Harvard Business Essentials, BUSINESS COMMUNICATION, pp. 245. PrECTIVE busines writing ress on 2 foundation of principle developed over the centuries. In this chapter, we explore these principles. Maser them, and you'll know how to handle the many diferent writing tasks that come your ‘vay: memos, e-mail, lester, report, and so forth, Have a Clear Purpose Literary writing exprestes the writer feckngs. Busines writing, on the other hand, i welitaran, aiming to serve any one of many pur- poses. Here are just afew purposes of busines writing: + Te explain or justify actions already taken: “Given that stua- tion, we have determined that the best course of action isto ject ll current bids and to scek others” + To convey information, asin a research report oF the promulga tom of « new company poiey: “Management vans all employees eo know thatthe loaings will top at soon as we have evidence of improved morale” + To influence the reader to take some action: “I hope that you will ind that our new, Web-based cash management services, ‘can reduce your working capital requirements and save you money” Good Writing 5 + Te deliver good or bad news: “Unfortunately, the engine fre ‘you reported occurred one day afer the expition ofthe warranty period.” + Toe ation: “Your tam should complete and deliver the product specifications by May 1.” So the fis thing you should ask yous "Whats my reson for wring this document? What do I aim © accomplish?” Keep hat purpose uppermast in your mind as you begin wring, nd you wil be observing he fis principle of busines writing Jo he pur- pose down atthe beyinning of your draft a a reminder, and refer Back to ias you proceed. Doings wl ep you stay on couse and assure that your writing serves ts sated purpose. “And once you've finished your datsk yours, "Has this oc tment filed my sated purpose?” Many writes, in aueading to the mundane tasks of preparing a document Jose tack oftheir ur pos for writing, Don't make that mistake Be Audience Focused Just about every basinesperson understands the critical importance of being customer focused The customer i, after al the source of the economic value sought by the organization—a value that can only be extracted ifthe customer perceives value in what the orga- nization has to offer. Being customer focused means understanding customer preferences and atitudes, how customers perceive value hhow they want to be served, and their hot buttons (.e, what rally get their atention). "Thereb a clear analogy between the busines principle of eus- tomer focus and the writing principle of audience focus. Just as a company won't connect with its customer fit fais to understand them, ther need, and how they prefer to be served, you won't con ‘ect with your readers you don't understand them, thei needs, and hhow they prefer to receive information. Will your readers be recep-4 Business Communication ‘ive indifferent, o resistant to your messge? Do they aleady know a litle oa lot about the subject? How much technical information ean these reader digest? What are cheirsjes of procesing informa- tion, and how can you match these styles? That is, do these readers ned visual content, or will words sufice? Since reading your doci- ‘ment wil requie their time and atetion, whats in it for them? een rene sudience-Focus Principle Het isthe product manager for a lite of consumer electronic product. With a new gizmo in the ealy sages of development, Herb knows tha it now time to bring the R&D, marketing, ‘and manufacturing people together. Their collboraton is the company’s bes assurance that the new product will (1) mect customer requirements and (2) be designed in such a way that the mannficturng division willbe able to build them efficiently ‘Herb determines that he should write a memo asthe first step in building collaboration berween the three diferent groups Here ae some audience isues Hetb should consider before he ‘compotes the memo: + Hl relationship with the readers: Since the readers—per~ sonnel in marketing, R&WD, and manufacturing—do not work directly for Herb, he has no authority over them. A few actually outrank Herb Given these facts, Herb cannot ‘command or diect his readers; he must elicit thie collabo- ration through persuasion + ifferent information processing styles: Herb knows thatthe marketing people are highly verbal and intuitive, whereas most ofthe R&D and manufacturing people are engineers; they are lee verbal and respond beter to data and analysis. Hee must craft his mesage with cis knowledge in mind + What they already know: Each member of Herb's audience is familiar with the new gizmo under development, its tech= Good Writing 5 nical features, nd the target market. Consequently, Herb will nt have t explain theseaspects, But the broader mar- keting and manufacturing issues have not been resolved, + Divergent interests: Even though all three groups depend ‘on the effectiveness of the corporation for their well-being, | cach of the three fanctions—-R&D, marketing, and manu-_| facturing—tends to fixate on its own immediate issues. ‘Thus, Herb must communicate in a way that will satisfy these very different parties. Here's the memo that he wrote: Jy 14, 2002 Cart Jones, Emma Smith, Roland Camera Justine Rowse, Lynn Ravenscroft From: Herb Bacon Subject: Time for Gizmo 5 cvssfuncional planning As you know, design specs for the Gizmo 5 electronic garlic pest are moving fonead within RED. hat means that it time to ‘agin planning for the new product's marketing and manufactur ‘ng, Early css function planning helped make the Gizmo 4 tremendous sucess, and I know that we ar all eager to repeat the experience. Great things happen when we put our heads together to focus on a problem. Agenda items will include (1) user benefits and (2) produc specs and manfacturbility ‘Tsou lke to schedule an nial meeting for noon, ‘Monday, August 5, in our small conference room, Lunch will be provided. Does that work for you? Heb [Notice how Herb does not command or direct his readers, but ‘actly elicits their collaboration by giving a clear reason for the meeting —and for his memo. Note too that he suggests benefits forall he readers—marketing, R&D, and manaficuring.6 ‘Business Communication State Your Key Message Clearly ‘The key mesage is what you want readers to remember. In com~ temporary busines-speak, it the so-called take-away. That message should be clear and compact—jus sentence or two for the typi~ cal business communiqué. Most communication experts say that if you cannot ge the messge down to that length, you probably are ‘not cleat about what you want to s3°The sooner you can isolate the key mesage into one or two sentences, the easier it wil be to write the entire document, Ifyou experience difficulty in isolating a clear and compact key sncsige the reason may be that you're struggling to cover cwo unre- lated messages in the same document. In this case, write two sepa- rate documents. Stick to one topic per document, and your writing ‘wil have more impact, Tn most cases, your key mestage should be sated at or near the very beginning, with the rex ofthe piece wed to lsh out the details ‘or to provide supporting evidence, Doing so asures that skimmers ‘vil pick it up. They may or may not want co probe deeper. ltolating the key message is especially challenging when a com- smite is involved. A committee generally has members with difer- ent viewpoint, and each perion offen insists on having his or her view represented ina document, inadvertently weakening the focus. “The case study underscores the challenge of writing on behalf of committees, The bes antidote is to educate committee members fon the importance of drafing focused documents with single themes. When more than one mesiage needs to be communicated, ‘encourage the committee to use more than one document. Stay on Topic ‘Many attibute Bill Clinton’ victory over George Herbere Walker ‘Bush in the US. presidential election of 1992 to Clinton's strategy of| continually hammering hi opponent on the weak sate ofthe econ- ‘omy For Clinton, saying on mesiage didnt come naturally. He was Good Writing capable of expounding on policy ives from A to Z, and enjoye: doing so. This is why his pbical strategist James Carville was alway there to remind him of the catchphrase, “Its the economy stupid! Eda wat an active volunter in a nonprofit organization whose goal wat to revitalize the downtown of her community: Her team had just completed a detailed survey of downtown shop- pers, workers, and visitors, and the organization’ board had asked her to drafts press release about its findings. Those find ings pointed to substantial disassfacion with the quality and variety of che town's seal bate, which focused almost exc sively on summer tours Co the exclusion of year-round rei ‘dents and downtown workers ‘Edna drafed a pres release and submited it to the board for approval. Is key mesiage was""The survey has identified a serious mismatch between current ret oferings and the express needs ‘ofthe downtown population” This message made sense to Edna and to everyone ete who had analyzed the survey data But some board members had other ideas."T think that it projects nega tive image’ the director of the Chamber of Commerce com pltined. “We should abo say something about the things that people like about our stores” "Yes" agreed the director of the organization."And we need. to tell readers sbout all the things we're doing to make things beser—our calendar of outdoor events, our merchandising seminars and 20 forth. Otherwise, people will think that we aren't doing anything’ ‘Seeing an opportunity, two other board members chimed in ‘with their ideas. By the end ofthe meeting, the board had given dna a ist of thre topics—in addition to the survey results— that it wanted her to include in the press release. But to include these other topics would mean diluting the strong, clear mes- sage that Edna had originally crafed.8 Business Communication Carville sensed thatthe economy vas the issue of greatest concern to voters that year and that Clinton’ vecbal forays into foreign pol- ‘cy:military spending, school lunch programs, and othe issues would dlisipate his effectiveness and appeal. Consequently, he urged the candidate to keep hammering away on this important isu. For a writer, staying on message means maintaining 2 solid con- nection to the key message. In practical trms this means steering clear of unrelated or loosely related subjects that just happen to be ‘on your mind, Ie means not slathering on pile of data and details that obscure the bottom-line message. Supporting dat is often nec- cesary, especially when your goal is to convey information or to convince readers But supporting data should always be inked to the mesage. Observe Economy of Words If youte like most of us, your high school and college instructors periodically required exays or report of some minimum length. “Give me an exty on the women’ sufrage movement by the end ‘of next week—no les than 3 thousand words" they would tll you, cof something to that effect Though well meaning, the asigaments had an unintended consequence: We learned how to tke the four hundred words of solid information we had and combine them ‘with six hundred words of blather to reach the asigned word count Consider this example: The mas movonent or women sige in the United Sates of Anerica—that i the campaign give U.S. itzns of he fae gn de the ight got the ols and oe forthe andes of thir ‘in any given eleton like everbody ee—was of moment impor toe the hry of be United States of Ameri. Iwas stupendous in es anequeces end ope, involved thousands upon thousands of _people—omen, mer, and etheo—and is outame ats how we Ke, tor, and parpate nthe poll pres this very day. Good Waiting ° Sentences like these would advance a student 8 percent of the way toward the thousand-word goal without their saying anything in particular In he busines world, there are no minimum lengths for written communiqué. I fcr, shorter is always beter fit communicates the required information. Busines writers are advised to heed rae 17 in Strunk and White’ timeless The Elements of Soe, which advises the ‘writer to omit needles word:"“Vigorous writing is concise. A sen- tence should contain no unnecessary words, paragraph no unnec- cesiry sentences forthe same reaton that a drawing should have no ‘unnecesary lines and a machine no unnecessary part. This requires rot tha the writer make all hs sentences shor, or that he avoid all ‘detail and treat his ubjects only in outline, but that every word tel” ‘This quote from Strunk and White is ise a perfect model of| their rule They ase no unnecessary words; every word makes a con- tribution. Economy of words has rwo big benefits Your key message stands ‘out, and i saves your readers valuable time. Use Simple Sentences ‘The sentence isthe basic unit of writen expression, Most sentences make a statement. The satement can be simple or complex: + Joan wrote + Joan wrote alter + Joan wrote an apologetic eter + At her boss sugeton, Joan ute an apologetic ete + At her bow suggestion, Joan wrote an aplogeti ter 1 the dg fled cacomer. + At her bot suggeton, Joan rote an apelogti ter 1 the fe di rune exstres who thretened to se.10 Business Communication + At her bss sugeston, and withthe help of coporate counsel, Joan tarot an apoegetic eter to the fv granted customers who thret- ened to su + At her boss's suggestion, and with the help of corporate counsel, Joon tarot an apologetic eter to the fv digraned customers who thet. edt se each ws urged to ret his purchase fora ful refund “This proces of sentence “complexification” could go on and ‘on. Sentences ae made more complex (and impart more informa- tion) as we add object ("a lets"), lauses (“At her boss urging”), adjectives (“disgranted”), and create compound sentences (“each ‘was urged ..”). Packing more information into each sentence isnot necessarily bad. Nor does it violate rules of grammar if done prop- cel, However, complexity contains two potential problems. Fist, ‘complex sentences make the reader work harder. Second, complex ity may confase, ‘As a writer, your challenge is to know when a sentence has reached its optimal carrying capacity. Here, knowledge ofthe audi- tence isa usefil guide. In the preceding example sentences, do the readers need to know that Joan's boss suggested the letter? Or that corporate counsel wat brought in? Is the fcr that there were five disgranled costomers relevant? If these bits of information are not rnecesary, consider eliminating them. If they are necessary, you may ‘use any ofthe sentences in their current states of complesity or, to ‘make the mestge easier to swallow, break it into several, ess com plex sentences. Both literary writing and busines writing in the United States have undergone a gradual evolution from complex to simpler sen~ ences. Consider the two following examples. The frst is from [Nathaniel Hawthorne’ The House ofthe Seven Gables, published in the 18505 the second isthe ist line in Ernest Hemingway's 1940 work, For Whom the Bel Tl “The aspect ofthe venerable mansion has ahueys fed me lke a ua countenance, bearing the traces not merely of euwed storm ind sunshine, bu expressive ao ofthe long laps of mortal if, and ‘eccomoanvine vicisitudes, that have passed within? Good Waiting " ec fel hs heart eating gui the pine nel foo of th foe? Hawthorne’ sentence i long, complex in structure, and clegant in word usage. Hemingway, in contrat, simple and spare—no doube the produc of his ealy newspaper career. sharp-pencled rewarom editor probably taught young Hemingway t drop the flowery phrases and three lne sentences and to concentat on put Sing his information ino tight ie packages. You should flow Hemingway’ lead with your busines writing Consider Your Delivery Strategy (Our final principle concerns authorship ting, and format You rmesag will ave more impucift comes fom the right person, a the right ime, and inthe right format Authorship Before you begin writing, consider fiom whom the communicatior should come. Should it come fom you? Your bos? The entte team “The choice is bound to make a diference in reader impact. ‘Consider the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson i credited with drafting che declaration that formally separated the [North American colonies fom Grest Britain, But che paper includec the signatures of representatives from each of the colonies. A docu ‘ment Writen and signed by Jefferson alone would have been wel received in his native Virginia, bur poorly received elsewhere. Thost added signatures indicated agreement among the colony leaders anc assured thatthe document Would have widespread credible. Timing ‘Make sure that you are not writing your document too ently or to late, If you write too eaty, people won't be ready to focus on the2 Business Communication {sue you'e raising. f you wait too long, you'll lose the opportunity to influence the outcome. ‘Consider the ease of Lloyd, 2 management consultant whose forthcoming book, The Ten Sens of Customer Servic, was scheduled for publication in September 2002. Eager to create buzz about his book, Lloyd drafted 2 rwo-thousand-word article on che ten sectes ‘and submited it co a popular business magazine. Unfortunately, the tmagaine published the article in Jane 2002, four months too eatly to serve Lloyd’ purpose By the time his book was published, the ‘burr had faded, Format “The format of your writing wil abo affect its impact on readers. Should it be a formal lecte, 2 memo, or an e-mail? And as long 3 youre considering the format issue, would a verbal presentation of| Jour mestage be more effective? The best format for a message is Uetermined by isues we've already dscused: the writers purpose, the intended audience, and the information the writer is ying to convey. Consider the following cx. Pee een rena Helen’ saff had jst finished a research study on how customers perceive the quality of her company’s products and customer fervice The finding of the study ts methodology and support- ing data were currently collected in a sevenry-page bindet Helen was wondering how best to transmit this information. ‘She knew that some people would want to lear all the details cof customer perceptions, Others would want to know how she rived 2 her finding—that they would want to know her ‘methodology. Some would simply want the bottom line of cus tomer perceptions And sil ohers—number crunchers in the Good Waiting 3 accounts payable department, for example—would not be the least bit interested She could hand out copies ofthe binder, but that format would be inappropriate for many people. Lett consider two of Helens options. She could send a memo of an e-mail with 2 summary of her findings, or she could send the same summary by memo or e-mail, but with this postcript “The complete study, and a description ofits ‘methodology, it available, Call extension 456 to obtain a copy” ‘This second option would seem to solve her problem but, like the fr, is a pasive option. People could easly ignore Helen's communication. And since it in written form, its also 4 one-way communication. One-way communication is usefal for disseminating simple forms of information (c.g, "The cafe teria will be cloted at 2 PM. tomorrow to accommodate the remodeling program"), but complex information generally has higher impact and impars greater value if presented verbally and surrounded by dialogue. Thus, Helen might consider this ‘hee-pronged alternative: 1. Communicate a writen summary of findings by memo or e-mail 2. Invite anyone interested in the methodology or other etal to obtain the fll seventy-page report. 53, Invite management and other key partes to a stand-up presentation of the study findings This presentation and dialogue between the attendees would enhance the impact cof Helen’ study on the right people and create farther ialogee, “Thus, the ideal format for your communications requires plenty of thought. Even if you stick to a written format, you ‘must consider how bes to format and dieibute itt obtain the greatest impact And you need to think about supplementing 2 writen format with other approaches.4 Business Communication Summing Up “This chapter has examined the principles on which good writing is based. These principles apply co all forms of written communica- tion: metno, ler, reports and so forth. And as you can probably see, most of these principles apply to nonvrritten communication 35, ‘well In a nutshell the principles are thes: + Mave a dear purpore, Busines writing can serve many pur poses. Never begin writing before you've established in your ‘own mind the purpose for which you are communicating and ‘what you hope to accomplish + Re audience focused, Communication—in any form—won't do its job if file to consider the needs, atitudes, and infor- ‘mation preférences of the intended audience. Be attuned to these audience characteristics a you Write, and your message ‘wil have greater impact, + State your hey message clearly. Always think about the mes- sage yout lke your audience to take awa. The message should be clear and compact For most busines writing this ‘means jus sentence or two. Stay on topic. Your key message is your main connection to the audience. For any single piece of writing, you ae usually better off sticking with your key point nd not getting into other issues Switching to other topics risks a break in the audience connection, + Observe economy of words. Every word should make a contri- bution. Unnecesary words ae ike wisps of fog that obscure whe you are eying to say Clear them avay and your key smesage will sand out + Use simple sentences, Sentonces are your basic units of expres- sion. Keep them short and uncomplicated, and your readers will have an easier time catching your message. Good Weiting 8 + Consider your delivery strategy. Delivery strategy is about suuthorship, timing, and format. In tems of impact and what you hope to accomplish, are you the right person to be deliv ‘xing the message or should it be someone else? Have you chosen the best time to deliver it? And is the written word the best format? Would phone call or a stand-up presentation be more effective?