Effective Business Writing: Letters, Reports, Memos and Emails – Overview and Accuracy

by rictownsend

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy

  
Effective business writing skills in my experience are still one of the most difficult competencies for young employees to master. Here are a few rules that may help.
Rule 1. Write like a journalist, or as some call it the A:B:C way
Obviously good journalists are experts at getting their message across so the skills they display give a great skeleton to use as a guide to our writing. The A B C stands for:
A – Accuracy
B – Brevity
C – Clarity
In journalism’s ABC they add “coherence,  emphasis, objectivity  and unity” which are perhaps a topics for another day. So lets just look at the basic ABC’s of effective business writing.
What can you do to ensure your accuracy?
As a writer one of the most difficult issues to come to grips with is to judge how well your writing covers the topic, how well the ideas flow or if you have answered the questions being addressed. A key to good writing is to ensure what you have stated in your writing paints an accurate image in the readers mind.
A great exercise to develop this skill is to write some instructions on how to use a calculator plus solve a maths problem. Once done hand what you have written to a another person to see what happens and if the answer is correct. You can also use a geometric shape as a model to  write a description of how to draw it and then see what others come up with as a result of your written instructions.
Proofreading your own work is difficult however if you have the time, leave your piece of work for a day and then read it again. Using this method can help you find the weaknesses in what you have produced. Of course the best method is then to hand what you have written to a colleague to see if you have made sense,
It’s desirable if not essential, even today, for you to ensure that what you have written is grammatically ‘correct’ and that you have followed the conventions that your organization requires. As another writer on this topic puts it: “This is one of the most important post-writing tasks that you need to do.” Grammar in most cases is what difference between a readable and understandable piece of work and a nonsensical one. Remember grammar can change your meaning dramatically!
This classic example will perhaps demonstrate the point:
a) A woman without her man is nothing.
b) A woman: without her, man is nothing.
Once more – you must proofread your work as another reader may not know that if your intent was to express point a) above or point b)
Accuracy is also governed by giving the appropriate amount of information, too little and mistaken image will  occur in the readers mind and too much will lead to reader confusion. That leads me to part two beginning with brevity.
Before we move on, finally on accuracy: Check your facts, shouldn’t really need to say it however, don’t believe everything you read and try to confirm information – ‘facts’ – from more than one source.