Business writing refers to memorandums, reports, proposals, emails, and other forms of writing used in organizations to communicate with internal and external audiences. Business writing is a type of professional communication. Also known as business communication and professional writing.
Business writing is an essential skill that all business students and professionals should acquire. It is significantly needed and widely used in occupations such as Business Administration, Business Management, Marketing, Sales, Conference and Event Planner, Human Resources Administration, Project Administration, and many more.
Beware of why you’re writing.
When writing in business environments, you need to be clear about your objectives. Knowing the purpose a piece of writing serves gives you a sense of direction. It is important for you to know whom you’re addressing and what kind of goals you want to achieve through the documents you’re writing. State the goal convincingly in each sentence of your proposal with an easy-to-understand manner to ensure the right message delivers to your audience. Unlike blog writing, speech writing, or script writing, Business wiring often serve a specific purpose. It delivers the direction, the reference, and details of the goal you’re trying to achieve.
Having a clear purpose in mind will help you set the tone, the style, and structure of your business writing. Defining your purpose will set things right at the beginning. For example, if your purpose is to excite and invite stakeholders to join an annual charity gala of the company as a public relation effort, not only do you need to explain how this benefit the community, you also need to convince them how this will benefit their public image while help building the company’s reputation. Having a clear objective and purpose helps keep your writing logical, straightforward, yet professional.
Understand your readers.
You need to know your audiences in order to find a way to speak to them effectively. Get to the point quickly, focus on what’s relevant to them and use a tone that fits your audience. When writing to a wider audience, try to avoid jargons and technical terms specifically used in your profession but not commonly used anywhere else. Imagine you’re writing to someone who is smart but not a specialist in your field. Use common vocabularies and try to explain things in ways that the general public will easily understand and accept.
Your audience should be your compass; keeping in mind what the recipient seeks to learn narrows down the possible directions your writing should take. Style, tone, and vocabulary use should be in line with your audience and situation. This is not just a matter of appropriateness and content effectiveness, it’s about your flexibility to communicate adeptly with different audiences, to empathize with them, and thus be able to connect at an appropriate and effective wave-length.
If you can explain in one word, don’t use three.
If you can explain things in one sentence, don’t use more. Complex nouns, long sentences, and wordy lines should be avoided. Also, less jargon – unless you’re writing a technical document – and more specific words and brief yet strong phrases should be used. Moreover, use an active voice instead of passive voice to sound more assertive and powerful. When audience feel your confidence and sincerity in writing, it’s easier to get your message across to them.
In order to writing effectively without using long sentences, you can eliminate some unnecessary words or sentences. Deleting prepositions, especially “of”; change “point of view” to “viewpoint”. Replacing –ion words with action verbs; change “provided protection” to “protected”. Replacing “is”, “are”, “was” with stronger verbs; use “indicates” instead of ”is indicative of”.
Practice every day
Just like the old saying states, “practice makes perfect.” Writing is a skill, and skills improve with practice. Reading well-written material every day will help sharpen your writer eyes; it will train you to be more attentive to word choice and sentence structure.
Also, read your writing through critical eyes, and make sure that each word works toward your larger point. Most importantly, build time into your schedule for editing and revising. Editing and embellishing your own writing is where crucial change happens. It takes time to perfect your writing, and one of the most significant step is spotting your own mistakes and finding a better way to solve it.
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