ll look over your work. Journalists do it all the time.

The J-School Way: 6 Reasons Why A Journalism Education Is Best For Business