9 Tips for Effective Business Writing
Generally, business writing is for sharing information, reporting news, solicit a call to action, explain or justify an action.
Share Information: Examples include reports, dissemination of status, data and details. Sharing details about products or services would fall under this category. Share staff/employee information, changes in staffing, etc.
Report News: This purpose involves announcing upcoming/current events in your business — a new product, service, etc. Perhaps you share an industry breakthrough or announcement.
Call to Action: One of my coaches contends everything we write/post should include a call to action! Whether you want someone to buy a product or service, or simply reply to the email, call to schedule an appointment, be clear of the desired action and be sure to make it easy for compliance — phone number, email address, link to register, etc.
Explain or Justify an Action: If a change of some type is made — either in terms of products and services offered or change in staff/employees, relocating to a new (physical) location or new website, be sure to explain the reasoning behind the action.
- Put your main points first. We only have 10–20 seconds to grab our readers’ attention. This is true whether you’re writing a business letter, email or social media post. If readers have to “dig” for your message, they’re probably not going to bother to put in the work.
- Use everyday words. Using Words such as “about” rather than “concerning,” “expect” rather than “anticipate,” and “part” instead of “component” will make your writing less stilted. Another coach had us go through the exercise of writing a post, email or letter out in draft form, then delete as many words as possible, while still clearly relaying our message! Don’t bore readers!
- Know your audience. Unless it’s aimed at an industry-specific audience, don’t use a lot of technical jargon or acronyms. As an administrative manager in my corporate job, I have established a good relationship with our clients. My emails/letters to them tend be warm and friendly. Information from my Project Manager may still be friendly, but a bit more formal and matter of fact. Not only is it important to know your audience, be aware of your relationship with them.
- It’s okay to use contractions. Business writing is typically a bit more formal that other types of writing, but using “we’re” not “we are,” and “we’ve” not “we have” is fine. Again, this depends on the audience and purpose of the correspondence. A good rule of thumb is that if a contraction improves the sentence flow, use it; if the sentence is more persuasive without it, use two words.
- Use active vs than passive verbs. Active verbs allow the reader to quickly understand what’s happening. For example, “The decision was made to suspend production,” leaves the interpretation of who made the decision to call it quits in question. On the other hand, the meaning of, “We’ve decided to suspend production,” is clear and doesn’t leave readers scratching their heads.
- “Write tight.” Think fewer words = better! While we don’t want to have 3-word sentences, the most effective communication involves being concise and to the point! Again, don’t leave the reader wondering what you’re trying to convey. A great exercise is to review what you’ve written and see how many words you can take out! This will ensure brevity and clarity before you hit “send.”
- It’s okay to “bend the rules”. This, again, involves knowing your audience. If you want your writing to be more conversational, it’s fine to end a sentence with a preposition, especially if it improves flow and avoids awkward sentence construction. Many corporations have their own in-house style guides, and rules for style and grammar they expect to be observed for your writing. If so, it’s important to be familiar with them.
- Don’t overuse graphics. Generally speaking, charts and graphics should be used at a minimum. One or two well-placed graphics can tell a better story than having so many they become a distraction and can cause confusion about what the relevant information is. A few well-placed graphics will accomplish more to get your point across than something that looks like a bad attempt at scrapbooking.
- Keep your font choices simple. Stick to a nice, clean type style such as Helvetica or Times New Roman and limit the number of fonts you use in correspondence. A “fancy” font can be distracting and difficult to read.
These tips are adapted from Oxford Living Dictionaries, form a good foundation for business writing best practices.
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