Using abbreviations, acronyms, and individualisms can save time, but they must be utilized properly and, generally speaking, sparingly. The inappropriate use of these shortcuts may, in some circumstances, lead to problems. Abbreviations are, technically speaking, shortened versions of words that are universally known and recognized. They must be followed by periods. They are not the same as acronyms, which are new words that are created by using the first letter of each word in a longer name. They are not followed by periods. Individualisms are the same as acronyms, except that they are pronounced by reading each letter in turn, as will be explained below.

Let us examine abbreviations first. Two of the most commonly used are Mr., which is the shortened version of Mister, and Mrs., which is the abbreviation for, believe it or not, Mistress. (By the way, Miss is not an abbreviation, so it should not be followed by a period, and Ms may be followed by a period, but is generally not.) Those abbreviations should be used only before a name, as in Mr. Roberts or Mrs. Robinson, as opposed to a reference to an unnamed mister or mistress. The abbreviation for corporation is, of course, corp. It should be used after the name of a particular corporation, as in General Motors Corp. If you were referring to a corporation, and not naming it, then the abbreviation should not be used. By the way, when ending a sentence with an abbreviation, it is not necessary to add a second period. The following example is written correctly:

For the past seven years, I have worked for the Ford Motor Corp.

Now, for acronyms. Some common examples are NATO, which stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and AIDS, which is used in place of Acquired Immune Deficiency Disorder. Acronyms are not be followed by periods. They are pronounced as new words, so that NATO is pronounced nay-toe.

Individualisms are just like acronyms, but, as in the case of CIA, they are spelled out. So, CIA is pronounced C-I-A. Individualisms are not followed by periods.

There are two problems with the use of abbreviations, acronyms, and periods. The first involves the pluralized and the possessive forms. For example, the following sentence contains a common error:

The United States will be sending 21,000 more GI’s to Iraq.

In that sentence, the apostrophe after GI is being used to pluralize the acronym GI, but look at the following:

The GI’s injury was not life threatening.

In that case, the apostrophe is being used to show possession. The varied uses of apostrophes in those sentences may be confusing to some readers. The situation becomes even more complicated when you attempt to use the plural possessive form of an acronym or abbreviation, as in the following:

All of the GIs’ injuries were minor.

It is best to use apostrophes for possession only, and not to pluralize abbreviations, acronyms, or individualisms. Just as you would not pluralize doctor by writing doctor’s, neither should you pluralize its abbreviation by writing Dr.’s. To pluralize an abbreviation, acronym, or individualism, simply add an s, as in the following:

We invited the Drs. Jones, Smith, and Reynolds to the luncheon.

The other problem with the use of abbreviations, acronyms, and individualisms is that they tend to lend a casual appearance to a document. If your report, memo, or email is intended to be impressive and formal, then those shortcuts should be used sparingly, and only when they are more appropriate than the long form of the word.

Look at the following example:

The three Drs. decided to visit the hosp. They were impressed with the widespread use of tech., and they referred to it as the most efficient med. corp. in the USA.

That usage would be acceptable in note form or in a casual email, but not in a formal business document.

To sum up, abbreviations, acronyms, and individualisms should be used sparingly and when appropriate, and, when it comes to pluralizing them, do not use apostrophes.

Business writing must be lucid and unambiguous. Readers of a proposal, report, memorandum, or any other type of business-related document must be able to glean the essential information rapidly and without impediments. The writing need not be literary or clever, but it must exemplify clear, concise, correct composition skills.

Although developing good writing skills requires time and practice, and even though there are dozens of types of errors that even a good writer may fall victim to, the following five writing tips should prove to be helpful in terms of turning out a good piece of writing every time:

1. Think about what you want to convey before you put fingers to your keyboard or your pencil to paper. This may be obvious, but many writers, those in and out of business, sometimes write before they think. Of course, one of the many benefits of Microsoft Word and other document processing applications is that the writer can easily rework documents over and over again, but, still, it is a good idea to allow the ideas that you want to transmit to percolate for a while before you actually start writing. Some people find writing an outline to be helpful, whether it is a formally designed one or simply a list of ideas. Others prefer to write from notes. Some people are able to put together cogent, well-written documents without the aid of any planning. However, you should always stop, and think before you write.

2. Use paragraphs. In other words, at some point during the writing process, you should make sure your document, unless it contains fewer than 300 words, is divided into paragraphs, each of which addresses a particular idea or focus or topic. A page-length document that is composed of one paragraph may look intimidating to the reader. It may also cause confusion on the reader’s part, if several issues are discussed. Each individual idea should be the topic sentence of its own paragraph. For example, if the main issue of your piece of writing is the new employee health insurance plan, then the first paragraph should be the introduction, in which you explain, in general terms, the fact that there is going to be a new plan. Your second paragraph should explain why the change is occurring, and subsequent paragraphs should discuss specifics, such as dates for the changeover, differences between the old plan and the new one, the process of changing plans, etc.

3. Use capital letters only where they belong. Some writers think that every important word or every work-related position in a sentence should be capitalized, as in the following example:

There will be Two Tiers in the Pharmacy Benefits Plan in the New Medical Plan. All Auditors in the Billing Department and all Section Heads will be enrolled in the Gold Tier Plan, while all other employees will be members of the Silver Tier Plan.

In terms of the use of capital letters, only proper nouns need to be capitalized. In the above example, only Gold Tier Plan and Silver Tier Plan should be capitalized because they are unique names which designate the specific plans.

4. Use proper punctuation. Do not overuse commas. They are used mainly for the following purposes: to separate clauses, when listing objects, and when writing dialogue. Quotation marks are not needed and are, in fact, incorrect when they are used to frame important words, as in the following:

All employees must fill out the “Employee Health Insurance Changeover Form” during the “Designated Employee Assignment Period.”

Quotation marks are used for dialogue and for the titles of short creative works, not to emphasize important ideas.

5. Do not assume the reader knows what you are trying to say. Carefully read what you have written as if you had not written it. Are you ideas clear and forthcoming? Have you provided enough explanatory information for your points to be understood? Have you given examples, where necessary? If not, then you must amend your document. There is no point writing something, if those who read it do not understand what you are trying to say.

When you have completed your writing, carefully, very carefully proofread what you have written. Read your document word-for-word. That is the only way in which to catch spelling, punctuation, usage errors, missing words, repetitive thoughts, and dozens of other blunders that can cloud the meaning of what you are trying to say. Of course, you should use the spell check function on your word processing program. It will catch most, but not all of your errors.

This list of Five Writing Tips is only, of course, a cursory attempt to help you to write carefully. Referring to a writer’s handbook or a high school English usage book may be helpful. If, when all is said and done and written, and you are not sure that you have gotten your points across clearly or if you think you may not have caught all of your English usage errors, you may submit your document to Proof-reading.com for expert editing.

Generally speaking, business writing does not necessitate the same strict adherence to the rules for citing sources that must be followed when composing academic papers and research studies. Business documents are usually forwarded to other people in business, who are interested solely in the content, and not to university professors and academic committees, who pay a great deal of attention to format and the rules of source citation. Nevertheless, for the sake of the clarity of your business documents, it is important to know how to properly write the names of newspaper articles, full-length books, and other sources.

Full-length books should be written in italics, as in the following: Achieve Maximum Success at Work by Marcus Buckingham. Although italicizing is the preferred method, it is also acceptable to underline the name of a full-length book, as in the following: The Strategy Paradox by Michael E. Raynor. In either case, the name of the author should always be included. In fact, the name of the writer, if available, should be included when citing any and all sources. The names of periodicals and newspapers should also be italicized or underlined, as in The Wall Street Journal.

The titles of lengthy reports and other long business documents, whether or not they have been published, should also be italicized or underlined, as in Five Year Strategy for Effective Growth for ABC Corporation.

Shorter business documents may be enclosed in quotation marks, as in “Short Summary of March 2007 Training Session” or they may be written without any special notation or punctuation.

Newspaper and periodical articles should always be enclosed in quotation marks, as in “Big Money Still Learning to Lobby” by Jenny Anderson (The New York Times, March 13, 2007, page C1).

Even though it does not happen often in business writing, in the event that the title of a short story, play, musical piece, movie, television or radio program, or piece of art is to be included, it should be enclosed in quotation marks, as in the following example: “The New Colossus.”

As noted earlier, even though the rules for citation that are so strictly observed in academic writing are followed much more loosely in business writing, it is still important to follow the suggestions for the writing of sources as indicated in this article.

ses•qui•pe•da•lian
Adjective
Given to or characterized by the use of long words.

I have to admit that sesquipedalian is one of my favorite words. From the Latin, it means, literally, someone who uses words that are a foot-and-a-half long. Cool word? Yes. But actually being a sesquipedalian is not something that’s recommended in standard business writing. Here are some examples to illustrate this point.

Business correspondence:
Here’s how a sesquipedalian might respond to a customer inquiry:

Dear Mrs. So-and-so:

Our esteemed office has become cognizant of the investigative matter detailed in your recent querulous epistle. We find your assertions to be ipse dixit, and, as such, are compelled to dismiss them pejoratively.

We remain,
The Hoity-Toity Firm of Greater Metropolis

Lovely. Will the customer who wrote to this company ever return to them? Unlikely. But consider how a non-sesquipedalian writer might have responded to the same customer inquiry:

Dear Mrs. So-and-so:

Thank you for your recent inquiry; we appreciate your business.

Regarding the matter you raised, we would like to help. To do so, however, we require the following information:

• Document A
• Document B

As soon as we receive this information, we will be happy to process your claim.

Thanks again for choosing our company.

Sincerely,
The Regular Folks Firm of Anytown, USA

Interoffice memo:
Better, huh? Now, let’s look at another example.

Arthur A. Sesquipedalian requests the presence of yourselves, each and every, at the corporate office meeting at precisely 2:30 in this very afternoon, upon the 16th day of the month of March in the year 2007, in which divers interrogative postulations will be addressed and a plethora of sundry company-related matters of significant import will be expeditiously assessed.

Oh boy—can’t wait to attend that meeting. But what if the memo read like this:

Please come to the office meeting today (March 16) at 2:30 p.m. We’re going to discuss the various issues that many of you have recently raised; with everyone’s input, we should be able to put together some solutions. Look forward to seeing you there.

Thanks,
Norm Normal

Well, I’m not crazy about meetings, but I’d probably show up at this one.

So, in conclusion, don’t be a sesquipedalian—it would not behoove one to so be.

Grammar can be confusing. All the more so when you throw in the jargon that only English professors and editors of high stature understand (What do you mean, it’s an irregular verb? Looks pretty normal to me.).

Let’s consider some fundamentals that many business writers have trouble with.

Question marks:
Here’s a good rule of thumb: If you write a question, end it with a question mark. If you don’t write a question, don’t end it with a question mark.

Sound overly simple? Consider the following common errors:

1. Can you let me know.
2. I think this job is demanding but I’m not sure?
3. How much are you asking for your equipment??????????????????????

Okay, the last one’s not actually an error—it’s just silly. One question mark is sufficient for every business situation.

Exclamation points:
Normally, these should be avoided in business writing. However, sometimes it is acceptable to use one:

Remember your safety equipment!

However, always avoid using exclamation marks like this:

Here’s the third quarter annual report!! Our numbers are up again!!! Yay!!!!

Commas:
Commas can be tricky. You need to use them occasionally, but not always where you might expect. Here’s a very common error:

Let me know about that report, I need the results by tomorrow.

The problem? This is a comma splice error. The portion of the sentence after the comma could stand on its own as a separate sentence. Therefore, the sentence must be written in one of the following two ways:

• Let me know about that report; I need the results by tomorrow.
• Let me know about that report. I need the results by tomorrow.

On the other hand, not using commas enough creates its own problems:

• The report is due but I don’t know if our department is ready willing and able to make it.
• Correction: The report is due, but I don’t know if our department is ready, willing, and able to make it.

Of course this barely scratches the surface of everything involved with using correct punctuation, but it’s a start. If you understand the principles listed above, you’ll be ahead of many business writers today.

Although you would imagine that all writers know that it is important to write complete sentences. They do not always follow the rule.

That’s true. In fact, only one of the phrases above is a complete sentence. Which one? If you chose the second one, you are correct. The first one is a sentence fragment. Most of the time, it is obvious whether or not a phrase is a complete sentence. At other times, it may be a bit more difficult to tell.

A complete sentence does not need to be long. The following, for example, are complete sentences:

I am listening.

She is coming.

John is home.

He won.

It arrived.

What makes those very short sentences complete is the fact that they each have a subject and a predicate. Simply put, a subject is the who or what of a sentence. In other words, it designates who or what the sentence is about. The subjects of the sentences above are, in order, I, she, John, he, and it.

A predicate is what the subject did or does or will do or what happened to it or is happening to it or will happen to it. The predicates of those sentences above are, in order, am listening, is coming, is home, won, and arrived.

Sometimes, recognizing a complete sentence or differentiating between a subject and a predicate is not simple. In the case of the two phrases at the beginning of this essay, the first one is only a subject. It needs a predicate in order to be a complete sentence. Even though the second phrase is, in actuality, a complete sentence by itself, if it is added to the first phrase, a new, complete sentence is formed: Although you would imagine that all writers know that it is important to write complete sentences, they do not always follow the rule. In this case, the predicate, the part that indicates what is happening to the subject is do not always follow the rule. All of the words preceding that phrase make up the subject of the sentence.

So…how does this information help in terms of writing full sentences? The truth is, most of the time, you can tell, upon re-reading your writing, whether or not the sentences are complete. If you are not sure, then, by all means, look for the who or what (the subject) and the what happened or is happening or will happen to the subject (the predicate).

If you are still not sure about this or any other writing skill or if you want your paper to be professionally proofread or edited, then submit it to proof-reading.com.

Ever get a business document that has coffee (or other) stains on it? It happens, but not to professionals who are serious about their work. It’s important to make sure your hard copy materials leave the department or office clean and undamaged.

Of course this seems to be common sense in an age where clean paper and quality printers are easy to come by. But consider, too, the fact that neatness also applies to the actual writing itself. Sure, we wouldn’t send out a document with smudges or stains, but what about typos? How carefully do we check for these?

Consider the difference a misplaced letter or two makes in a sentence:

• It is her that we find the real problem.
• Everyday we look for anyway possible to make improvements.
• It seams our department can’t never get enough resource s too farce though the charges require too be com mare efficient.

And you know what? Spell check and grammar check will not find a thing wrong with any of these sentences. But what about the recipient of a business document with typos? You might think a little spelling or grammar error, here or there, is no big deal. But it is.

True, not everyone will notice. However, it only takes one reader who’s paying attention, who may not yet be familiar with your company, to decide to forego doing business with you. After all, if you’re not careful enough to avoid typos like those listed above, you might be careless in a lot of things—and there are always plenty of other companies to choose from.

So, whether it’s a sales letter, business memo, email, report, or other correspondence, remember—neatness counts. And if you’re too busy to handle all the editing and proofreading yourself, consider a professional service such as Proof-Reading.com.

Technical writing seems to be a big challenge for many companies. How many times have we tried to decipher instruction manuals that may as well be written in another language? (Well, actually they do tend to be written in two or three languages these days, but clear, understandable English is too often not one of them.)

If you’re the one producing or contributing to technical writing (such as an instruction manual), make sure the information is as clear as possible to the reader. Here are some important things to remember:

Avoid jargon:
Okay, so you and your colleagues may know what a Mergan nut is, but your audience may not. Instead, create a legible diagram and clearly identify the part you’re making reference to. Then, refer to it is Mergan Nut X (for example).

Use diagrams that make sense:
Assume that the person reading your work knows how to read, but has never read anything before. Assume no technical knowledge whatsoever. You may also want to assume the reader will have a short temper and little patience, and will make a nasty phone call to your company asking for the hide of whoever wrote this blankety-blank manual that doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Make good use of bulleted and numbered lists:
Rather than use huge blocks of text with lots of semicolons, make your instructions and information easier to read. A good format to follow is something like this:

Introductory line or two

1. Step 1
2. Step 2
3. Step 3
   • Part a
   • Part b

Next section’s introductory line (Example: Features include)

• Feature 1
• Feature 2
• Feature 3

Like any other type of business writing, remembering to write from a “you” perspective (i.e., pretending you’re the average reader, not the expert). Your goal should always be to make things as clear as possible; then, anyone who reads your work will think you’re a genius for making things so easy for them to understand.

If you happen to pick up a document written in the old days, you might see something like this:

words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words

Now, which is easier—to read all that without losing your place, or to see something like this?

words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words

words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words

words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words

You make the call. It really does pay to separate large blocks of text into smaller, more readable paragraphs. Your audience will appreciate your consideration and will be much more likely to read what you’ve written.

How do you prepare for your business presentation, lecture, or speech? How prepared should you be? Is it better to over plan or are you better off simply knowing your material, and letting the words flow freely? If it is a PowerPoint or other kind of video presentation, how much should you say?

Those are all good questions, and there is no one answer. But, in general, it is better to be more prepared and polished rather than less. In other words, it will not hurt you to have every word that you plan on saying on paper, even if, while you are speaking, you decide to vary from your plan. You should have the script of your electronic presentation on paper and in front of you while it is running, just in case of mechanical failure.

To begin with, before you write a speech, organize a lecture, or create a PowerPoint or any other type of presentation, you must thoroughly know your subject. Whether this means collecting and organizing notes, reviewing files, or spending time researching your subject, you should know it inside and out. And…be prepared to answer questions, should they be asked. Do not be lulled into believing that you are bulletproof just because you have put together a graphics presentation. What if your software fails or the hardware does not work? You should be prepared to fill in, if you have to do so.

Even if all of your electronic components work, including audio files that may be part of the presentation, you cannot simply stand there as if you are part of the audience. You must know each and every frame that is about to appear. This is true of a slide or overhead projector presentation also.

Recently, I attended a PowerPoint presentation about retirement plans. The presenter stumbled and fumbled over almost every picture, graph, and chart. And…that is besides the fact that much of the text contained grammatical and spelling errors! Needless to say, I was not impressed with his presentation or his product.

If you are speaking, as opposed to an electronic presentation, you cannot simply read from your note cards. You must practice until you sound relaxed, self-assured, and professional. That does not mean you must be a tower of unyielding seriousness. A few well-placed bits of humor never hurt. Of course, if your subject is a grave or solemn one, then you may want to leave out the comedy.

The most important point in terms of preparing a presentation is that you must be organized, both in terms of your research and your approach. Nothing is more of a turn-off than having to listen to a speaker who is uncomfortable and unsure of what he or she is saying. So…be prepared!