BUSINESS
ENGAGE YOUR READERS
with These 5 Easy Rules
for Business Writing
by Cori Nicole Wamsley
J
ust how important are good business writing
skills? According to a Los Angeles Business Journal
article by Joann Killeen in 2013, businesses lose
billions of dollars when customers do not understand a company’s email, marketing tool, or proposal due
to incorrect grammar or awkward style and tone.
Business owners, especially with small organizations,
must put on the writer’s hat for their daily operations. Just
follow my 5 Easy Rules for Business Writing for all your
written communication, and lead your readers to action.
1) DETERMINE YOUR EXACT AUDIENCE.
First, think about your ideal client. Your audience
reads what you wrote for a specific reason, and identifying that reason will help keep your audience engaged.
Think about why the reader sought your work to begin
with and what specific information they are looking for.
This will help guide your writing.
2) PINPOINT THE PURPOSE OF YOUR PIECE.
Organizing your thoughts with a specific goal in mind
will make achieving your goal much easier.
Educating or persuading your audience? Decide how
the information will benefit the reader. Simple lists,
website links, and other references might assist readers
who would like to dig further into the subject, especially
if they connect to your content.
If you are requesting donations, awards, grants, etc.,
look at previous recipients/winners if possible, identify exact points mentioned in applications that you can discuss
about your organization, and capitalize on shared interests.
For either type of writing, identify a call-to-action and
provide the reader with a specific path to take (calling a
number, clicking a button, visiting your website, dubbing
you the award recipient, etc.).
3) WATCH YOUR TONE AND STYLE.
Keep your tone positive and confident (not bragging),
don’t talk down to people, and always remain professional. Match your tone to your audience, and keep it
consistent throughout the piece. Think about solving
problems—not creating them!—and providing clear answers, especially on social media.
When writing for a web application, your style should
include short (even one-sentence) paragraphs with bulleted lists and section headers, breaks, and white space.
For writing that could be printed, keep paragraphs
shorter than half of an 8.5 x 11 page.
4) EMBRACE PLAIN LANGUAGE.
Keep your writing clear, brief, and focused. Avoid
jargon (except for involved audiences) or find a conversational way of defining it. Avoid using too many bullet
points or acronyms because they can actually distract or
confuse the reader. Use specific words instead of adding
“very” in front of a term, and only deliver the information your readers are looking for. You can always provide
a link or contact info for those who desire more.
5) ALWAYS REVIEW TWICE BEFORE SUBMISSION.
Read what you wrote slowly at least twice before you
send or submit it. The first time, read it as an entire
piece. Look for clarity, flow, ambiguity, tone, and style.
The second time through, look for issues related to
grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
For certain works, pay particular attention to headings; captions for images, tables, and figures; prices (no
misplaced decimals!); and working links to websites.
Ensure consistency in your labeling convention and capitalization of headings and titles.
Every word you write has a purpose. Make sure you
are driving people back to you, the expert, to solve their
problems!
Cori Nicole Smith Wamsley is a freelance writer/editor working one-on-one with
businesses and individuals, an author of six books, and a speaker and blogger about
effective written communication, all at www.coriwamsley.com.
For a more in-depth explanation and extra tips for Cori Nicole Wamsley’s 5 rules for
business writing, as well as a cheat sheet for quick reference, please visit http://bit.
ly/25U2ZuS. Just use the password “Writing Strategy” to access the downloads.
28
INSPIRING LIVES
SUMMER 2016