Business Writing

Be specific. Be concrete. By spelling things out you make it easier for people to understand. You are also more credible.

Avoid using multiple words when one will do. For some reason people seem to think they sound more intelligent, more authoritative, more ‘I don’t quite know what’, when they use more words and long sentences.

Carefully read what you have written to make sure your meaning is clear. I was just drafting the first sentence of this tip and I’m glad I checked it. My first draft was, ‘Read what you have written carefully to make sure your meaning is clear.’ A bit of confusion here!

If you don’t need a word, remove it. If it doesn’t add anything to the meaning, get rid of it. Be ruthless. Often when we write more words, we make it harder for our reader to understand what we really want to say. Our meaning gets lost. When you edit your work (you do edit before you send, don’t you?), check for these things. Your readers will thank you for it.

When you’re using bulleted lists it is important to keep the grammar consistent. Usually a bulleted list is introduced by a phrase. The text after the bullet should combine with the phrase to form a coherent whole.