Business Writing That Gets Results

Grab your reader’s attention with your opening line. You don’t have much time. You have about eight seconds before your reader’s mind wanders off on some tangent. Your first few words must sell the reader on reading your whole message.

Effective business writing doesn’t beat around the bush. Get quickly to the point. Don’t waste your readers' time by making them pore over useless verbiage to find your message.

You probably have a good reason for writing. You need to inform or influence somebody. In either case, you’re better served by not wasting your readers' time. So grab them by their lapels and sell your socks off.

This isn’t the place for platitudes, fluff, and glittering generalities. Just the facts will do. You aren’t being paid by the word; the less time it takes to read your piece, the more time your reader will have to give serious consideration to your message.

Mark Twain joked once that he didn’t have time to write a short letter, so he wrote a long one instead. The interesting thing: it’s no joke. It takes more time and effort to write short than it does to write long. But in business communications, short is better. It’s faster to read. It’s easier to understand, and it’s easier to remember.

Avoid the biggest mistake most writers make. Even good writers make the mistake of trying to cram too much into their writing. Big words. Intelligent ideas. Intimidating grammar. It’s as if they’re saying, “If I can’t impress you with one thing, I’ll do it with something else.”

We usually start out with a single good idea or subject. But before we’ve written very many words, our creative mind is pummeled with great ideas. Tempted by the beauty of our own thoughts, we’re lured down roads we shouldn’t be traveling.

Article Author: Harvey L. Gardner

Harvey L. Gardner is a business broker, sales consultant, writer, public speaker, and personal success coach. He is a former investment advisor, sales manager, sales trainer, and newspaper editor and publisher. …

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