Business writing is writing that’s used in a professional setting. It’s a purposeful piece of writing that conveys relevant information to the reader in a clear, concise, and effective manner. Business writing includes client proposals, reports, memos, and emails. Here’s what we learned about writing for business from Public Relations Specialist Emily Yeap this month.
Why is Business Writing Important?
Generally, effective communication makes an organization run smoothly. Personally, honing your business writing skills can have a positive impact on career advancement at MSU. Specifically, learning succinct business writing skills helps:
- Bolster efficiency, productivity, and innovation at work
- Improve collaboration and team building among cross functional areas
- Build your personal credibility
- Increase your ability to influence and persuade others
- Keep remote teams engaged and on track
4 Tips We Learned about Writing for Business
Improve your professional writing skills by incorporating Emily’s tips below:
- Be concrete. Choose specific words that help paint a picture for your audience. Avoid clichés and jargons, and show, don’t tell. Without concrete language, writing can seem vague, unclear, or uninteresting.
- Cut your paragraph and sentence lengths. Writing long sentences is like adding water to tea, the more words, the weaker the message. Focus on the point you’re trying to get across and stick to it. Shorter paragraphs and sentences increases understanding.
- Use headings appropriately. Use headings for long emails and documents to help your readers skim the content and gather the most important information quickly.
- Think “What’s In It for Me (WIIFM)?” Take a moment before you write to think like your reader. What’s the purpose of this report/email/guide? What do they actually need to know, and what’s just nice to know? Organize your content appropriately and help readers out by writing clearly and with brevity. You’ll get much better responses that way.
Level Up
The practices above will help you get started, but there’s so much more to writing for business. You might have missed our course this round, but be on the lookout for another opportunity to sign up this fall. All our professional development courses are free and open to all faculty and staff! Check out our other course offerings in My Learning Connection.
If you have any questions on how to register for a professional development course, feel free to email our team at HRLearning@missouristate.edu.