MY long-term goal is to design holistic and comprehensive writing classes that I can offer to businesses and individuals for business and creative writing using the many resources I have gathered over the years in my own writing journey. However, I can still share information from these resources covering essential points that can help budding writers and businesspersons looking to sharpen their skills.

Below are some tips from ‘The Smart Guide to Business Writing’ by Gay Walley. He asserts that good writing is compelling when written in a strong “voice”. Indeed, the voice you choose to write in makes all the difference in effectively communicating your message. In business writing, it is often a key to ensuring you get the required response and the required results.
Walley believes that the following points should always be kept in mind when composing content for business:

Be direct
People are impatient and will dismiss any document that takes “work” to understand what it is trying to communicate. As much as possible, try not to be personal and get to the point of the matter. In other words, express only what the document is intended to communicate. Part of this can be achieved by using active language and omitting passive language.

Avoid colloquialisms
Use proper English and don’t use slang. People interpret slang differently, and you are setting yourself up to both be trivialised and misunderstood.

Nothing is wrong with a little bit of humour
Yes, a slight nod to humour is good. However, note that this should be done sparingly as one man’s humour could be considered another man’s rudeness. That said, wit is intelligence and if a witticism is appropriate to the business and does not hurt anyone and is relevant to the business issue at hand, by all means, yes. This would stand more for emails and powerpoint presentations. Also, humour could be the opening to a white paper but would not be appropriate in a business report or performance review. Therefore, context is critical when considering when to insert humour.

Avoid expressing anger
The emotion of anger usually passes with time. There is no reason for your document to reflect your own reactions to a situation. On the other hand, if a wrong has been done, you can express it clearly, unemotionally, and factually. Let the words speak for themselves. You do not need to use pejorative terms or language that is based on emotion. Just state the facts.

Be polite and appreciative
Thank you. Please. All the best. Regards. You may think they are overused, but, believe it or not, such pleasantries are the currency of business transactions. Give a compliment when it is appropriate. Recognise that people are people. Pleasantries are part of social convention, and social convention is to facilitate growth. People like to deal with polite people. People will remember your manners and want to do more business with you if you show yourself to be appreciative.

Avoid Cliches
If you use language that is lively, with active verbs, people will experience your document more viscerally. You don’t want people feeling, “I’ve read this before. Nothing new here.” So take the time to search for the right verb to describe the action needed, the right adjective to describe the product, or the right set of words to describe what the product can do.

Be specific
Specificity is the key to writing. You may feel as though you are being meticulous in listing every detail and even repeating it, but there is nothing wrong with being too specific when trying to achieve clarity. Be very specific in any writing you do.

Be concise
While being specific requires a lot of detail, you have to balance that goal with brevity. Yes, that sounds tricky, but there is nothing worse than opening your email or mail and seeing a three-page long document that is not a legal brief or contract. Very few people have time to read long documents unnecessarily in the business world. So always get to your point.

Edit
As a practising editor, I can attest to the necessity of this tip. In the haste of getting things done, many people do not take the time to reread and edit their work. But business content riddled with simple errors do not reflect well on your work. For presentations, proposals, or anything that represents the company at large, you need to edit. And edit. And edit. Every time you come to your document, you may see something new to improve. This may sound like it will take forever, but you simply need to factor editing into your deadlines for completing projects. So when timing yourself, factor in time for editing. As Hemingway said, writing is editing.

These are simple tips that do not take too much time to learn and incorporate into your everyday business writing. Over the next few weeks, I will continue to share helpful tips that can make your content shine in communicating for business.

If you are interested in contributing to this column on writing, email me thewritemind592@gmail.com.
Content sourced from ‘The Smart Guide to Business Writing’ by Gay Walley.