Tuesday 19 May 2009

How to Improve your Business Writing


Whether you’re worried that your emails come across as too friendly or too brisk, or whether you have to prepare a report or presentation, these tips should help you write in a professional, readable, way – that’s bound to impress your clients, your boss and your colleagues.
  1. Be As Clear And As Succinct As Possible
    If you’re not totally confident about your writing skills, it’s easy to fall into the trap of using complex words and impressive-sounding phrases that don’t really mean anything. You need to resist this temptation, and 
    make your writing as simple, clear and concise as you can.

    This is especially crucial if you’re writing a document for external purposes, particularly if it will be published on the web, where readers are typically rushed and distracted.

    This sort of language is often a real turn-off to potential clients. I’ll bet that you’ve come across paragraphs like this on websites:

    AskBio has proactively developed strategic relationships with the following corporate, foundation, and academic collaborators, which provides distinct capabilities to execute projects from discovery through patient clinical trials. (AskBio – Collaborators)

    Does it inspire you to read on? Does it even make sense at a quick glance? Wouldn’t you prefer to read:

    AskBio has strong relationships with these corporate, foundation, and academic collaborators. Our expert connections mean we can take your project every step of the way – from discovery to patient clinical trials.

    Yes, my example doesn’t hit all those key business words like “proactively”, “strategic” and “execute”. Frankly, unless you’re writing for a boss with a predilection for buzzword bingo, you don’t need them.
For the full article please follow this link 

Many thanks to Ali Hale http://www.aliventures.com/ and also Jay at http://www.dumblittleman.com/ for permission to link and post this blog.

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