Business Writing Advice for Professionals

Proofreading and editing your written work need not wait until you are finished writing. In fact, one method of creating clear, correctly phrased, concise, and to-the-point reports, memos, proposals, contracts, letters, and all other types of written work is to follow the rules of POWER:

1. Plan
2. Outline
3. Write defensively
4. Edit
5. Revise

Plan your written work. Before you pick up that pen or pencil or touch your keyboard, decide what you want to write, why you are writing it, and what you hope your document will accomplish.

Outline your ideas. You may use a formal Roman numeral type of outline or simply jot down notes, but, either way, you should put your ideas down on paper before you start to write.

Writing defensively means, as you are writing, you should think about your word choices and the organization of your document. Writing as well as you can at the beginning can help you to avoid the need for large-scale revisions later on. Many professional writers take the opposite perspective: they say that the first draft of a document should flow freely and quickly, without regard to writing rules. They believe that the writer should not be concerned with the mechanics of writing until after the first draft has been completed. I propose combining the two approaches: you should write freely, but, every so often, let’s say, after a paragraph or two, you should re-read what you have written, and tighten up your writing.

Edit your paper thoroughly as soon as you are done writing. Look for errors in terms of spelling, punctuation, vocabulary usage, grammar, etc., as well as transitions between sentences and paragraphs.

Revise your paper to make it as concise and clear as possible. Remember, if you want your work to be read and understood, it has to be readable. Do not say more than you need to in order to make your point. On the other hand, explain yourself. Just because you know what you mean, that does not guarantee that whoever reads your paper will understand your meaning. Step back, and try to put yourself in the shoes of whoever will be reading your paper. Will he or she or they understand what you mean?

By following the rules of POWER, you will be able to create documents that clearly make their points and which communicate your ideas to the reader.

Marco Manfre
Editor

Good use of lists can make instructions or other sets of details much more readable and easier to grasp. Let’s look at an example.

Without a List

To ensure your garments are properly cleaned, conduct the following steps, in order. First, take the soiled garments from the basket and place them into the washer. Add the correct amount of detergent to the washer. Close the lid and then set the timer. Remove clothes when wash cycle is complete.

With a List

To ensure your garments are properly cleaned, conduct the following steps, in order.

1. Place garments into washer.
2. Add detergent.
3. Set timer.
4. Close lid.
5. Remove clothes when wash cycle is complete.

Are both sets of directions clear? Yes. But the second set is much easier to read and can be comprehended more quickly and easily. That’s important in this type of business writing.

Here’s another example, this time with a bulleted (instead of a numbered) list.

Without a List

The shortfall we have recently experienced is likely to be short-lived. To save money, there are areas of spending that can be cut. Training new employees later will be costly. Downsizing may be perceived as weakness by our competitors.

With a List

There are several reasons why it would be a bad idea for our company to lay off employees at this time. These include:

• The shortfall we have recently experienced is likely to be short-lived.
• To save money, there are areas of spending that can be cut.
• Training new employees later will be costly.
• Downsizing may be perceived as weakness by our competitors.

Again, both ways work, but a list like this just makes it easier to quickly grasp key points. This is because every point is separated into a different line, and the reader can choose to focus on any one line very quickly, as opposed to having to read through the whole paragraph.

So, make good use of bulleted and numbered lists. They are a good tool to make your writing easier to be comprehended quickly.

Steve Fricke
Editor

Last quarter, as you all are aware from the minutes of the previous Board meeting, held on 30 June, 2007 at 5:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, in this very office, we, that is to say, this esteemed Board, felt obligated to delineate, and indeed to emphasize the value of the progress and growth of our fine company, as could only have been made possibly through the continued efforts of the fine men and women of each of our sundry but equally valued departments, all of which shall herewith be named, in turn, and each member duly honored…

zzzzzzzzzzzzz……

Huh? Oh…sorry, must have nodded off. And who wouldn’t, given such a desperately dull account as that listed above? Speeches are meant to inform, not substitute as a sleeping aid. Here’s how to write speeches that are informative and interesting.

Rule number one: Make it relevant to the audience

In all business writing, there is no rule more important than this. To use the example above, no one cares what time zone the previous meeting happened to be in. And is it really necessary to point out that we are an esteemed Board?

Since the intent of the above speech is to honor company employees, why not try something like this:

Our company’s continued progress is due mainly to one key factor: you. Each department plays an important part in making us an industry leader. With this in mind, it is my pleasure to sincerely thank each of you for the fine work that you do…

What makes this so much better? Mainly the fact that it’s you-focused. There is one other thing, though. The old standby of speech killers is stilted language (why people ever thought they had to speak in such language is somewhat beyond me—but I digress). Specifically, using words like sundry, herewith, delineate, etc. is not only necessary, but can often be off-putting (avoid words like “off-putting,” too).

So, make it relevant, keep it you-focused, and use language that is easily understood—your audience will appreciate it.

Steve Fricke
Editor

Since a document is only as useful as it is readable, a writer should make sure that it is free of all English usage and punctuation errors before submitting it for publication or dissemination. One important aspect of punctuation involves the use of apostrophes.

Apostrophes are properly used in only two circumstances, for contractions and to indicate possession.

Let’s examine contractions first. Contractions are words which are composed of two individual words, such as isn’t, they’re, and they’ll. An apostrophe is used in place of a letter or letters that have been dropped from one of the words that compose the contraction. In the case of isn’t, which is composed of is and not, the apostrophe holds the place of the o, which was deleted from not. In they’re, the apostrophe takes the place of the a from are. In the case of they’ll, the apostrophe is used in place of two letters, w and i from the word will.

As previously stated, apostrophes are also used to show possession. That means to indicate that a subject or other noun in a sentence “owns” or “possesses” something or someone. That construction is generally formed by adding an apostrophe and an s to the end of the noun. Here are some examples of that:

The insurance agent’s clients are pleased with his approach. The agent possesses (in a grammatical sense) the clients.

We invited Mr. Campbell’s family to the awards dinner. Mr. Campbell possesses his family.

When can we expect this month’s report? The report is a possession of this month.

When indicating possession in reference to regular plural nouns, the apostrophe is placed between the last letter of the singular form of the word and the s, as in the following:

We spent hours calculating the workers’ compensation package. In this sentence, the noun that is the subject of possession is workers, the plural of worker. They possess the compensation package.

The company plans on honoring the vice presidents’ achievements. The achievements are those of the vice presidents (more than one vice president).

Mrs. Jackson is attempting to resolve the clients’ problems. The problems are those of the clients (more than one client).

There are two special situations involving possessives: names ending in s and when using irregular plural nouns. In terms of names ending in s, the apostrophe is added to the end of the name, after the s. The examples below involve names that end in s:

That is Charles’ new office. Obviously, the name is Charles.

Mr. Fieldings’ briefcase is missing. The name is Fieldings, not Fielding. If it were Fielding, then the possessive form would be Mr. Fielding’s briefcase…

We plan on celebrating Gladys’ birthday tomorrow. The apostrophe belongs after the s because her name is Gladys, not Glady.

When showing possession with words which are irregular plurals (that is, spellings that are different from the singular form), an apostrophe and then an s are placed after the word. The following are examples of possessive apostrophe use in words with irregular plural spellings:

The women’s group will meet with us next week. Women is the irregular plural of woman.

That is the men’s locker room. Men is the irregular plural of man.

We have a children’s day every summer. Children is the irregular plural of child.

Under no circumstances should apostrophes be used to indicate plurals. The following cases are all incorrect:

All of the new employee’s are working out well. It should be employees.

Have we determined which clients’ will be eligible for the discount? It should be clients.

Next month, we should discuss the strategy’s for our new marketing campaign. It should be strategies.

To sum up, apostrophes are correctly used only in contractions and to show possession, and not to pluralize nouns.

Marco Manfre
Editor

Have you ever come across a website where the About Us page says something like this?

Our value lies in providing you with a full turnkey solution that encompasses support, analysis, and continuous improvement. We proudly employ TQM and strive to optimize our quality assurance levels to satisfy our valued customers, as evidenced by our increased dominant market share and…

In a word, Yuck. Why not just speak English? I mean, really—who actually talks like this?

There is a tendency, it seems, to indulge one’s penchant for jargon—one might say, a predisposition towards an individual’s cant of choice. Mind you, this assertion is not ipse dixit; the evidence is mountainous, given the pedantic disciplines of medicine, engineering, and computer science alone…

Pardon me; I just slipped into jargon mode myself. Now, if you happen to be an English major or professor, maybe that stilted mess made sense. But an average reader will probably move on at the first indication that the writing is overly (or unnecessarily) not written with him or her in mind.

Here’s the point. If you want a good grade, you should write to please the professor. If you want to sell widgets, you should write your website or other sales copy to entice people to buy widgets. You have to do this at their level, not yours. They may not have a doctorate in widgetology, and your industry-specific terms, far from impressing them, will drive them to your competitors.

So, when writing copy for your product or service, remember:

Talk to your customers at their level
This would not be at the level of yourself and your peers, who happen to be experts (unless, of course, your customers are also experts).

Avoid jargon
If someone sees several unfamiliar terms, they’re going to likely go somewhere that will tell them the same thing in plain English. Sometimes jargon is unavoidable, but avoid it when you can.

Steve Fricke
Editor

When it comes to writing business documents, your meaning must be crystal clear. The correct use of words is, obviously, essential. A common type of writing error involves the use of easily confused words.

The most typical of this kind of error involves the use of words that sound similar, such as 1) there, their, and they’re 2) its and it’s 3) your and you’re.

1) In the first group, there and their are homographs, meaning “same sound,” but their meanings and uses are very different from each other. The last one in this group, they’re, is a contraction which, even though it does not sound exactly the same as the other two words, is often incorrectly used in place of them.

First, let’s deal with they’re. They’re is a contraction of they are, as in “I think they’re the right ones for the new program.” That’s the easy one to remember.

Now, to the homographs. There can be an adverb, a pronoun, or a noun. But, don’t worry about that. There is always used to refer to a place or to a state of being. These are some examples of the correct use of there:

We will open our new operations center there.
There have been many recent changes in our customer base.
There was a time when we visited each customer on a weekly basis.

And, of course, it’s not really a sentence, but: Been there, done that.

A way to remember how to use there is to call to mind the fact that the word here is embedded in the word there. If you can use here in a sentence, then you can use there in that sentence, if the word is being used to refer to a physical space.

Now for their. Their is a possessive pronoun. It is always used before a noun or a noun phrase to indicate that something belongs to two or more people or to an entity.

Here are some examples:

We are ready to adopt their procedure.
Did you see their office?
That’s their problem.

2) Two other words that are very often confused with each other are its and it’s. The first one, its, is a pronoun, as in “The operations staff makes its own decisions.” The second word, it’s, is a contraction of it is. It is used as follows: “We have decided that it’s time for the announcement.”

3) Now we will deal with your and you’re. The first one, your, is a pronoun. It is used in the following way: “Getting the project started is your responsibility.” The other word, you’re, is a contraction of you are. It is used as follows: “We believe that you’re the right one for this job.”

The following is an additional list of easily confused words (mostly in pairs) that sound and/or look similar to each other, and which people often use incorrectly or interchangeably. Since they have vastly different meanings from each other, their inappropriate uses can dramatically change the intent of what you are writing. If the word is spelled correctly, most word processing spell check programs will not indicate that you have used the wrong one. If you are not sure about when to use each of the following words, you should rely on a dictionary for definitions and usages or, in Microsoft Word, go to Tools, and then Language, and then Thesaurus. That will reveal words with similar meanings. In addition, there are a number of excellent websites devoted to the topic of easily confused words.

accept… except
access… excess
adverse… averse
advice… advise
affect… effect
all ready… already
all together… altogether
allusion… illusion
breath… breadth
canvas… canvass
capital… capitol
cite… sight… site
compose… comprise
connote… denote
course… coarse
complement… compliment
council… counsel
desert… dessert
diner… dinner
discreet… discrete
elicit… illicit
eminent… imminent
faith… fate
foreword… forward
farther… further
few… less
flaunt… flout
holy… wholly
lead… led
lightening… lightning
loose… lose
moral… morale
passed… past
personal… personnel
principal… principle
prostate… prostrate
quiet… quit… quite
stationary… stationery
than… then
throne… thrown
weak… week
weather… whether
whose… who’s

Ok. That should clear up the problem. In reference to writers who have had problems with this issue in the past, hopefully, they’re now competent in their use of the words, and there will not be any more mistakes. It’s not difficult to learn how to use each word in its correct place. In reference to easily confused words, once you’re sure about their meanings, your writing will be much clearer.

Marco Manfre
Editor

Whether it’s a sales letter, proposal, or other business correspondence, it’s important to keep things interesting to the reader. A couple of ways to do that are to make good use of white space, bite-size paragraphs, and an enticing first paragraph.

Good subject line
If your writing has no subject line, you’re likely in trouble from the start. Since no one has time to do anything these days, spending 10 minutes to read through your whole paper is going to be out of the question for all but the Maytag repairman.

That said, how should your subject line be? First and foremost it should offer a very concise, one-line summary of what the paper is all about. A secondary consideration—but a very important one—is that it should, if possible, be likely to appeal to or interest the reader. Always use a “What’s in it for the reader?” approach.

White space
One sure way to keep your writing from being read is to have a huge block of text with no breaks. To the reader, it looks like an impenetrable brick fortress that it’s best to just leave alone. After all, it’s no fun to read halfway through something like that, only to lose your place and then have to find it again. So, keep the paragraphs short, say, between two and five sentences.

Captivating first paragraph
If you can’t grab the reader’s attention within about 5 seconds from the time your paper is first examined, it’s likely going to end up in the dustbin. What you need in this part is a tasty little summary of what’s in the paper, or of what your company can do for the company to whom the correspondence is addressed. The point is that you want to make the reader interested enough to read the rest of the document.

These are just some of the ways to help make sure your business writing gets read and acted upon. For more tips, keep checking back.

Steve Fricke
Editor

Before you send out that memo, email, report, summary, letter, or any other business document, you will want to make sure that it represents your best effort. Of course, you will have checked your sources and verified your information. You know that your statistical data is correct and up to date. You have double-checked your figures and dates and every other conceivable detail.

But…wait. Is it really ready for submission? Is it possible that your document contains clunky sentences? What about those spelling demons? Those are the words that you never remember how to spell or that you confuse with other words. Then there’s punctuation! Apostrophes, commas, quotation marks, etc., etc.

What about missing words and repetitive words and inappropriate changes of tense, number, or subject?

How about tone and voice? Have you written this document so that the few or dozens or hundreds who might read it are able to understand what you are attempting to convey?

Is it ready for prime time?

What should you do? The first step in terms of proofreading a document is to read the paper to yourself, out loud, if that helps. Don’t read what you think you wrote or what you meant to write. Go through the paper line by line, word by word, as if you are a neutral reader, and not the one who put so much in terms of blood, sweat, and tears into it.

Use the spell check function on your word processing program. It will not catch every error, but it will detect most spelling and usage mistakes.

Here’s a good tip: You might want to print a copy of your work, and read it in black and white on paper. You may find that, even after carefully proofreading your work by reading it on your computer screen, you come across additional errors when you read a hard copy of it. Seeing the writing on paper may allow you to notice errors that you did not detect when you read the document on your computer monitor.

When all is said and done, if you are not sure that your document is completely correct and ready to be distributed or emailed or published, you can always refer it to a document editing and proofreading service, such as Proof-reading.com.

Marco Manfre
Editor