"The two day writing course really helped to improve the staff's writing skills. The staff definitely feels more confident in writing their correspondence"
Larry Dubinski
Fund Development Manager

10 Tips for More Effective Business Communications

It is just a little one-page letter to your regional staff, detailing planning priorities for the next six months. However, your first draft sounds so lame. It rambles, and several of the sentences sound very awkward. You can’t help feeling inept, as well as a little dumb. Maybe writing business letters isn’t your strong suit, but we love it. Our Business Writing Classes are created to help people like you develop effective, professional business writing skills so that you can communicate with confidence and clarity in any situation. From outlining and vocabulary to grammar and punctuation, we can help you get it all together and communicate with style

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Everyone can use a little help making their business communications more effective now and then. Here are 10 tips you can try today:

1. Write the way you speak. Take a look at your letters and memos. Do they sound like you or someone else? Effective business communications don’t need to be formal and stuffy to communicate effectively. In fact, most readers understand what you’re saying much more easily when you use a normal, conversational tone.

2. Take a positive approach. When readers are confronted by a negative message, they become blocked on an emotional level and often cannot fully absorb the entire message. So no matter what the message—even if it isn’t what the reader was hoping to receive—deliver the message using a positive tone and a positive approach.

3. Tell your readers what’s in it for them. If you really want to reach your readers, tell them how they will benefit from the message you’re communicating. Tell them what they stand to gain.

4. Write at the reader’s level. So you have a master’s in psychology. Big deal. Most of your readers won’t. And you won’t impress them with big words. You’ll only confuse them. A business communication is written to communicate. To do that effectively, your readers must understand the message you’re sending, so be sure to use words your readers will understand.

5. Never send a business communication when you’re angry. It’s okay to be angry. But communications written when you are still angry tend to be accusatory or condemning in tone. Little things can slip into your writing that you wouldn’t normally allow, putting up walls between you and your reader or fostering ill will. In business, it’s never wise to totally burn your bridges. So wait until you calm down before you send off that message and then choose your words carefully.

6. Anticipate questions. As you are writing a communication, try to anticipate what questions, if any, your reader will have. Then answer them right away. Your reader will benefit from being informed up-front and you’ll save on additional correspondence or communications to answer those questions later.

7. Be careful with acronyms and technical language. Common acronyms, words, and phrases within your specific industry may seem like everyday language to you. But what about your readers? If you’re writing to a colleague in the same field, it may be acceptable to use industry jargon. But if you’re writing to someone and you’re not certain what their level of understanding is, spell it out in clear terms everyone can understand.

8. Remember that longer is not necessarily better. If you can say what you want to say in three paragraphs, why write five? Extra text doesn’t necessarily enhance the message. Sometimes it just buries it and bores the reader. Tighten up your text. Make each word count. Every sentence should convey something meaningful.

9. If you can wait an extra day before sending the communication, take advantage of that extra time. Write the communication one day, get a good night’s sleep, and then proof it a final time in the morning when you are refreshed and ready to start a new day. Frequently, you will find small or subtle errors you might otherwise have missed when you were caught up in drafting your message.

If you have difficulty writing effective business communications, writing at your readers’ level, or with spelling, grammar, or punctuation—any aspect of the written communication process—take a class to enhance your skills and/or enlist a good secretary or a trusted colleague to proof your communications before you send them.

Writing effective business communications is a skill. It is a skill that can to some degree be learned and developed. Practice, practice, practice, and develop your written business communications skills today. Effective business writing is a transferable skill you can use in any and every profession.

By Tina L. Miller
New York, NYC

Business Communication - Practice Practice Practice

Business Letter Writing Quote
"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."
Proverbs

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