How to make your business writing effective
Posted on January 8, 2010 by Tahlent Team
Despite our academic achievements, some of us stumble when it comes to a simple everyday requirement: written communication. Especially so in today’s “SMS age”, where the truncated lingo of text messages and email shorthand has crept into business communication and threatened to make it unclear and ineffective.
While business communication has certainly become less formal and more forthright all over the world, there are certain limitations to the liberties one can take while addressing employees, superiors, customers, clients, investors or other stakeholders.
First of all, it is important to know that the basics of good writing apply to business communication as well. Clarity and brevity are therefore vital for the effectiveness any kind of business writing – from emails and memos to annual reports and presentations.
Here are a few tips to help you spruce up your business writing:
- Know your audience: Write with a clear idea of whom you are addressing.
- Write with impact: Drop the passive voice and use active verbs and energetic language.
- Write with purpose: Before you put pen to paper or fingertip to the keyboard, understand what you want your writing to achieve.
- Write to elicit a reaction but not to provoke: There’s a thin line between writing that inspires and writing that insults, and you should be careful not to cross it.
- Never let clarity be the casualty: You don’t have to dumb down your writing but make sure everyone understands the words and phrases that you use. While it is good to consult the thesaurus to avoid repeating the same word, be reasonable while selecting your synonyms. Write to express and not merely to impress.
- Be credible, not over the top: Use facts wisely to support your arguments. Never underestimate your readers’ intelligence or take them for granted.
- Join the dots: Organize your thoughts. Set different ideas off in different paragraphs. Make clear transitions between them. Make sure your writing has flow.
- Revise religiously: Read your writing carefully. Tighten loose language. Run spelling and grammar checks before hitting the send or print buttons.
- Be judicious with the delete button: Look out for potential troublemakers in your written draft. Weed out slang, jargon, cliches and overused words. Be tough on bad spelling and incorrect usage. Spell-check and fact-check, especially with proper nouns and titles. Remove words with potential double meanings. Use politically correct, gender-sensitive and inclusive language. Ensure that no racial, religious or other sentiments are hurt by your writing.
- Follow the cheat sheet: Make a list of business writing tips and display it prominently near your workstation. It will help jog your memory and inspire others near you to write clearly.
Tags: annual reports, business communication, business writing, customer communication, effective writing, emails, official communication, official emails, shareholder communication, written communication
