Good writing is not reserved for the English classroom these days. According to a recent article in Time, the business world is starting to pay more attention to the writing skills of their current (and potential) employees. “Consider a recent Grammarly study of 100 LinkedIn profiles. In the same 10-year period, professionals who received one to four promotions made 45 percent more grammatical errors than did professionals who were promoted six to nine times.” Did you know that our new Interdisciplinary Writing Minor is perfect for students who want to further develop their writing skills to use in a variety of fields and professions?
A bit more from the article – great tips for business and beyond.
10 Tips for Better Business Writing
1. Get to the point. Avoid phrases such as “The purpose of this report that I am submitting today is …”
2. Replace passive “to be” verbs with lively, active words.
3. Provide concrete, compelling examples to back up your statements.
4. Use an organized story structure with a logical beginning, middle and end.
5. Don’t let your sentences go on forever. Hint: lots of commas are a sign of trouble.
6. Understand your reading audience. Peers, stakeholders and top execs each require a different tone and approach.
7. Leave time for revisions. Always read a document thoroughly, and then set it aside. Read it again the next day, and then make any necessary adjustments.
8. Don’t go crazy with fonts, boldface and italics. Your documents should be inviting and easy to read.
9. And don’t go crazy with capitalization. For example, capitalize the proper name of a company, but not a reference to “our company.”
10. Shoot for relaxed authenticity. For example, a judicious use of self-deprecating humor can help engage the audience.