“Writing at Work” nominated for Small Business Book Award
“Writing at Work: A Quick and Easy Guide to Grammar and Effective Business Writing” has been nominated for a 2012 Small Business Book Award in the category of Marketing.
The Small Business Book Awards seek to honour books that are of particular interest to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Now in its fourth year, the Awards enable the small business community to nominate, show their support for, and vote on their favourite business books. The top 10 winners will be selected by readers based on the number of votes as the Best Small Business Books of 2012, while the top five vote-getters in each category become Category Winners. Voting began on 1 February 2012 and will continue until 16 February.
If you’d like to support us by voting for Writing at Work, go to the Small Business Book Awards website and click on the voting button on the Writing at Work page.
“With so many books being published each year, we wanted to recognise those that made a difference to small business owners and managers, and start-up entrepreneurs,” said Ivana Taylor, Book Editor at Small Business Trends, which produces the Awards. “Our annual Small Business Book Awards are a way to highlight the books that entrepreneurs are reading and learning from.”
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Six steps to better business writing
If you want to succeed in business, a flair for language is essential. Your customers will make assumptions about you based on what you write—which is why correct grammar, punctuation and spelling are so important. If your writing doesn’t make the grade, you won’t be taken seriously.
Here are six easy steps to improving the effectiveness of your business letters, emails, leaflets and reports:
Consider your audience
The most important thing to ask yourself before you start writing is: ‘Who am I writing for?’ Writing a sales letter to a customer will be very different to producing a technical report for a business audience. You should adjust your writing style to suit your reader. Try to keep it as simple as possible, even if you’re writing about something complicated.
To be effective it helps to be clear about the message you want to communicate and understand why you’re writing—is it to inform, advise or persuade? Taking a few moments to think about your message and plan your document will help you choose the best writing style for your audience and help you communicate successfully.
Choose the right tone of voice
The tone of voice you adopt in your writing should reflect the nature of the document, who you’re writing to, the kind of organisation you work for, and the products you sell. A company selling colourful beachwear will adopt a different tone of voice in its promotional literature to one selling medical equipment. Your tone will also vary depending on whether you’re writing to a customer to let them know about your latest product, or composing a warning letter to an employee about their poor timekeeping.
No matter what your reason for writing, try to be honest and tactful. If the situation requires you to be firm or critical, try to do so without being sarcastic or unnecessarily harsh. Remember that people interpret words in different ways, so tread carefully and make sure you select words that are appropriate and right for the situation you’re writing about.
Use everyday English
When you’re writing, avoid using words that you wouldn’t use in everyday conversation. Sometimes you’ll need to be formal, especially if you’re writing a technical or legal document, but generally you should choose words that are as short, clear and straightforward as possible.
If you were talking to someone you wouldn’t say: The contract commenced in November and will conclude in February, so why use that kind of language in a document? Instead write: The contract began in November and will end in February.
Using everyday English will make your documents less formal, more readable, and easier to understand.
Jargon
Every business organisation has its own jargon. It’s the shorthand language that we use in meetings or when we’re talking to colleagues. Using jargon can be a positive thing as long as the people you’re talking to understand what it means.
You shouldn’t use jargon when you’re writing to customers, or if you’re writing to another business that isn’t familiar with your company’s unique terminology. Instead, explain things in simple terms.
Bear in mind that when new staff join your team, they won’t be familiar with your company jargon, but they may be too embarrassed to say so. Help them along by explaining any jargon you use, at least until they’ve learned it for themselves.
Meaningless phrases
There are lots of old-fashioned phrases that still creep in to twenty-first century business documents. Most of them are totally meaningless and sound like they were written a hundred years ago. Things like:
Please contact the undersigned…
Please find enclosed herewith…
I should be obliged if…
And, of course, the classic:
If there is anything further I can do to assist, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Expressions like these are outdated and unnecessary. Cut them out.
Proof reading
If there’s time, it’s always a good idea to get someone else to check your work, especially if you’re producing a document or leaflet that will be distributed widely. A fresh pair of eyes will soon spot any errors that you’ve missed.
When you’re writing you can often become blind to the words on the page. It’s easy to read what you think you’ve written, rather than what’s actually there. That’s why it’s essential to thoroughly proof read your document.
One of the best ways to proof read is to print out a copy of the final draft of your work. It’s easier to spot mistakes on paper than when you’re reading a document on-screen. With a paper copy, you can also scribble notes and changes in the margin.
Try to do your proof reading somewhere quiet like an empty meeting room. Getting away from ringing phones and chatty colleagues will help you focus on the task in hand. It will also give you an opportunity to read your work out loud if you want to. This can help you pick up on misplaced commas and missing words, and highlight awkwardly constructed or over-long sentences.
Proofreading may seem tedious and boring, but it’s the only way to find and correct errors before your work is published.
This blog article is an extract from Writing at Work by Ellis Morgan.
To help businesses communicate more effectively, we’ve published a new book under our Dormouse Press imprint called Writing at Work by Ellis Morgan.
It isn’t a stuffy academic guide to grammar. Writing at Work is an easy-to-read, practical handbook with advice on punctuation and grammar, how to find the right tone of voice, deal with jargon, and ditch meaningless phrases. It also includes a list of alternatives to long or difficult words to encourage the use of everyday English.
ISBN 978-0-9569466-2-1
RRP £8.99
If you’d like us to send you the first 30 pages of the book as a FREE PDF, please complete our online form.
Iron out those writing wrinkles
If you’ve just started work or been given a promotion, or you run your own business and want to improve your language and grammar skills, read Writing at Work by Ellis Morgan. It’s a quick and easy guide to grammar and effective business writing that will help you communicate more effectively with customers and staff.
By using clear, straightforward language and using a consistent writing style, you will get your key messages across more successfully, increase sales and improve internal communication. By applying the methods you’ll learn from the book you can also increase productivity amongst your workforce. Writing at Work will teach you how to transform long, difficult to understand emails and reports into clear, easy-to-read documents that your staff will be able to read in a fraction of the time.
Writing at Work by Ellis Morgan will be published on 5 September 2011.