Create Effective Business Writing

There are 3 major characteristics of effective business writing:

    Complete
    Concise
    Accurate

What is the purpose of business writing? You write a business letter to convey information to or request for information from the other party. Be clear and direct to the point so that your reader will easily understand what you are telling or asking them.

A poorly written business letter is:

    Sloppy
    Disorganized
    Littered with jargon
    Laden with grammatical errors
    Incomplete
    Too long or too short

Examples of business writing is an email to your department, a sales proposal, or an instruction manual. Here are steps on how to create a business content.

Steps to Create Business Writing

    Organize your material- if you are announcing a staff meeting, for example, organizing here may simply mean collecting your thoughts. But if you are writing a pharmaceutical trial, then you will need to prepare a multi-level outline. With proper preparation and organization, you determine whether you need to include everything or just give prominence to important topics. Otherwise, with incorrect focus and some omissions, your business writing will be less clear.

    Consider your audience- think about your audience before creating your business content. If you need to make a presentation of the new 401k program of your company, the level of details in your text will vary if you're showing it to your CFO or to the employees. Then note the tone of your letter, too. A short email to your team to remind them of security procedures and an annual report to your department will have different tones.

    Write- Writing styles vary. You may write all of your content first and then review and edit, or you may edit along the way as you write. Be aware of the length when you write and edit. Use only necessary words to convey your message clearly. Avoid writing a wordy content, weed out unnecessary words. See to it that your text is clear and concise, not verbose or flowery. You'll save your reader a lot of time by being straight to the point in stating your message. And one thing that people in the business world are always running after time. Be careful that your letter might be too short, too. Write enough so that you convey the accurate meaning of your message. You don't want to be misunderstood. Don't use jargon or abbreviations to shorten your message because they often mean different things to different readers.

    Proofread and Edit- Proofreading means you re- read your work to make sure that the words in your head were properly placed on paper. The extent of your proofreading depends on the length of your work. After proofreading, edit your writing. This is when you fix errors so that your work becomes clear and concise. Sometimes proofreading and editing are done together, but it's better if these steps are done sequentially.

By the way, do you want to learn more about leadership in your company? If so, download your FREE eBook here: Guide to Elegant Courage Leadership

Jodi and Mike specialize in executive coaching with individuals and teams. http://lighthouse-leadership.com

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