EFFECTIVE AND ENGAGED BUSINESS WRITING

The Business of Business Writing

What is Business Writing?

 It is a professional communication tool (also known as business communication or

professional writing) corporations and other professional entities use to communicate
with either an internal or external audience.
 It is a type of writing that seeks to elicit a business response.
 It’s a purposeful piece of writing that provides relevant information to help a reader
know something or do something.
 The purpose of business writing is a transactional one, between the writer and his or her
audience.
 According to Brant W. Knapp, author of “A Project Manager’s Guide to Passing the
Project Management Exam,“ the best business writing can be “understood clearly when
read quickly. The message should be well planned, simple, clear and direct.”

Purposes of Business Writing

 To convey information: Business communications such as research reports or policy

memorandums are used to distribute knowledge.
 To deliver news: Professional writing is often used to share recent events with an
audience made up of others from inside or outside the company.
 To direct action: Many professionals use their business writing skills to tell others what
to do or how to do it.
 To explain or justify: Professional writing is a suitable way to provide an explanation or
justify an action that has already been taken, particularly if the matter is a complicated
one.
 To influence someone to take action: Business communication is often used to
influence others to take a specific action, whether to use a certain tool during the
course of business or to purchase a product or service that is on offer.
Business Writing Skills

1. Defining Your Purpose

Don’t start writing right away. Instead, think about what you’re writing, and why. What is
your purpose for composing this document? By defining your purpose, you’ll have a better
understanding of what to write and how to write it.

2. Clear and Concise Language

One of the biggest differences between business writing and other types of writing is that it
needs to be concise. As a good rule of thumb, don’t use three words when you can say
something in one. Less is definitely more when it comes to business writing skills, but you
need to make sure that your ideas are clear to your reader, too.

3. Writing for Your Audience

Keep your reader in mind as you write. Think about what they know already, especially as
you determine the terminology to use. If you’re writing to a specific person or group of
people, look for ways to personalize the document by considering their interests.

4. Conversational Tone
When writing for business, people typically choose a more professional tone. Depending on
the document you’re writing, however, a conversational tone may be preferred. Especially
when you’re communicating with consumers, your writing should feel like a person wrote it,
not a robot. Using a conversational tone helps your readers engage with what they’re
reading and connect with you.

5. Organization
It’s important to think about the organization of your paper. How will you determine the
order of your ideas? Remember that with business writing you should give the most
important information first. Since most people will read the first paragraph before deciding
whether or not to read the rest of the document, place your most important points in at the
beginning.

6. Word Choice
As an expert in your field, it’s easy to throw in jargon and buzzwords without even thinking
about it. Before you do this, think about your audience. What words will your audience
know? Try to use simple words that everyone reading your work will understand.

7. Active Voice
Using active voice strengthens your credibility and adds power to your ideas. The opposite
of active voice is passive voice. It tends to use more words to say the same thing, weakening
your statements. For example:

Example:
Passive voice: If you have any questions or concerns, we can be reached at 09286635760.
 Active voice: If you have any questions or concerns, call me at 09286635760.
Passive voice: The report will be reviewed by the manager for errors and steps will be taken
to correct any issues right away.
Active voice: The manager will review the report for errors and take the steps to correct
any issues right away.
Although you may use passive voice at times, try to use it sparingly. Focus on using active
voice to improve your business writing skills.

8. Facts Over Opinion

To build your credibility in your industry, try to refrain from infusing your opinion into your
writing. Stick to the facts with statistics, data, and benefits of your products or services.
Also, watch out for hyperbole. Readers have a difficult time trusting you when you use
hyperbole to get a point across. So, stick to the facts while still making your writing
interesting and compelling to your readers.

9. Adapting for Different Platforms

There are many different platforms for your business writing, including web articles, blog
posts, social media posts, and video scripts. If you’re planning on writing for these different
platforms, you need to learn the techniques and tricks needed for each one.

10. Grammar and Punctuation

And finally, never publish, print, post, or email any document until you’ve proofread it.
Make sure that your writing is error-free before it gets in the hands of your customers,
clients, investors, and others. Bad grammar and punctuation errors will make a bad
impression and reduce your credibility. If you struggle with grammar and punctuation, send
your work to someone who can edit it for you.

Types of Business Writing

1. Transactional Business Writing- one of the most common forms of

written communication in business.
 The purpose of this kind of communication is results oriented, as you
are trying to achieve a specific goal with transactional content.
 This kind of communication is for day-to-day use and is generally short
and direct and requires action from the reader.
 Examples include emails, instant messages, invoices, short memos, forms,
letters and dismissal notice.
2. Persuasive Business Writing- The persuasive writing may be direct, with focus on a
specific item, or indirect, with focus on developing the client
relationship.
 The goal of this kind of material is to convey information and to convince
the reader that the presented information offers the best value.
 The text is written to impress the reader and sway their decision.
  Examples of persuasive business writing include marketing and
promotional content such as ads, brochures, press releases, sales emails,
newsletters, direct mail campaigns and proposals.
2. Informational Business Writing- The goal of this kind of written communication is to
provide a reference or a record of specific areas of the business.
 It doesn’t necessarily require an action from the reader, unlike
transactional and persuasive content.
 The kind of writing is direct and thorough, covering a wide range of
content with the goal of keeping the reader up to date on specific aspects
of the business.
 Examples of informational business writing include quarterly financial
reports, meeting minutes, employee handbooks and annual
departmental overviews.
4. Instructional Business Writing- The goal of this kind of material is to provide step-by-
step details on how to complete a specific task.
 It requires the reader to take some kind of action either now or in the
future.
 This kind of writing is clear and direct, often written in short sentences
that follow a chronological order.
 Examples of instructional business writing include user manuals, job
description handbooks, technical specifications and instructional
memos.

Memorandum

• A memo (or memorandum, meaning “reminder”) is normally used for communicating

policies, procedures, or related official business within an organization.
• It is often written from a one-to-all perspective (like mass communication), broadcasting
a message to an audience, rather than a one-on-one, interpersonal communication.
• It may also be used to update a team on activities for a given project, or to inform a
specific group within a company of an event, action, or observance.
• A memo’s purpose is often to inform, but it occasionally includes an element of
persuasion or a call to action. 

Types of Memos

• Request memo- in this type of memo you will be trying to get a favor from a certain
person or group of people. You are supposed to use persuasive language to win the
heart of your recipients.
• Confirmation memo- this document is written after a certain agreement between two
parties. You will be writing just to confirm that you agree to a certain demand. In this
type of memo, you should state the terms of the agreement and encourage the
recipient to ask for clarification where they did not understand.
• Suggestive memo- this type of writing is written in the case where the management is
requesting views from the employees on how to solve a certain problem. You will need
to request your readers to give their say about a certain issue and specify how they
should forward the suggestions.
• Report memo- this is a memo written after a certain period of time to give an account of
the progress it takes the report format. In this memo, the body is mainly consistent of
values and charts to indicate the progress.
• Informal results memo- this is where you are required to give the results of a certain
action. It can be research that was done and people would wish to know the outcome,
or it can be even application results for various seats in a department.

How to Write a Good Memorandum?

• Make it as short as possible- the memo should not be lengthy because it will be
tiresome to read. Most people would want to go through it with the shortest time
possible but acquire all the information. You need to summarize as much as you can.
The shorter your memo will be, the more the readers because most people are prone to
be ignorant to lengthy notices.
• Use simple English- you should not use complex language while writing your memo
because the readers may end up missing up important points and your memorandum
will not have served its purpose. Avoid too much use of vocabularies in your work.
• Use a captivating heading- the heading of your memo should attract readers- you
should be very selective in the words that you use for your heading because that is the
first impression that your readers would come across. Others would just read the
heading and leave, so it is your responsibility to make them curious to read the rest of
the document. There are different ways that you can use to captivate the readers:

1. Use bolding on emphasize- you should use bold letters in the action that expect
your readers to take so that it can attract their attention and they will have gotten
the message.
2. Use a different color for the heading- you can decide to use a different color for
your heading so that it can attract readers from a distance.

• Avoid simple grammar and spelling errors- you should be very cautious in memo
writing because a simple spelling mistake may confuse the intended information that
you needed to pass and that would be chaos especially if it is a critical matter that
affects an organization. You should go through your memo after writing to ensure that
everything reads as required.