Writing, Business—Avoid The Ten Worst Mistakes

More and more U.S. companies are complaining that their employees—even with high levels of education—can’t write simple, clear business correspondence. Here are the most common mistakes I’ve discovered in my corporate seminars on business writing:

1. Don’t Bother With a Focus Sentence

Good business writers take a few minutes to focus on their key message: What do I want to happen as a result of this letter or memo? What’s my main idea—in one sentence? Bad writers just start writing, without having a clear sense of purpose. So it’s not surprising the their message isn’t clear. It’s often long and involved; it’s hard to read.

2. Don’t Bother With An Outline

Smart writers of e-mails and memos take a minute or two to list the three or four key ideas of a message, and any facts, data, examples, or illustrations that back up or “prove” each key point. That’s all an outline is—a thumbnail sketch of the main and supporting ideas. It’s a skeleton plan—a quick summary of where your message is headed. Taking a minute or two to sketch an outline will clarify your message—and make it easier to write.

3. Don’t Organize Your Ideas

Bad writers just start writing words and phrases that pop up into their heads—never mind any order or priority. That’s OK for a first draft, but it’s not OK to push the “Send” key without putting the sentences in a logical order. Good writers ask themselves, “Which sentence or idea should come first, and why? Which one should come next, and why? Good writers see a pattern in a group of sentences. They arrange paragraphs in a logical order, such as time (sequence of events); space (moving from location to another); cause and effect; problem and solution; most important idea to least important.

4. Don’t Cut Words You Don’t Need

Bad writers think every word they write is so important that it can’t be edited out. Good writers say, “How can I say this in the fewest words possible, to make my message powerful and clear? What extra words are getting in the way? What words can I cut to focus my message better—faster?”

5. Use Big Words

Good writers don’t try to show off with big words. Instead, they choose simple, easily understood words that will convey their message quickly and accurately. (They write “about” instead of ”approximately.”) They use the active voice (“I decided”) as much as possible, and avoid the wordy and unclear passive voice (“The decision was made.”)

6. Don’t Just Talk on Paper

Good business writers use each letter, memo, report or e-mail as an opportunity to have a conversation with their reader. They read out loud what they’ve written to hear how it sounds. And they know that if it sounds as if they were talking one-on-one to the reader, their writing is clear and appropriate.

7. Don’t Write for the Reader’s Benefit

Good writers know that whatever they write is for another person—not for themselves. So they stay focused by asking, “Why would my reader want to read this? What’s in it for the reader? What benefits can I offer the reader to hear my message and act on it?” Bad writers just write for themselves—and never think of the reader as a real person.

8. Don’t Energize Your Writing

Good writers use single-focus sentences packed with lively, powerful words that stimulate the reader’s imagination. They don’t say, “The sales person was effective.” Instead, they’ll write, “Jack backed up his enthusiasm with engineering facts that proved the product’s value—and brought in a $50,000 order.”

9. Don’t Try to Grab and Hold Attention

Good writers know they have to hook readers with an opening sentence that grabs attention fast: “What would you do if three of your best people walked into your office tomorrow morning and quit?” Good writers create one sentence after another to pull the reader along: “Then we asked everyone…” “And we discovered a huge mistake that caused a 25% scrap rate.”

10. Don’t Bother to Proofread

Bad writers just type anything that comes into their heads, and press the “Send” key. Bad writers think, “Why bother to read it out loud to see if it makes sense? That takes too much time. Careless writers ignore punctuation that makes their message accurate That’s why they take the all-important last step: proofread carefully. They read everything out loud. And they keep revising until the message is short, clear, simple, and easily understood.