HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS WRITING
Lots of emails to colleagues, numerous speeches, proposals to clients, you probably use business writing at work all the time. There is no doubt it is very important. If you want to go far in the business world, you need to sound professional and smart. In this case, good business communication is a skill that you will probably need to improve.
But how can you make your business writing clearer and more effective?
Types of business writings
Business writing is divided into four major categories: informal, instructional, persuasive, and transactional writing:
- Informational Business Writing is used to present or to store the information. It may be used for professional reports, meeting agendas, or statements. The writing must be clear and include all the important details to inform the recipient.
- Instructional Business Writing is used to provide the recipient with steps to do a certain task, usually, in the form of a memo or user manual. In this type of writing, you need to be careful with the level of knowledge of the user to make effective communications with the right tone.
- Persuasive Business Writing includes emails, press releases and business proposals. This type of writing is used to convince the reader to do a specific action, such as to buy a new product or check out the link.
- Transactional Business Writing considers all general business operations. It can include all the daily operations such as emails between colleagues or invoices and also interviews or speeches.
Tips to improve your business writing
Business writing skill is one of the most important things at work. Sometimes people make mistakes because they simply don’t know these rules. Apply it to your work to see how fast the effectiveness of your writings will improve:
- Determine your goals
You need to precisely indicate the goal of your document. Everybody is busy enough to spend time looking for the main information in the provided document. Write only the necessary and demanded information.
- Make as many modifications as necessary
Get in the habit of writing firsthand a draft. Keep changing your draft until reaching a good final result. Never use the first version of the draft, even if it seems good. You can always make a better version. Use your draft only when you are finally satisfied with it.
- Pay attention to grammar
Paying attention to grammar is extremely necessary. Business documents full of mistakes will not be taken seriously. If you want the reader to consider you as someone professional and worthy of his attention, check all the mistakes before you send it.
There are a lot of special free online tools to check the grammar such as Grammarly. Don’t hesitate to use it.
- Keep it simple
Try to avoid complex constructions of the sentence. Keeping it simple to let your reader focus on the most important things. Otherwise, people will most likely lose their attention while reading your text. Of course, you shouldn't forget about the business vocabulary, but don’t use words that only you know the meaning of.
- Practice every day
If you want to improve your business writing you need to make a habit of using these rules. The more you put them into practice, the better it becomes. You can also take some business writing courses for better learning.
Summing up, keep these tips in mind. Don’t forget about the level of the language of your reader. Use only the appropriate tone. Write only about the necessary things to help the reader to concentrate on the most important information. And remember that practice will help you to get it faster.
Have you ever had any difficulties at work in writing business documents?