Business Writing

We are all writing more than ever now. We depend on our business writing skills to influence, persuade, encourage, collaborate, and to lead. However, most people don't really notice the quality of the writing they read – they simply react positively, negatively, or not at all.

Since my recent articles, the conversations about writing style are still continuing, and that’s a good thing. It means people are really thinking about the way you are writing emails and other business documents.

If you're like most people, you probably write at work all the time: messages to stakeholders and collaborators, proposals to clients, reports to senior managers, plus of course a constant flow of emails to colleagues and customers.

The English language we use today, both orally and in writing, is very different to the language used several decades ago. However, I often find that people are still writing in a very formal, distant, cold and passive style that just doesn't match our high-tech, progressive business world.

Let's face it – everyone makes mistakes, and no one is perfect. However, very often email is your first point of contact with new clients or colleagues, so doesn't it make sense that we should make an effort to make it a great first impression? Misplaced commas or apostrophes can confuse your reader, and so can long rambling sentences.

So many people today are using misspellings for words, like de (the), dat (that), wud (would), tot (thought), frens (friends), dun (don't) and even witchew (with you). If you must do this, please keep it to texting or instant messaging friends.

Everybody has to start somewhere, and my love for rearranging and rewriting words and restructuring messages flickered to life when I was working as a secretary. As my boss would dictate notes I would be typing them out, but sometimes they didn't make sense, and that's where it all began.

I'm really happy to see that more organisations are taking action to simplify their language in official business documents and messages. This movement is called plain English.

I am always amazed at some of the emails I receive using language like: Please kindly peruse the above-mentioned document, Kindly revert to me at your soonest, Appreciate your kind assistance in this matter, or The said report is attached herewith for your reference and perusal.