6th Commandment of Business Writing: Revise your Words!

Analyzing a document down to a word… Does it really matter? Y dnt u tell m3? Of course that’s an extreme example, but word choice is an important, and subtle, distinction between a good writer and a wishy-washy one. Heres an example of good words compared to words not to use.

Good                     Bad

Guess                   Assume

Nosy                      Curious

Haggle                  Negotiate

Fearful                  Cautious

Wishy-washy     Flexible

Denotation is a word's literal (definition) meaning, while connotation is the implied meaning that the word brings up when mentioned. Wishy-washy can be described as flaky, not worth attention or worthwhile, it is much close to flexible in meaning. Flexible is its denotation, the other meanings are connotations. See how the right word matters now?

The best writing style is businesslike and friendly, for business writing in a friendly environment. In truth it all depends on your audience and writing conventions of your setting. Writing a heavily researched dissertation can impress college professors but will get you nowhere with kindergarteners. Revising is always expected across all forms of writing however. Let’s go over a few ground rules that can always be applied: Use active verbs to carry the weight of your sentence, vary sentence length and structure, use parallel structure and put your readers in your sentences (indirectly but not directly).  

5th Commandment of Business Writing: Benefit your readers!

Identify the benefits your readers are looking for and then highlight them! Whether by new product or policy or an announcement of some sort, look between the lines and make sure your readers know. Benefits can be psychological, intrinsic or extrinsic. Psychological benefits are perceived by the reader and help make a happy reader, intrinsic is by proxy of the new product, service or policy being announced and extrinsic is added on solely for the reader. Make sure to develop the benefit fully, use more than one sentence to enlighten the reader on how this benefits them. This strategy makes a happy reader who looks on you and your company more favorably.

 

E-mail is an integral part of office work and a highly useful tool: But use discretion! E-mail is not private and any questionable information sent can come back to you days, weeks, years even, later.  E-mail should be as formal as a memo in a business situation, although it is tempting to become lax when using e-mail, the same principles apply. The spelling, tone, and image all still contribute to the reader’s image of you and your company. Also, always avoid sending e-mail when angry or upset in any way, use discretion with all caps, NEVER SEND A WHOLE E-MAIL MESSAGE LIKE THIS BECAUSE IT IS EXTREMELY ANNOYING.

4th Commandment of Business Writing: Know your strategy.

Negative messages are necessary, they must be used to give the bad news, have the reader understand and accept the message and maintain as much goodwill as possible. Try to omit the subject line unless there is a chance readers might overlook the message. To present a negative message to someone outside the company, organize it in this manner: Reason for bad news, give the bad news once and clearly, an alternative solution and a goodwill ending. When presenting bad news to a superior you must describe the problem, tell how it happened, describe the options for fixing it and recommend a solution and ask for action. The most common types of negative letters are rejections, refusals, disciplinary notices, negative performance appraisals, layoffs and firings.

Persuasive messages primarily are to get the reader to act, provide information on how to act, and overcome any obstacle that would prevent someone to act. There are four ways to create persuasive messages but we will be focusing on just two, direct request pattern and problem solving pattern. Direct request is self-explanatory, it involves asking immediately for information or service that you want, give the readers information they will need and then ask again. Problem solving is magnanimous, you start by describing the problem you both share, give the details of the problem, explain solution to the problem, show that any negative elements are outweighed by advantages, summarize any additional benefits and then ask for the action you want.

3rd Commandment of Business Writing: Be Positive

Formats for Letters and Memos

 

Letters and memos are essential to running a business, they are used to inform or persuade. Letters go out of the office to clients or interested parties while memos are inter-office. In this aspect letters are generally persuasive and memos are informative.  Letters commonly follow two formats – block style and modified block style. Block style is the most common and has all paragraphs lined up to the left of the page with no indentation. Modified block style can use indentation and aligns the salutation and conclusion on the right side of the page. Memos are simple and contain no salutation or conclusion and are aligned to the left with optional indentation. Whether writing a letter or a memo the format will affect the image the reader has on you and the company you belong to, thereby the format choice is an important consideration when writing.

Informative and Positive Messages

 Presenting information in a positive light affects the image of your company, therefore it is crucial to practice always using positive tone. The subject line needs to be specific and concise and the information needs to presented in the following order.

1.       Give good news and summarize main points.

2.       Give details, clarification and background.

3.       Present any negative elements… as positively as possible.

4.       Explain any reader benefits.

5.       Use a goodwill ending: positive, personal and forward looking.

Try to include reader benefits, however they are not needed when you’re presenting factual information only, the readers attitude doesn’t matter, stressing benefits may make the reader sound selfish or when the benefits are so obvious that restating them insults the readers intelligence.