10 Tips for Better Business Writing

 

Image from www.simplystatedbusiness.com

 

Writing in a business environment is an activity with associated norms, challenges, and opportunities. Keep the following points in mind as you craft communication in the context of a company or an organization.

1. Clarity
Be clear. Clarity is the primary goal of all communication, and in business writing, the degree of transparency in one’s message can determine whether one succeeds or fails in a venture, whether you’re transmitting a report or closing a deal. State the intention of your message, provide the necessary details, and request the precise response you need or want.

2. Active Voice
Employ active construction (subject-verb-object). “This report was sent to me by John Smith” is not wrong, and it’s probably the best choice if you want to distinguish one report from another, but consider whether “John Smith” should be the subject of the sentence; the active syntax is more vigorous, and usually more appropriate.

3. Direct Language
Construct concise, declarative statements. Your goal is to provide or invite information, or to persuade or be persuaded. Your time is valuable to you, but the recipient or recipients of your communication also have constraints and deadlines, so take the time to express yourself with economy and directness.

4. Simple Words
Favor plain, clear words and phrases over technical terms, jargon, or buzzwords. Take care not to complicate your vocabulary or stiffen your tone in an attempt to seem more businesslike or expert. By all means, use proper terminology to enhance clarity and demonstrate your knowledge and skills, but imagine how you would speak to your intended audience, and write with a conversational glossary in mind.

5. Tone
Strike a balance in tone that depends on the particular context of the communication. Even within categories (memos, whether in print or in email form, or marketing content), the feel of the correspondence will depend on many factors. Consult with management and colleagues, study precedents, and consider the audience when settling on the voice of a particular message.

6. Role
Consider the role of a particular piece of communication. If it’s summarizing a report, don’t go into so much detail that the report itself is unnecessary (unless, of course, you’re providing an executive summary for a company leader who doesn’t have time to read it). If it’s part of a larger project, match your writing style to the approach of the overall suite of materials.

7. Goal
Focus on the expected or hoped-for outcome. Whether you’re writing to a superior or a subordinate, or to a colleague or someone outside your company or organization, be clear but courteous about the goal of your correspondence.

8. Candor
Avoid euphemisms or generic references; name topics outright. Diplomacy is a foundation of successful business transactions, but you can undermine success by seeming too solicitous or vague about sensitive matters. Be forthright in your discussion.

9. Formality
Standards for business correspondence have become more relaxed, but maintain a professional tone, avoiding slang or text-speak, exclamation points, and overly informal salutations and sign-offs.

10. Words with Friends
Be cautious about making exceptions about formality when corresponding with coworkers or associates you consider friends or confidants. Just because you dish or swear when the two of you chat in person doesn’t mean you should do so in email messages or other electronic communications located on a company network. Drop the formality a notch, certainly, but don’t document your lapses in professional behavior.

7 Tips for Editing to Improve Usage

Image from www.msdanielsden.com

 

How do you make sure you’re writing right? Crafting prose is mostly a matter of using the right words for the job. Here are some steps to help you achieve that goal.

1. Look up the definition of an unfamiliar word and be sure you understand the meaning before you use it.
It’s easy to deploy a word you’ve just read or heard, mistakenly believing you understand its definition or its connotation, only to confuse or accidentally mislead your readers. Always double-check a term you’ve never used before. (Consider doing the same with words you’ve used before and think you know.)

2. Search a thesaurus or a synonym finder for the precise meaning, taking care to notice the different connotations of similar words.
Flag stock words and phrases, and thumb or click through a print or online resource to select a more exact or accurate synonym. But be alert to seemingly similar words with distinct senses.

3. Keep your writing clear and coherent, and avoid pretentious or overly formal language.
Write to communicate, not to impress. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. Don’t dumb down, but don’t let your writing get in the way of your message. There’s a fine line between elegance and pomposity.

4. Select the strongest nouns and verbs before you select adjectives and adverbs.
Words that modify nouns and verbs can enhance clarity of thought and vividness of imagery, but if they upstage the words they’re supposed to support, strengthen the actor and action words. When you do so, an adjective or adverb may no longer be necessary.

5. Seek opportunities to use repetition for rhetorical effect while, at the same time, you watch for careless redundancy.
Take care that you don’t repeat yourself unless you do so to emphasize your point.

6. Read your draft aloud to help you refine grammar and usage. If something doesn’t sound right to you, it probably doesn’t read right to your audience, either.
Recitation of your writing is time consuming, but that’s how you find the awkward wording or phrasing you didn’t stumble over in your silent review.

7. Ask someone else to read your writing and critique it.
People you draft to read your draft need not offer solutions to problems of grammar, usage, organization, and logic; they can simply highlight problematic words, phrases, sentences, and passages, and offer more detail if necessary while leaving the problem solving to you.

This last step isn’t practical for every writing task or assignment, but if a piece of prose is important enough to you, and you have a reliable, word-savvy person on hand, ask to borrow their eyes and the brain attached to them. (You, of course, will reciprocate when called on.)

30 Nautical Expressions

After launching a list of seafaring idioms on a previous online cruise, I discovered a cargo hold of additional expressions that originated on the high seas but have come to rest high and dry on land. Here’s the haul.

1. All at sea: lost because of lack of knowledge of one’s position (confused and disorganized)

2. At loose ends: a reference to idle sailors being assigned to check that rigging is secure (idle)

3. Bail out: remove water from (assist or rescue)

4. Broad in the beam: said of a wide vessel (said of a large-hipped woman)

5. By and large: said in reference to steering slightly off the wind to ease effort and decrease the risk of slowing (in general, without special consideration)

6. Cut and run: sever the anchor line in an emergency (leave abruptly and abandoning others)

7. Fall foul of: collide with or become entangled in (come into conflict with)

8. First-rate: the largest class of warships during the sailing era (best)

9. Flog a dead horse: a reference to a period of work after getting — and spending — an initial payment (focusing on something already completed or settled)

10. Flotsam and jetsam: items lost or thrown overboard, respectively (odds and ends)

11. Give a wide berth: provide sufficient space when anchoring or docking to avoid other ships (keep at a distance)

12. Go by the board: a reference to something lost overboard (said of something to be abandoned or ignored)

13. Hail from: referring to the point of origin of a ship (come from, live)

14. Half seas over: partly submerged or keeled over so that waves are breaking over the deck, and therefore unable to maneuver effectively (drunk)

15. Hand over fist: using one hand at a time in quick alternating movements (rapidly)

16. Hard and fast: grounded (inflexible)

17. Hard up: a reference to the tiller being pushed as far to one side as possible (short of money)

18. High and dry: beached or caught on rocks and standing out of the water as the tide recedes (stranded or without resources or support)

19. In the offing: in sight, from the term for the expanse of ocean visible from shore (about to happen)

20. Know the ropes/learn the ropes: a reference to understanding knots, ropes, and rigging (familiarity with or training in how to perform a task)

21. Loose cannon: a piece of artillery that is not secure and therefore can cause damage or injury when it rolls on its wheels from the ship’s movement or from its recoil after being fired (out of control or unpredictable)

22. Ship shape: ready for sailing, with equipment and materials secured (clean, neat, in good condition)

23. Skylarking: sliding down rigging for fun (engaging in playful antics)

24. Take another tack: change the ship’s direction in relation to the wind (try another approach)

25. Take the wind out of one’s sails: a reference to the loss of movement when another vessel comes between the wind and one’s ship (to undermine another, usually by anticipating an action)

26. Taken aback: halted by a sudden shift of wind (surprised by a revelation)

27. Three sheets to the wind: a reference to the sheets (ropes) of a sail becoming loosened, rendering the sail useless (drunk)

28. Trim one’s sails (before the wind): adjust sails as appropriate (act according to circumstances)

29. When one’s ship comes home: a reference to the arrival of a fully laden cargo ship that will bring profit to the owner or investors (achievement of fortune or good luck)

30. Whistle for it/whistle for the wind: from the tradition of superstitiously whistling to summon the wind (hope for the impossible)

At least two nautical expressions, “between the devil and the deep (blue) sea” (meaning, essentially, “between a rock and a hard place”) and “to the bitter end” (meaning “to the last extremity, regardless of difficulty”), have been attributed to seafaring origins, but the idioms, or similar expressions, may have come from earlier landlubber usage.

10 Steps to Dealing With Mean-Spirited Critics, Comment Trolls, and Other Jerks

1. Write.
2. Keep writing.
3. Whenever you think about it, write.
5. If you’re angry, write anyway.
6. If you’re feeling insecure, write anyway.
7. If you’re depressed and think no one cares about you or your writing, write anyway.
4. Don’t work for hours on the perfect zinger to respond with. Work on your writing.
8. If they convince you that you’re not a real writer, write anyway.
9. If you need to delete their comment, do it. Then go and write.
10. It doesn’t matter what they said or why they said it or who they are. It only matters that you write. So get to work.

PRACTICE

Write about a mean-spirited, Internet troll, critic jerk who finally gets his or her comeuppance.

Write for fifteen minutes. When your time is up, post your practice in the comments section. And if you post, please be sure to give feedback to a few practices by other writers.

Happy writing! ;)