Business writing | Communicating effectively through business documents

By Jennifer Paddock

If you are interested in this topic, take a look at our University of Cape Town Business Writing and Legal Documents course.

The way your written communications are presented in a business environment shows a lot about your personality. A well prepared and thought out report that reads easily and shows attention to detail can do wonders for your boss's or client's impression of you. But how do you ensure that your written communications are effective when the moment you think about the report, you tense up like a clam and suffer from writer's block?

Follow these seven steps to enable you to communicate effectively in your written business reports, letters and proposals.

Step 1: Define and Understand Your Business Writing Purpose
Identifying the purpose behind your communication is vital as it will determine the type of communication you choose as well as its content, format and style. In the context of business writing, the most common purposes are information, persuasion, motivation, expression of feelings and building relationships. Your purpose may be one or a combination of these or it could be a completely different purpose.

Once you have identified the purpose of your communication you will be able to determine to what degree formal or informal language should be used and whether the content should be based on facts, opinions or feelings.

Step 2: Analyze Your Readers
Not only must your communication be relevant to your purpose, it must also be suited to its intended recipients. Ask yourself the following questions:
•    Who is my audience?
•    How informed are they on the subject of my communication?
•    What do I need them to know / understand by the time they have read my communication?
•    What is their current attitude towards the subject of my communication?
•    What information / facts are necessary to persuade / motivate them?

Once you have answered the above questions you will have a better understanding of what information is relevant to your purpose  and what information should be included in your written communication to 'hit home' with its intended recipients.

Step 3: Get Your Facts Together
Writer's block often occurs when people begin by writing without first thinking and gathering information. Allow yourself some time to think about the content of your communication. Some people prefer a 'free flow' thought process where they think freely without criticizing or evaluating the thoughts as they flow from each other; whilst others prefer to adopt a more structured process asking themselves the questions of Who? When? Where? Why and How? Whichever method you prefer, write these thoughts or answers down and don’t worry about the fact that they may not be in the correct order or that some of them are may be sub-standard, you can evaluate and order them later. The content of these thoughts and answers may well prompt you to do research into particular issues and gather more information from external sources.

Step 4: Design Your Document
Now that you have all the information that you will use as the content of your communication, you need to order it in a logical sequence. This sequence will be your road map in compiling the document. The order of your sequence will depend largely on the purpose you identified at the beginning and the information that you have gathered. It may help to initially devise relevant headings and group your content into categories. Once you have decided upon your sequence all that is left for you to do is to start your engine and drive!  

Step 5: Develop Your Topics
Now you need to put your thoughts into sentences and your sentences into paragraphs. Remember that a group of sentences should not randomly be divided into paragraphs. The following principles should assist you when drafting:

1.    Unity - Paragraphs should consist of sentences related to a single topic or theme.
2.    Emphasis – The first sentence of a paragraph, which should reveal your main idea or topic, is the most important.
3.    Coherence – It is important that your paragraphs flow from one to the other as this will allow your readers to easily understand and absorb the communication.

Step 6: Select Simple Precise Vocabulary and Grammar
In business writing, the words and resultant sentences that you use should be easy to understand. The days of pompous verbosity are over as the world is shifting towards the use of simple English. It is important to think about the intended recipients of your communication and cater your use of language to them but even if the intended recipients are professors it is best to keep your language simple.

You will also need to decide on the appropriate level of formality. Often in an attempt to impress others people will use language that is overly formal. On the other end of the scale there are those who do not realize that a writing style that is too familiar can be offensive when used inappropriately.

Step 7: Acknowledge Your Sources
Although many business documents do not require footnotes, references or bibliographies, many do. If you use another person's ideas, words, graphs or other material you need to acknowledge the source of the information so as to avoid passing it off as your own. If you fail to cite your sources you may be guilty of a crime called plagiarism.
Voila! There you have it. 

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.