Blog written by Samara J. GaskinsÂ
Business Writing! I know it sounds hard and intimidating, but what if I told you it doesn’t have to be. There have been times when I dreaded writing a business letter or email because I was unsure if it was being executed correctly. I have five tips that I think can help you. These tips have helped build my confidence as a business writer and I hope they can do the same for you.
Tip 1: Be Specific and Straight to the Point
Everyone time is valued and you have to make sure that you be specific and get straight to the point. You have to be able to grab the readers attention from the very beginning. This can be done by putting your main point in the first sentence (Walton, 2017). If your writing an email, make sure the subject line is specific. Let your audience know exactly what is going on. Being specific will help prevent the hassle of emailing back and forth. If your writing is going to be longer than an email, be sure to space paragraphs, use bold fonts, and section headers ( Walton, 2017).
Tip 2: Watch Your Tone
It is important to use a friendly tone when writing. Readers can tell if you’re being rude or unfriendly. Having a friendly tone will keep readers be engaged. However, in some cases, readers cannot tell if you are being friendly or rude. Be sure not to use sarcasm or write in all capital letters.
Tip 3: Know Your Facts
Make sure all your data is current. Do not use old sources from years ago. It is best to use data from government agencies, educational organizations, and established businesses(Walton, 2017). Also, be sure to fact check stats that you find inside of articles. Just because a stat is cited in an article, it doesn’t mean it’s true. Find the original study and fact check the data.
Tip 4: Proofread and Edit Work
It is really important to proofread your work. Your writing is a representation of you and misspelled words and poor grammar is not a good look. It can also be embarrassing. Sometimes we can miss the smallest things, such as the wrong punctuation or forget to capitalize a letter. It is also important to master homonyms. For example, make sure you know the difference between their, there, and they’re.
Tip 5: Use Online Tools
There are great online tools, such as Grammarly, Cite Machine, and Easy Word Count to assist you with your writing. Grammarly assists with checking grammatical errors, spelling, sentence structure, and much more. Cite Machine also assists with grammar and sentence structure, as well as check for plagiarism and help build citations. Easy Word Count is great because it counts the number of words your writing.
I hope these five tips can be beneficial to you. Hit me up in the comment section with your feedback. Let’s keep the dialogue going!
Walton, M. (2017, October 23). 8 Ways to Improve Your Professional Writing Skills. Retrieved on July 13, 2019, from https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/improve-professional-writing-skills/
Idealistic Ambition's 