Developing good business writing skills really is a must for employees at all levels in order to succeed in the workplace. To make a good and lasting impression on your reader, what you write and how you write it must be at the forefront of your mind in the workplace. Ensure you show off your business writing skills as much as possible: impressing the right person might just be the key to your next big promotion.
It is both a blessing and a curse that a piece of writing can have such an impact.
It is a major inconvenience to try to decipher a piece of work that has clearly been written by someone with little to no business writing skills. This can unfortunately lead to negative judgments about the competence of the writer, and these types of first impressions are difficult to shake off. In the workplace, this kind of negative first impression can have extremely detrimental consequences including a lack of trust from senior managers and even a direct impact on your ability to do business.
On the other side of the coin, the impact of a piece of business writing done properly can only create positive outcomes. Not only will it help to engage your reader and ultimately help them to understand your message and what it is that you need from them, but it will also show that reader that you’re a competent and able professional who is worth their investment of time and effort. Being able to demonstrate strong business writing skills could even make all the difference when it comes to getting sought after promotions.
Read our article on business writing skills to ensure you are giving yourself the best possible chance for success
If you’re looking to develop your business writing skills, the first thing to do with any piece of writing is to establish exactly what it is that you’re trying to achieve. You must ensure that whatever message you’re trying to get across is clear and concise; the first key step then is to ask yourself firstly why you’re writing the document, and secondly what it is that you most want to conveyp. Whether you’re looking to educate your reader, persuade your reader, challenge your reader, entertain your reader or report to your reader, the message you need to get across will dictate the tone of communication.
It is also extremely important to establish a connection with your reader to ensure engagement. Good business writing skills allow you to connect with your reader on a level that helps them to understand exactly what your message is. Gaining an understanding of who you’re targeting with your message is extremely important. This will help you to ascertain how much information you need to include, how familiar they are with what you’re writing about and how much time they may have to digest your information. Knowing your audience is one of the most important things to guarantee success in business writing.
The next thing to do is to plan the outline of your document to ensure you stay on track with your messaging and target audience. It’s time to decide exactly what information needs to be included in bullet point format. This is your opportunity to give your document some structure.
Once you have your overall structure, it’s time to go through each point and fill out the main body copy of the document with as much detail as is necessary. At this point, it is imperative to remind yourself constantly what your aim is, so as not to veer off course, or confuse the message. Be sure to include enough information to bolster all your key points.
Once you have filled out the detail, you must take a step back before reviewing it and losing any unnecessary word count. Take some time away from the document so you can come back to it with a fresh mind. It’s important to remember that less really is more. Any filler wording will only detract from the main points. Lengthy pieces of writing risk your reader becoming bored and distracted and you face the danger of them not engaging with it at all.
Following the removal of any filler language, it’s time to check for any spelling or grammatical errors. Making sure there are no errors is potentially the most important part of the entire process. Errors will cause your reader to question your competence, so if there’s anything you’re unsure about, be sure to double check it and correct it accordingly.
Following the the above points will help you ensure that your business writing is up to scratch, which will go a long way in impressing your colleagues and superiors. The possibilities then are endless, and you never know, that piece of writing might even help you to secure new business, or get a promotion. The impact of demonstrating good business writing skills is not to be underestimated!
If you’re looking to develop your business writing skills to a more professional level, or if this is a service you think would be beneficial to your employees, be sure to take a look around our website to better understand how we can help you to achieve this.