By Dana P Skopal, PhD
A great deal of writing is done at work – be it for a business or a large government institution – and each document should have a clear message. It is important to plan your message and not drown the reader in words or complex sentences. However, a document is only good if a reader can understand what to do with the information.
Business writing is a broad description of producing many different documents and for different purposes. We view ‘business’ in its broadest sense – like a commercial enterprise or operating a service. Business writing should have the right mix of information clearly expressed in a logical order that a reader can follow and act upon.
For business documents, organisations seem to be moving away from an information order of: background, details, findings, recommendation. Most managers want to read the recommendation, so we now see: recommendation, key details and rationale for decision, with other information being placed in appendices or on an intranet.
The order of background to recommendation invariably comes from the academic order of introduction, body and conclusion. This order links to the persuasive adage of: tell them what you are going to talk about, cover the details of your topic, and finally tell them again what you have just told them. Now that we work in a world of information overload, this information order of background to recommendations rarely works other than in presentations.
As a manager wants to know what next steps you are recommending, how do you summarise your key information into one or two pages? After completing your research into options, aim to write five key points on one page or record yourself on your mobile phone with a two-minute time limit – without looking at your notes. Take time to think through all the issues and plan how to get your message across. If you know your stuff, you can put an effective argument together when you are not bogged down looking at the words/information on the computer screen or in your notes. Effective business writing involves planning and thinking – so use mind-mapping or recording a ‘summary’ during your thinking stages.
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