PART

LEARNING BUSINESS WRITING BASICS

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CHAPTER

Understanding Business Writing

usiness writing integrates key elements of other approaches to writing, but successful business writers choose these elements

carefully, always with an eye toward the audience. Successful business writers consider issues of punctuation, organization, voice, layout, and adequate support for each specific message, along with a precise balance among these strategies. Time is of the essence. The bottom line in business writing: Everyone is busy, and no one wants another thing to read. But writing (documentation, reporting, correspondence, communication, presentation-support materials) still fuels the engine of business; to succeed as business writers, we must balance the foundational role of writing with the reality that people are too busy to read what we write. Within this text are the tools to effect that balance.

W H AT S
Identifying the essential elements of business writing Distinguishing business writing from other approaches to writing Negotiating the conflicting goals of business writing versus business reading

AHEAD
Reading versus seeing Mechanics, tone, and design

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PART I: LEARNING BUSINESS WRITING BASICS

KEY CONCEPTS
Readers of this text will most likely find themselves in one of the following circumstances: In business: already working, trying hard to climb the ladder toward further success In school: immersed in academics, with an eye toward moving into a profession or continuing your education In another field: working in public service, academics, the law, science and technology, government, retail or other service industries, or some combination of these fields

Ive listed below key concepts with which we must begin our adventures in business writing:

Audience
The people who will read the text. Because written text generally remains accessible beyond the short term, a successful business writer must consider both the immediate or primary audience (those people whom the reader can clearly predict will access the document) as well as the extended or secondary audience (those people who might seek out or happen upon the text for guidance, validation, reference, or replication).

Bottom Line
The most important items or elements in the text. Bottom lines are generally forward-looking and involve issues of actionability, application, impact, and immediate value. Bottom lines always emphasize reader over writer.

Business Writer
Anyone who writes at work, essentially everyone in business. Business writers are not only technical writers, copy editors, or marketing

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CHAPTER 1 UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS WRITING

or public relations representatives; business writer refers to anyone who depends on written communication (print or electronic) to convey information. Who doesnt?

Design and Layout

The arrangement of information on the page. Layout is generally the broader of the two terms, referring to the overall weight and impact of each page or the document entirely. Design impacts layout but also operates on component levels: text emphasis, line spacing, color schemes within graphs or graphics, and indentation and alignment, among other considerations.

Essential Detail
Only the detail necessary to understand or implement the tasks immediately at hand. As in any context, essential is a subjective term, but a successful business writer must put his or her own needs after the needs of the reader.

Executive Presence
The impression of a writers character and credibility that a reader extracts from the text. The term echoes other terms in other contexts: Command presence in the military Stage presence in the media Classroom presence in academics

But all of these correlatives maintain at least some physical presence. In writing (business writing and otherwise), the author is not usually present as the audience processes his or her information; the words on the page alone must carry information and credibility concurrently.

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PART I: LEARNING BUSINESS WRITING BASICS

Logical Flow
The sense and system by which a reader organizes information. Logical is another subjective term, and a writer must again consider organization, progression, and logical flow from the readers perspective. Logical flow often doesnt become clear until after all information is in place; in these cases, reorganize, even if from start to finish.

Punctuation and Grammar

The rules by which some distant authorities regimented language usage. We all learned these rules in school, and then promptly forgot or occluded them as we grew up. Yes, the rules for writing are different from those for speech. The bad news: Incorrect punctuation or inadequate attention to mechanics can severely compromise a writers credibility. The worse news: Readers rarely remember the particulars as consistently or correctly as they shouldbut they often think that they do. The worst news: Writers often overlook mechanical/punctuation errors when editing, but these errors have an uncanny tendency to leap off the page to even a rushed reader. (Have you ever noticed two periods at the end of a sentence before youve read even a few words on the rest of the page?)

So whats the good news? Applying the strategies and skill sets within this book will not only eliminate common pitfalls, but will also streamline the identification and correction of a wide range of errors. Most of our training in mechanics and punctuation occurred a long time ago and has faded in the face of more pressing considerations. Not to worry; this book will get you through the punctuation minefield, and without driving you crazy along the way.

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Medium
The method or channel through which text moves from writer to reader (singular of media). We deal with traditional written media (reports, correspondence, documentation) and electronic mail. Ill develop each term more fully throughout the book.

Comparing Business Writing to Other Common Forms of Writing

All of us have written papers in school (academic writing), read a story or two (creative writing), read newspapers (journalistic writing), deciphered mortgage paperwork or the back of a speeding ticket (legal writing), and kept up on developments in our fields or verified information in reference guides (technical writing). Because of all of these activities, we understand and employ a wide variety of guidelines about how writing works. Therefore, we all bring many preconceptions (sometimes misconceptions) and possibilities to bear on our writing. Successful business writers understand how these other forms of writing both build up and break down effective business writing. They also understand when and how to select among the range of choices. But even the seasoned business writer occasionally reverts to other writing models or falls prey to the temptations to hedge, dodge, or mask concise and assertive recommendations behind wordiness and vagaries. Ive included some broad-stroke assessments of this range of options in the table below, both to pinpoint some preconceptions and to hone in on business-viable strategies embedded in these other forms of writing.

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Key Components of Other Forms of Writing Academic Peers, colleagues, students Lofty, impressive, verbose Creative Broad, diverse, immediate, and extended Imaginative, illustrative, impactful Journalistic Fairly immediate, specific, by demographic Detached, objective, third-person Selective, both for inclusion and organization Mostly for credibility (eye witness, interview) or connection

Audience

Language

Value of Detail

Comprehensive, Expansive, for both for context emotionality and credibility and illustration

Integrated and essential, Inclusion of for validation, Research, Methodology explanation, credibility Assertion, exhaustive General support, Organization connection, conclusion

Little to none

Varied, orderly, First: who, or disjointed for what, where, specific effect when, why, and how Then: the rest

Value/Point

Informative, Self-determined, Self-affirmed, peer validated, validated later, educational, disciplineinconsequential interpersonal specific

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Key Components of Other Forms of Writing (Continued) Legal Specific: cocounsel first, clients second, judges third Highly disciplinespecific, intimidating Essential and allencompassing Technical Peers, colleagues, end users Scientific Peers, colleagues, competitors

Audience

Language

ContextHighly specific, exclusive, action-oriented jargony Essential for process duplication, information Essential for credibility, validation, cross-check Essential for credibility, process duplication, research Processoriented: background, process, outcomes Results proved and verifiable

Value of Detail

Little to none Important, Inclusion of as defense, Research, rationalization, Methodology justification Consecutive, comprehensive, General including all Organization contingencies Processoriented: the order stems from series of steps involved

Value/Point

Process Contract validation, effectively litigation, completed defense against litigation

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PART I: LEARNING BUSINESS WRITING BASICS

BUSINESS WRITING WORKS LIKE JOURNALISTIC WRITING, ONLY DIFFERENTLY

Journalistic writing tends to follow the inverted pyramid model, which mandates opening with all the key information (the lead or lede), following up with valuable details, continuing with less important but related circumstances, and then concluding with any trailing information or observations. The problem with this model for business writing is that this message misplaces an essential element of our process: the point. Regardless of the information within, the inverted pyramid has the point at the bottom. In business writing, the point must always come on top.

Adapting Journalisms Organizational Model to Better Represent Business Writing Journalisms Inverted Pyramid: Organizationally sound, visually flawed Advantage: Organization Journalisms organizational model is appropriate to business writing as wellall essential information on top. Disadvantage: Visual Message As a graphic representation of focus and impact, the inverted pyramid fails: In business writing, the point must always be on top. Mitigating Consideration: ReadershipVisually, the inverted pyramid implies the point as a final element (like a mystery story). But this model might convey another message: More people read the beginning than the end.

Who, what, why, where, when

Essential detail, context, information

The point

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Business Writing Organizational Pyramids: Organize effectively, consider falling readership

Advantage: Organization and Consolidated Visual Messages Business writing assumes rapidly plummeting readership and so conveys all key information first. Keys: These include essential context, process, rationale, value, impact, and actionable itemsas concisely as possible. Essential Details: An interested reader will scan the midsections for additional information. Reiteration: Some readers skip the middle and jump right to the end; others skim the middle and seek wrap-up and forward-looking value, impact, or actionable items at the end.

Key points

Rationale, essential details, forwardlooking context

Reiterated value, impact, action items

Audience Is Everything: Negotiating the Conflict between Writers and Readers Needs
In business, as in many writing circumstances, we face many pressuressome unavoidable, some self-imposed. These pressures include the need to do the following: Work quickly Provide comprehensive background information Demonstrate the width and breadth of all the work, research, investigation, and consideration that went into our recommendation

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PART I: LEARNING BUSINESS WRITING BASICS

Provide ourselves an out: an excuse or responsibility chain that ends on someone elses deskjust in case our recommendation falls short

However, these pressures conflict with the goals of successful business writing. The conflict is that writers too often want to show everything they know, but the readers crave clarity about what to do. What ends up happening is that the writers erroneously open with what amounts to fluff and bluster, and hold their key recommendations until the documents end. This approach nearly always fails; readers stop reading before theyve uncovered all the key elements on the page. Business writing succeeds when the writer prioritizes the bottom line: the specific recommendation, impact or application statement, immediate value, or other clearly actionable item. Everything else comes after, and then only as necessary. A successful business writer will adopt a logical flow that gives the immediate/ primary audience information and insight as follows: 1. The essential information first 2. Streamlined detailing next 3. Concise reiteration of key points and forward-looking actionable items last Extended/secondary audiences will also benefit from this organization. They often rely more heavily on the middle section for background and detail that the immediate audience can assume or already understands. This business writing organizational model also aids writing. When writers force themselves to come directly to the point, they lose the temptations to hedge, offer self-serving but otherwise empty validations, or bury clear recommendations within fogs of context and tangents. These tangential elements not only muddle ones message and compromise ones credibility, but producing them wastes the writers time. Prioritizing clarity, conciseness, directness, and only essential detail also streamlines

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the writing process. Business writing works best when writers write as readers. Then everybody wins. Many writers will resist trimming excess information, seeing that kind of trimming as butchering the document, as cutting muscle (meaning) as well as fat (nonessential information). The reality: A busy reader skips nearly all of this excess, scanning and skimming for key information and growing more aggravated and less interested with each passed-over word. Including too much information is equivalent to including none at all. The key is to state the following points clearly, concisely, and early: Who is doing what To what end Why and how With and for whom

In the chart below, youll find the essential rulesthe foundations of effective business writingto follow as you craft your business documents.

The Rules of Effective Business Writing Rule 1: Know Your Audience Understand your readers expectations regarding format, design, length, layout, and approach. Establish and follow an organization appropriate to your audience and message. Double-check, when finished, that youve followed your own model. Rule 2: BLOT (Bottom Line On Top) Do not make the readers wait for the key ideas or information. Provide key information and reference to all actionable items first.

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PART I: LEARNING BUSINESS WRITING BASICS

Do so in every sentence, every paragraph, every page, every document. Rule 3: DAB (Detail, Analysis, Background) Do not clutter your writing with excessive detail, needless context, self-serving hedging, or useless tangents. Avoid jargon or language that is unclear. Successful business writers use design and include markers to provide structure and emphasize key points.

The Message and the Medium: Reading versus Seeing

Successful business writers always consider their audience first. Then they reassess and revise their work, taking into account the message and medium at work within the particular writing context. The way a page looks has an immediate impact on how a reader feels about the information. Seeing happens first and establishes the readers expectations, attitude, and approach. Reading happens subsequently and succeeds or fails because of the see response. Seeing can involve the whole page, all at once, or component pieces of the page. Seeing might also involve issues of placement, preference, and visual emphasis, but readers digest the page mostly as a collection of components. Consider the following table:

Reading Is: Intellectual An exercise A skill

Seeing Is: Emotional Effortless An instinct

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Time-intensive The result of a decision Controlled, systematic

Immediate Nearly unavoidable Spontaneous, simultaneous

If prospective readers dont like what they see at first glance, they will read only grudgingly, if at all. A business writers success in those situations, and countless others, would depend not only on including key information, but on giving readers clear and easy access to that key information. If you lose your car keys, youre not going far; if your reader loses sight of key information, he or she wont get very far either. The writer is the driver. Keep those keys where you and your readers can find them. Remember, when it comes to reading versus seeing: Design for the second in order to encourage the first.

MECHANICS, TONE, AND DESIGN

The trio of mechanics, tone, and design are essential to effective business documents and communications. They bring together the most important considerations weve just coveredaudience, message, and medium. Lets look at the crucial trio in a little more practical detail.

Mechanics
We cannot ignore mechanics; punctuation gives your writing sense, tone, and voice. For example, read item A below completely, then read item B. A. A woman, without her man, is nothing. B. A woman: without her, man is nothing. Punctuation can make worlds of difference! But we must consider those sentence-level issues in conjunction with other

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strategies. A predominant attention to mechanics and syntax can doom many business-writing texts. Readers rarely retain the particulars and, even more rarely, have or take the time to consult those texts for sentence-level reference. The key is to use mechanics to maintain clarity and credibility.

Tone
To expand on the issues of tone, character, and credibility in the previous example, notice also your assumptions about the writer: what would be your assessments of the character and credibility of person A versus person B? Now consider this quotation: I have to come to grips with this. That, in my mind, was stealing. This quotation by Andrew Fastow, Enrons former CFO, comes from a March 20, 2006, Newsweek article. Fastow was testifying about how he and other Enron execs enriched themselves at the expense of others. Now ask yourself: What did Fastow hope to convey here? What did he actually convey? How might those be different?

We could approach this quote at a mechanics/grammar levelthe ambiguity of this or that; the impact of offsetting in my mind with commas, etc. That sentence-level study might well fascinate, but the more common response will be emotional, from the gut. A reader is likely to jump to conclusions about the sincerity of Fastows confession (arguably useful in the court of public opinion, but entirely useless in the courtroom Fastow then faced), as well as his credibility and likeability as a person.

Design
The design of the following example might have already drawn your eye to this portion of the page. First, recognize that

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attractionbased on where and how information is placed on the pageaffects readability. Second, notice what you see (or saw) in the text below:

GODISNOWHERE
Did you see God is now here or God is nowhere? Ignoring theology, philosophy, and your general outlook for the moment, and approaching this text purely from a communication perspective, consider the impact of all of the following on meaning-making and understanding: Nothing (emptiness): The only difference between the two readings are the spaces, small bits of nothing. Something (pattern recognition): People read in chunks words, parts of paragraphs, pieces of pages. Everything (worldview): Readers come to documents with preexisting ideas and outlooks, which impact how they see and understand the information in front of them.

Design and layout matter, and a successful business writer uses them to influence understanding at the level of word, page, and even outlook.

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KEY

POINTS

TO

REMEMBER

Writers too often want to show everything they know, but the readers crave clarity about what to do. People are busy! State the following points clearly, concisely, and early: Who is doing what To what end Why and how With and for whom Audience is everything, then message, then medium. That means sticking to the rules of effective business writing: Rule 1: Know Your Audience Rule 2: BLOT (Bottom Line On Top) Rule 3: DAB (Detail, Analysis, Background) Content without design is meaningless: Design for seeing in order to encourage reading. A strict adherence to sound mechanics, a professional tone, and effective design lead to credibility and respect for you and your work.

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