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10 Simple Ways to Improve Your Business Writing Skills
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The value of solid writing skills
- Being a good writer helps you stand out from the crowd.
- Repeated writing mistakes affect your reputation and credibility in the future.
- Your writing is one of the primary mediums in which you will be judged throughout your life.
- Your writing communicates your thoughts, and it’s important that those thoughts are conveyed in the clearest, most eloquent way possible.
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"Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you’re writing.”
Kurt Vonnegut
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The “5 Ws + H” method
... for establishing what and how you will write:
- Who: Who is my audience?
- What: What do they need to know?
- When: When does this apply, when did this happen, or when do they need to know it by?
- Where: Where is this happening?
- Why: Why do they need this information?
- How: How should they use this information?
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Keep it short
Think about how people read. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip - the long paragraphs that have more to do with what you want to say than what the reader needs to hear. Always keep your reader in mind.
And if you can’t write an email that’s less than half a page long, then email isn’t the best way to communicate this information.
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Avoid pretentious words
If your reader has to use Google or a dictionary to decipher what you’re trying to say, they’re going to feel annoyed.
Avoid jargon - it makes you sound pretentious, and it can further alienate your reader. Instead, write the way you talk. Keep it natural and direct.
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Use active sentences
They are direct, bold and more interesting than passive ones. In an active sentence, the subject performs the action of the verb. In a passive sentence, the subject is letting the action happen to them.
Example: The golfer hit the ball Vs. The ball was hit by the golfer. The first sentence is written in the active voice. The second sentence is passive.
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Always be professional
Be authentic and to let your voice shine through in your writing, but also keep it professional. A good way to check the appropriateness of your content is to ask: “Would I be comfortable with this if it was on the front page of the newspaper tomorrow morning?” If this makes you cringe, do some editing.
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Clarify your Call to Action
Don’t leave it up to your reader to figure out what you want them to do with this information. Spell it out, and be specific. For example:
- Please send back any edits by 5 pm on Tuesday.
- Please call this client back by Friday to resolve the issue.
Pro Tip: If you need immediate action on something, talk to the recipient in person.
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The subject line
Use your email subject line appropriately. It is the headline for your email. And a headline’s job is to make sure the body gets read. For this, it needs to be short, direct, powerful, and specific.
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The EOM technique
Example: “Will you be attending this Monday’s 2 pm meeting? EOM.”
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Stick to one topic in emails
Focusing on one topic per email gives your reader time to process what you’re saying and respond directly. It also helps them organize their emails more efficiently and find archived emails faster.
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Delivering bad news
Never use email to deliver bad news.
If you need to lay off someone on your team, or provide feedback, do it in person. It’s easy for misunderstandings to occur through email. In person, you can communicate with compassion and empathy, and you can use your body language and vocal tone to further convey your sincerity and intentions.
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The first draft
The first words you write are the first draft. Writing is thinking. You'll rarely know what exactly you want to say when you start writing.
The time you put into editing, reworking and re...
Common errors
Most writing mistakes are widespread, but good writers just get better at spotting them. Some things you'll learn to watch for are:
- Overuse of jargon and business-speak, like "utilize" or "endeavor" instead of "use" or "try."
- Clichés are stale phrases that have lost their impact and novelty through overuse. If you are used to seeing it in print, don't use it.
- The passive voice. The subject of the sentence should be the person or thing taking action, not the thing being acted on. "Harry wrote this article," is better than "This article was written by Harry."
- Rambling. When you are not sure what you want to say, it is easy to phrase it in three or four different ways. A single concise sentence is generally better.
Give it some space
When you write something, you get very close to it. It is nearly impossible to distance yourself from it straight away to edit properly.
The longer you can leave a draft before editing, the better. Half an hour to two days is enough of a break to edit well. When you do edit, read your work out loud. You'll catch more problems and get a better feel for how everything flows.
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Tips for Better Business Writing
You can be a good business writer, just by following these five tips:
1. Write as you speak.
2. Read it aloud.
3. Ditch the Jargon.
4. Ignore the English Teacher.
Write how you Speak
Writing simply, and in an alive tone, using everyday words is more forthcoming and refreshing, than using unnatural sounding words.
Write like a human.
Read it Aloud
If you read your written text aloud, you will realize where it can be worded better, or where to add or remove a comma. You can also let someone else read it.
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Ignore your inbox when you wake up
Responding to emails as soon as you receive a notification gives others the impression that you’re at their beck and call. It also prevents you from reflecting on your own priorities for...
Empty your inbox daily
- Do. If the email is actionable and takes under two minutes, then do the task ASAP.
- Delegate. Forward the right tasks to the right people.
- Defer. Reply to the message at a better time.
- Delete emails that are not important or that you can delegate.
- File. Add messages that contain information you will need to your archives.
Stop CC’ing everyone
To avoid filling the email box of staff members, only CC the relevant parties. Ask your team to respond to you individually instead of using the reply-to-all button.