Some General Guidelines
Know why you’re writing.
Before you begin writing, know what you want to say – and why you want to say it. Are you explaining a situation or a problem? Are you trying to convince the reader of something? Are you recommending a course of action? One way to ensure you know why you’re writing is to make an outline of your main points beforehand.
By always remembering your purpose in writing, you’ll keep yourself from wandering off track. You’ll also avoid confusing the reader. If you don’t understand what you’re trying to say, how can you expect the reader to?
Know your audience.
Effective writing of all kinds is tailored to its audience. Who – and how many people – will be reading the document? How familiar are they with the subject matter? Make sure the answers to these questions fit with the tone and level of detail you include in your document.
Another key is knowing how long your reader or readers will have to read your memo, report, or email. This will help determine its length. One frequently used guideline is one double-spaced page per minute.
You also need to consider how much information to include to meet your readers’ needs. Put yourself in their shoes: What are they looking for? What questions might they ask?
Present the most important points first.
A business report is not a murder mystery; your reader shouldn’t have to guess what the conclusion will be. Present the most important point(s) at the beginning of your document; then use the paragraphs and sections that follow to support your conclusion.
The same goes for paragraphs and sections within the document. At the beginning of each new paragraph or section, state the main point. Then present the explanation or supporting details, preferably in descending order of importance. This theory works for individual sentences, too: Placing the most important words at the beginning and end of a sentence heightens their emphasis.
Be clear and concise.
The first key to being concise is eliminating unnecessary information. Stepping away from your document and coming back to it later can help you be more objective about what is and isn’t needed to convey your message.
The second key is eliminating unnecessary words. Qualifiers such as very, fairly, and quite rarely add meaning. In fact, because they’re so overused, they often have the opposite effect.
Many commonly used phrases include useless words. Some wordy phrases and their replacements are listed below:
Other phrases are redundant:
The third key to being clear and concise is using short sentences and paragraphs. Try to keep sentences to between 20 and 25 words. Or simply break up sentences that extend more than two lines. In general, no paragraph should include more than one or two ideas, and a paragraph of more than six sentences or 10 to 12 lines is almost always too long. When in doubt, split paragraphs in two at logical breaking points. The same goes for sentences.
You don’t want your writing to sound stilted. Varying sentence length and structure can help prevent this. Read your writing out loud to make sure it sounds natural.
Use simple, specific language.
Some people think using complex language makes them appear intelligent; in reality, it only obscures their point and makes them look pretentious. Effective writers use simple words such as start instead of commence, help instead of assist, and end rather than terminate.
Here are some unnecessarily large words and their replacements:
Here are some phrases that were once commonplace, but now appear stiff and affected. Avoid or eliminate them:
Also avoid clichés such as:
Finally, good writers also choose concrete words and specific examples over abstract, vague language. A watch that allows you to send email is a much clearer description than an IP- enabled wristwatch. One trick is to write the way you talk. If something doesn’t sound right when you read it out loud, change it.
Avoid jargon.
Jargon is vocabulary that is specific to an industry or group of people. Because specialized language and technical terms can be confusing, it’s best to avoid them, even for the savviest of audiences. Try this as a guideline: Use jargon only if you are completely confident that nearly every one of your readers – say, nine out of ten – will understand it.
In addition, certain words and phrases come in and out of fashion. Because not everyone will understand them, and they might mean different things to different people, try to avoid them. Faddish words and phrases include:
Don’t hedge.
Don’t use wishy-washy language because you don’t know exactly what you want to say or because you fear people will disagree with you.
The following words and phrases are red flags that you are hedging:
may or may not be my best guess is that to the best of my recollection under the circumstances
Use active rather than passive voice.
In a sentence in the active voice, the subject performs the action. In a sentence in the passive voice, the subject receives the action.
Active voice: We paid close attention to the consumers’ comments.
Passive voice: Close attention was paid to the consumers’ comments.
Sentences in the passive voice tend to be duller, longer, and harder to understand than those in the active voice. They use forms of the helping verb to be (is, was, were, has been, have been, shall be, will be, shall have been, will have been) and phrases beginning with by. Active voice, in contrast, makes writing more energetic and forceful. I used the active voice to write this book sounds better than The active voice was used by me in writing this book.
If you can’t figure out how to put an idea into active voice, figure out who or what is doing the action and make that the subject of the sentence. To identify sentences in passive voice, look for those helping verbs and phrases beginning with by.
There is one instance in which you might want to use passive voice on purpose: when you are trying to de-emphasize the subject. If you’d like to highlight something other than the subject – the action, for example – passive voice can be a good choice:
He was born on January 3, 1972.
The employees were laid off during the third quarter.
In all other cases, avoid passive voice.
Provide guideposts for your reader.
Help your reader by providing signals and guideposts. Transitional words and phrases (such as and, furthermore, even so, and therefore) work to connect your thoughts and indicate what’s to come. Another way to create transitions is to repeat a word or a phrase from the preceding paragraph.
When a paragraph or section contains several different points, numbering them (first, second, etc.) makes them clearer. Headers, lists, and bullets also help organize your thoughts for the reader.
Finally, make your reader’s job easier by following the principle of parallel construction. Parallel construction means beginning each item in a list with the same part of speech (the art of advertising, the science of accounting, and the mystery of marketing – each item begins with a noun). This helps alert readers to the similarities or connections between things. If you introduce words or phrases with a preposition, include the preposition either only with the first item or with each of the items.
Parallel: This book is for investors, managers, salespeople, and executives.
Parallel: This book is for investors, for managers, for salespeople, and for executives.
Not parallel: This book is for investors, managers, salespeople, and for executives.
It also helps to put related words together:
Confusing: Investors in the 1930s hurt by the crash acted cautiously.
Better: Investors hurt by the crash in the 1930s acted cautiously.
This kind of positioning makes sentences easier to understand.
Use strong endings.
Use firm endings; don’t go on and on and weaken your point. Use direct, strong statements. End by restating your major points or the benefits of following your recommendations.
Let it sit for a while.
If possible, let your writing sit overnight. At least, an hour or two away from the document will allow you to approach it with a fresh eye and to edit more effectively.
Separate editing from writing. With writing, it’s best to get your thoughts out rather than agonize over every detail.
Don’t rely on a grammar- or spell-checker.
Edit and review your documents yourself, and don’t rely on a grammar- or spell-checker. In particular, a spell-checker won’t recognize a legitimate word used incorrectly (to vs. too, for example).
Proofread, proofread, proofread.
You can’t proofread something too many times.
When in doubt, just start writing.
If all of this seems too difficult, just start writing. As long as you have a basic idea of what you want to say, you can organize and polish later.
