LESSON 1 of 5

Plan Your Writing Project

The best business writing starts with a solid plan. Find out how to clarify your purpose,
understand your readers, and determine what details and content you’ll provide.

Clarify your purpose

When you set out to write something in a business setting, ask yourself: "What’s my
purpose?"
For instance:

 Purpose

Example

 Explain or justify actions already taken 

"All the bids we received from our current vendors were high, so we decided to reject them and seek

others."

 Convey information

"Management wants all employees to know that quarterly sales of the new product exceeded

expectations."

 Persuade readers

“While the HR training session on the new customer order process is optional, it will help you get up

to speed so you can handle orders more efficiently.”

 Deliver good or bad news

"Unfortunately, the engine fire you reported occurred one day after the warranty expired."

 Compel action
"Your team needs to complete and deliver the product specifications by May 1."

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Consider your readers’ needs

To achieve your purpose, you need to understand your audience—what they expect, what
they need to know, and how they prefer to receive information. When you plan, organize,
write, and revise from your readers' points of view, they’ll better understand what you’re
trying to say and what their next steps should be.
Take a reader-centered approach to your writing by asking yourself these questions:

 Will my readers be receptive, indifferent, or resistant to my message?

 What will my readers already know about the subject I’m writing about?

 How much technical information will my readers understand?

 What will my readers expect in terms of length, degree of detail, tone, and other
characteristics of the document I’ll be sending them?
Keep in mind: most business readers are busy—very busy. If they have to struggle to
understand your written piece, they’ll stop trying. And if you don’t get to your point quickly,
they’ll move on. *
Once you understand your readers’ needs, plan how you’ll tailor your writing to address
those needs.
You work for a consulting company. You’re responding to a client’s request for proposals (RFP). You
know you’ll address every requirement outlined in the RFP. But you also research the client’s
industry, culture, and challenges. You learn that the company is in a highly competitive industry, has a
formal culture, and is facing new regulations it will have to comply with.

As you think about how to develop your proposal, you consider ways to use an appropriately formal
tone and to highlight how your company’s consulting services will help the client surmount its most
pressing challenges.

Adapt to diverse audiences

Many business documents you write will go to diverse audiences—people with varying levels
of expertise and interest in your content. It’s hard to write for a large, diverse group of
readers, especially if you don’t know all of them.
To write well for a diverse audience, imagine you’re writing for a smart nonspecialist in your
audience. Or that you’re writing for a relative or friend. Regardless of your readers’ level of
familiarly with your subject, assume that they’re intelligent. You’ll strike a balance between
sophistication and accessibility. And your writing will ultimately be more appealing and more
persuasive.
In his preface to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s “Plain English Handbook,” Warren
Buffett explains writing for a diverse audience by envisioning a nonspecialist:

When writing Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report, I pretend that I’m talking to my sisters. I have no trouble
picturing them: Though highly intelligent, they are not experts in accounting or finance. They will
understand plain English, but jargon may puzzle them. My goal is simply to give them the information I
would wish them to supply me if our positions were reversed. To succeed, I don’t need to be Shakespeare; I
must, though, have a sincere desire to inform.

Determine the scope

The scope of your writing project is how broadly you’ll cover your subject. Your scope can
be broad, narrow, or somewhere in between—depending on your purpose.
You’re planning to write a report on weaknesses in your company's marketing function. Your
purpose is to provide information to a task force that will study the department and suggest
potential solutions. You define your scope as broad. You believe your audience, given their
critical mandate, will want to know as many details as possible about the department. You
plan to cover topics including:

 Marketing's contribution to corporate goals

 Historical development of the marketing department

 Marketing's human resources

 Areas of specific performance problems

 Potential solutions
Later, you plan to write a report communicating the task force’s findings to senior
management. For this document, you define your scope as more focused and narrow,
because your audience, given their time constraints, will probably be most interested in the
current problems and the recommended solutions. You plan to cover:

 The two worst areas of underperformance

  Suggested remedies for the two areas

Brainstorm ideas

Once you've considered your purpose, audience, and scope, you need to generate ideas for
the content you'll want to include.
There are lots of ways to brainstorm—from unstructured to structured approaches. Use
whatever methods work best for you. The point is to get all of your ideas out. Don’t worry
about organizing your thoughts, expressing them in complete sentences, correcting
grammar, or ensuring that your ideas flow logically.
Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge *
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing. Boston: Harvard Business Review
Press, 2012: 14.
Writing expert Betty S. Flowers suggests playing different roles during each phase of a
writing project: planning, organizing, writing, and revising:

 Phase 1: Madman. The Madman is in charge during the planning phase—gathering

material and generating ideas without judging them.

 Phase 2: Architect. The Architect steps in during the organizing phase—organizing

information by drawing up an outline.

 Phase 3: Carpenter. The Carpenter becomes active during the writing phase—putting
your thoughts into words and laying out sentences and paragraphs by following the
Architect’s plan.

 Phase 4: Judge. The Judge takes over during the revising phase—serving as quality
control and polishing your draft throughout, including tightening language and
correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Try free writing

Free writing is an unstructured brainstorming approach that lets your imagination roam. To
use it:

 Put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard—and let your mind wander.

 Write down anything that comes into your head—even if it has nothing to do with
your writing topic.
  Write for at least 10 minutes to get ideas flowing.

 If you get stuck, write that down, too (“I’m stuck” or “yada yada”). But don't stop.

 Don't edit your work. If you're writing at your computer, darkening the screen may
help to keep you from editing prematurely.

Use clustering
*
Clayton, John. “First, Don’t Write an Outline.” Harvard Management
Communication Letter Aug. 2002.
To use a more structured brainstorming method, try clustering:

1. Write the purpose of your written piece in the center of a page.

2. Put a circle around your purpose. That’s the “nucleus.”

3. Draw lines from the nucleus to other points on the page—“nodes.”

4. At the nodes, write ideas related to your purpose.

Anticipate readers’ questions

As you brainstorm, write down questions your readers might have about your content. If you
have difficulty thinking up such questions, ask someone who knows your readers—or who is
like your readers—for help.
Anticipating readers’ questions will help you generate points to cover in your document.
You have to write a document introducing a new weekly interdepartmental meeting of employees
collaborating on an upcoming product launch. Your readers will likely have the following questions:

 Why are we having these new meetings?

 What will be on the agendas?

 How long will the meetings be?

 How should we prepare for the meetings?

POLL
Do you consider your readers' questions when you write?

 Yes

 Sometimes

 No

See Results

Example of brainstorming ideas

Chris Alvarez is a sales manager who’s concerned about a problematic procedure for
processing customers’ work orders. He and his team have developed a better procedure.
Chris wants to send an email to all sales personnel about it. His purpose is to explain how the
procedure works.
In planning the email, Chris uses a number of brainstorming techniques to generate ideas for
the content he’ll want to include. He comes up with the following list:

 Using a website instead of paperwork and phone calls for work orders

 How the new procedure will work

 What about changes to work orders?

 What’s wrong with the current procedure?

 Benefits of new procedure

 Who does what, when?

  Informing customers of the change

 Putting the new procedure into action

Chris knows that to create a first draft of his email, he’ll need to think about how he wants to
organize all this content.

LESSON 2 of 5

Organize Your Content

You’ve brainstormed a wealth of ideas for a written piece. Now organize them so you
achieve your purpose and meet your readers’ needs.

Organize your ideas

Once you’ve brainstormed ideas for your document, decide what is most critical to include.
Then decide how you’ll organize your ideas—what sequence you’ll put your key points in,
and where you’ll locate supporting information.
When you were brainstorming, you may have started thinking about how to sequence your
ideas. In that case, you might be ready to write your first draft now. But if you’re unsure of
how to organize your content, some structured techniques can help.
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Create an informal outline

*
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing.
Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012: 16, 19, 21-22.
 To create an informal outline, write down the three main points you’ll want to present. Write
these points as complete sentences, spelling out your logic as clearly as you can. This will
help you think through your reasoning. Then arrange your points in the most logical order
from your readers’ point of view.
If you feel you need to build a fuller outline, add three supporting points for each of your
main points. Express each supporting point as a complete sentence. When you write your
first draft, you’ll build on these supporting points to create paragraphs in your draft.

Create a traditional outline

Creating a traditional outline, using Roman numerals, can help you assemble a logical
structure for your content before you write your first draft.

Select an organizing method

By choosing the most appropriate organizing method, you can make your message clearer to
your reader. Here are some common organizing methods, the types of written pieces they
may be appropriate for, and tips for using them.

 Organizing method

Best for…

To use...

 Order of importance

Any internal document intended for busy readers

o Consider what your most important reader would want to see first. This is usually
someone who’ll have to make a decision after reading your piece.

o For readers who’ll be receptive to your message, put your key message on top.

o For unreceptive readers, provide more context before stating your key message.
You’ll convince your readers that your recommendation is a good one.

 Chronological

Documents that trace a series of events

 o Stick to major, relevant facts.

o List events in the order in which they occurred.

o Avoid beginning each sentence with a date if there are more than five dates.

 Process and procedure

Instructions or user manuals

o Describe who does what and when, as well as what will happen.

o Put formal procedures in a table, and number each step.

o Present the stages or steps in a process or procedure in the precise order in which
they occur.

 Compare and contrast

Feasibility studies, research results, and planning reports

o Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of two possibilities.

o When comparing two subjects, mention the more familiar one first.

o Use graphs or charts to compare technical information.

o Avoid mixing statements about advantages and disadvantages in the same section.

o Make clear comparisons by using key phrases such as: "on one hand" and "on the
other hand"; "the former" and "the latter"; and "in the same way" and "in contrast."

 Specific-to-general or general-to-specific

Work orders, training materials, and customer service letters

o Start with a specific or general concept your readers are already familiar with. Then
move to a specific or general concept that's new to them.

o Move from specific to general for readers familiar with your topic.
 o Move from general to specific for readers not familiar with your topic.

o Place your key message on top whenever possible.

 Analytical

Technical reports, annual reports, and financial analyses

o Formulate a hypothesis and test it through questioning.

o Include every aspect of your hypothesis to avoid being discredited—or worse, making
a bad business decision.

o Analyze your data for similarities, differences, logical links, implications, and
suggested actions.

o Simplify technical language for nontechnical readers, especially when writing a

company report intended for the general public.

Organizing your content as a story

*
Weeks, Holly. “The Best Memo You’ll Ever Write.” Harvard Management Communication
Letter Spring 2005.
Another way to organize the content of your written piece is to tell a story. To use this
organizing method, build a story consisting of four elements:

 Situation. Provide a quick, factual sketch of the current business situation that has
given rise to the need for your written piece.

 Complication. Describe a problem in the situation.

 Question. Present an explicit or implicit question, such as “What should we do?”

“How can we do it?” or “What’s wrong with what we’ve tried?”

 Answer. Provide a response to your question.

You write the following story:
  Situation. “Mediation has become more popular over the last quarter-century, as
people have sought alternative methods of dispute resolution that don’t entail
costly litigation.”

 Complication. “But concern is growing that because mediators have varying

levels of training, the quality of mediation is unpredictable.”

 Question. "How can we address this critical issue of uneven training and
unpredictable results?

 Answer. “I suggest that we use our organization’s stature to lead a movement to

professionalize standards of practice for mediation. That way, mediators can get
consistent, high-quality preparation in every state. And individuals or
communities using mediation will have confidence in their mediators’
qualifications.”
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Map out levels of information
To create a traditional outline, use Roman numerals, capital letters, and Arabic numerals to
indicate levels of information.
Here’s an excerpt from a traditional outline:

1. Plan office move

1. Physical logistics

1. Moving company

2. Mail forwarding

2. Technology

1. Phone
 2. Internet

3. Email

3. Customers

1. Change of address notes

2. Signage moves

POLL
Which organizing devices do you use when writing?

 Bullet points

 Boldface

 Section breaks

 Headers

 All of the above

 Some of the above

See Results

Review your outline

Once you’ve completed your informal or traditional outline, review it. Ask yourself:

 Are all the topics and subtopics I need to cover listed here?

 Are they arranged in a logical sequence?

 Is there a clear beginning, middle, and end?

Example of organizing content

Sales manager Chris Alvarez has brainstormed numerous ideas for content to include in an
email describing a new work-order-processing procedure to sales personnel. He has thought
about how he may want to organize the content.
He wants the email to be as concise as possible, so he has come up with the following
outline for content he sees as the most critical to include:
I. How it will work

1. Sales personnel actions

2. Important dates

3. IT changes
II. Requirements for customers

1. Using order-entry system

2. Getting quotes

3. Approving quotes
III. Benefits of new procedure

1. Customer gets time to review quotes

2. Can transmit changes before work begins

3. Easier and faster for us to process orders

Now that he has an informal outline in hand, Chris feels ready to write a first draft of his
email.

LESSON 3 of 5

Write Your First Draft

Great business writers turn off their internal editor when they build their first draft. Find out
how they resist the urge to tinker as they successfully create a rough draft.
Benefits of a rough draft

When you sit down to write your first draft, remember: It's more important to get it written
than to get every detail right. The first draft can be rough in sentence structure, spelling,
grammar, and punctuation. It's for your eyes only.
Getting your first draft down has two benefits:

 It focuses you on the key ideas you’ll want to include in your document.

 It requires only a small time investment, so you’ll probably feel more comfortable
changing the order of your material—or even discarding some content—as needed to
produce a final draft.

POLL
Do you usually write more than one draft of a document?

 Yes

 No

See Results

Start where you’re comfortable

You don’t have to start your first draft at the very beginning. Choose an item in your outline
that you feel most comfortable with, and write a paragraph for it. When you've finished,
choose the next item you're comfortable writing. Keep going until you’re done.
If you’re a less experienced writer, you may want to save the introductory material until the
end. It’s often easier to compose an engaging opening paragraph once you know what your
conclusions are.

Time yourself

*
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing.
Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012: 27. Clayton,
John. “How to Improve Your Writing Process: First, Kill the
Editor.” Harvard Management Communication Letter May
2001.

To get your first draft out, time yourself. Give yourself 5 or 10 minutes to draft each section
—the introduction, the body, the conclusion, and any special sections like sidebars or tables.
Set a timer on your computer or phone to make sure you stick to the time limit.
You give yourself 20 minutes to complete a two-page report. To make the deadline real, you start
writing 20 minutes before a staff meeting. You know this draft won’t be perfect. But you also know
that you’ll fix the inaccuracies later.

Avoid editing as you go

*
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing.
Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012: 28. Clayton,
John. “How to Improve Your Writing Process: First, Kill the
Editor.” Harvard Management Communication Letter May
2001.

Trying to build your first draft and edit it at the same time is counterproductive. You’ll be
doing two things inefficiently, rather than one thing well.
That’s because the editorial part of your brain is incompatible with the production part. You
don’t need a critic watching over your shoulder when you’re trying to create something new
and fresh. Remember: You’ll have plenty of time later to edit and revise to produce your final
draft.
To turn off your internal editor as you write your first draft:
 Trust yourself. Remind yourself that all first drafts have flaws—and that nobody but
you will see your draft.

 Highlight problems, but don’t fix them. As you write your rough draft, if you can’t
think of a word, just write “xxx.” Or think of a word that’s close and underline it, then
move on. If you write a sentence you don’t like, underline it or highlight it. Don’t try
to fix it now. Keep going.

 Pretend you’ll hire a proofreader. Even if you’ll be the one proofreading your
document, imagine the proofreading happening later. That will help you resist the
urge to edit while you’re writing your draft.
  Turn off your spell- and grammar-checker. Your word-processing software should be
a tool to help you write, not an instant critic that slows you down. As you’re
composing your rough draft, turn these features off. It’ll be much quicker to make
corrections all at once later than to keep interrupting your flow to fix things as you
write.
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Example of a first draft

*
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing.
Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012: 33.

Here’s the first draft of Chris Alvarez’s email to sales personnel to inform them of changes in
a procedure.
To: All Sales Personnel

From: Chris Alvarez

Subject: Changes in Procedure

In order to facilitate the customers’ placement of orders, a new order-processing procedure has been
designed. The process will require a customer to enter the product and/or service code into our
order-entry system, which will then generate a quote for the job and return it to the customer for
approval. This will make time for the customer to review the quote and transmit any changes before
work begins. Upon receipt of the customer’s written approval, the quote will be transformed into a
work order. This procedure will make it easier and faster for us to process customers’ orders.

Chris got his rough draft down quickly, ignoring inconsistencies, information gaps, and
mistakes along the way. So the draft isn’t very clear, and it omits some important content.
But he’ll address these issues when he revises the draft.

LESSON 4 of 5
Revise Your Draft
Good writers revise their early drafts to fix problems and add polish. Learn powerful tactics
for shaping a final version of your written piece that you can be proud of.

Revise content

You’ve built a first draft of your written piece. Now revise it to create a final version ready
for submission to your readers.
Check to see whether you’ve stated your key messages clearly and provided all the
information your readers need. Make sure the information is accurate and that readers will
know why your message is important.
As you revise, proofread to identify and fix any problems with grammar, spelling,
punctuation, and usage. To proofread:

 Turn your spell- and grammar-checker on to catch and fix errors.

 Look for common problems that your spell- and grammar-checker won’t catch—like
confusing affect and effect, or typing manger when you meant to type manager.

 Ask a trusted friend or colleague to proofread your draft. Someone who has never
seen the draft before may find it easier than you to spot errors.

Structure

When you build your first draft, some of the content may not flow smoothly or logically.
When you revise, make sure that your content is structured in a way that helps you achieve
your purpose.

Position key messages strategically

What’s the one thing you want your readers to remember? In most cases, you’ll want to
position this information early in your document. If it comes later, your readers may skim
over it.
Remember that your readers will use the first section of your writing to decide whether
continuing is worth their time. So make sure your introduction or opening section answers
their question: “Why am I reading this?”
However, if you think your readers might be unreceptive to your ideas, you may want
provide some context before introducing your key message.
You’re writing an email informing people in the accounts payable department that some of the
processes they currently handle will be outsourced. You expect that many of them will have concerns
about the decision. So you begin the email by explaining that rising costs have created the need to
outsource some business processes. You then describe the benefits of outsourcing, including how it
will make their jobs easier in some ways.

Focus your paragraphs

A series of focused paragraphs helps readers easily grasp your ideas. Consider whether your
paragraphs are focused, and fix any problems on this front.
A focused paragraph has these qualities:

 It concentrates on one idea, or topic, that relates to the purpose of your written
piece.

 It has a topic sentence, often the first in the paragraph.

 It has supporting sentences related to its topic.

“Many companies use coaching to improve executives' performance. According to one recent survey,
40%-50% of Fortune 500 firms offer coaching to their executives through internal programs or
services provided by outside coaches. Coaching's popularity is rising rapidly. In one survey of human
resource professionals from 200 companies from South America, North America, and Europe, 57% of
the respondents stated that use of coaching has increased in their organization over the previous
year.”

Create smooth transitions

As you review the sections, paragraphs, and sentences in your rough draft, evaluate how
well your ideas flow. If transitions are smooth, your readers will easily follow your train of
thought.
Use transitional language—like meanwhile or furthermore—to smooth flow where needed and
clarify the relationship between your points.
Transitional language between two sentences:
“Our inventory managers have tightly controlled stocks and finished goods. Consequently,
working capital requirements have dropped by 8%.”
Transitional language between two paragraphs:
“Proponents of expanding restaurant seating haven’t provided estimates of construction,
operating costs, and taxes. Without those estimates, any attempt to evaluate their proposal
will be a waste of our time.
Even if construction costs were reasonable and manageable for the operation, we would still be
facing a high level of revenue uncertainty. No one knows how a doubling of seating will affect
annual revenues. Is it reasonable to assume that revenues will also double? How might more
crowded seating affect (and possibly turn away) customers?”
Make the transition
The following words and phrases can help you smooth the flow between sections,
paragraphs, and sentences in your written piece:

 Accordingly  In addition

 As a result  In the meantime

 At the same time  Likewise

 Consequently  Meanwhile

 Finally  Nevertheless

 First, second, third (and so forth)  On the other hand

 For example  Therefore

 Furthermore  Thus

Style

The style of your written piece stems from its tone—how you relate to your readers—as well
as its conciseness and clarity.
It’s important to keep your style consistent: If your style changes within your document, the
shift could distract your readers and make you less believable. *
As you review your rough draft, identify and address any problems on these fronts.
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Set the tone
Tone derives from the words and sentence structure you use.
Use a tone that’s appropriate for your readers. An informal, casual, or playful tone may be
acceptable for a colleague you know well—but it may not be appropriate for a client or a
supervisor. A sharp or provocative tone might work well in an opinion article written for a
company's internal newsletter—but it may not be right for the company's annual report.
When you want to adopt a formal, professional tone in your writing, use the third person and express
all ideas in complete sentences:

“Many companies use coaching to improve executives' performance.”

When used appropriately, an informal, playful tone can foster a sense of rapport with your readers.
To achieve this tone, you can use incomplete sentences, contractions, and the second person:

“Counting on coaching to maximize your top leaders' performance? If so, you're not alone.”

Be concise and clear

When you’re trying to decide how much detail to include in a written business document,
keep your readers in mind. Most likely, they’ll want the piece to be a concise and clear as
possible—but also complete, providing all needed details. *
To make your writing concise and clear, remove all words that don’t add meaning. Don’t use
two words if you can use one. And don’t use a long, complex word if you can use a simpler
one.
By condensing in this way, you’ll save your readers time and effort. And they’ll find it easier
to grasp and use your ideas.
Tips for Web writing
When you write for the Web, concision and clarity become even more critical. People
searching for content on the Web want to quickly find the information they need. They have
specific goals. And they want to use the information they find to accomplish their goals.
To help your online readers achieve their goals:

 Adopt a casual tone. Write as you would talk.

 Be concise. Use simple language, short sentences (no more than 15-20 words), and
tight paragraphs (no more than 3-5 lines). Omit any words that don’t add to your
meaning.

 Be SEO-savvy. Write titles that support search engine optimization (SEO). Think
about the words that readers will use to search online for the information in your
document. Make sure the first words in your titles are those keywords.
You’re writing a job description for an open junior chemist position in your organization. The job
description will be posted on an online jobs board. You title the document “Junior chemist job
opening at [name of your company].”

 Get to your point—quickly. If your readers have to work their way through content
that doesn’t interest them or meet their needs, they’ll stop reading.

 Be actionable. Make sure everything you write will help readers accomplish their
goal.

 Increase scannability. Use boldface for key phrases so readers can quickly find the
information they’re looking for.

Visual design

When you revise, consider how your content will be delivered. Will it be a printed
document? An email? Something your audience will read on the Web using a computer,
tablet, or smartphone? Then format your content so it creates the appropriate visual impact.
Readers want to be able to glance at your content and find the key ideas without searching
through a lot of dense prose. So use visual enhancements to make your document easy to
read and to ensure that key points jump out.
Examples of visual enhancements include:

 Headings that highlight your most important points

 Adequate white space

 Bold and italic typeface to emphasize important information

 Bulleted or numbered lists

 Tables, diagrams, charts, maps, and other graphics

Get feedback

*
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing.
Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012: 85.

Ask people on your team to read your revised document and make sure it’s correct, clear,
concise, and that it has the appropriate visual impact. If possible, get constructive feedback
from an objective peer in a different department.
Pay attention to what your colleagues say about your written piece: Their reactions will
probably be close to those of your intended readers.
Your first draft may need only one round of revision to come to final form. Or it may need
several rounds. Be willing to do as much revising as needed to create a final version you can
be proud of.
Everyday Writing: Memo

Here’s the first draft of an email that Chris Alvarez wrote to sales personnel to inform them
of changes in an order-processing procedure:
To: All Sales Personnel

From: Chris Alvarez

Subject: Changes in Order Processing Procedure

In order to facilitate the customers’ placement of orders, a new order-processing procedure has been
designed. The process will require a customer to enter the product and/or service code into our
order-entry system, which will then generate a quote for the job and return it to the customer for
approval. This will make time for the customer to review the quote and transmit any changes before
work begins. Upon receipt of the customer’s written approval, the quote will be transformed into a
work order. This procedure will make it easier and faster for us to process customers’ orders.

When Chris rereads his first draft, he realizes that, in striving to be concise, he has left out
some important information the sales personnel will need, including who, what, why, and
when.
So he revises to create a second draft that explains what was unclear in the first draft,
starting with the subject line:
To: All Sales Personnel

From: Chris Alvarez

Subject: New Work-Order-Processing Procedure

Because our current work-order-processing procedure requires a lot of paperwork and phone calls,
it’s difficult for customers to make changes prior to the commencement of work. The procedure is
inefficient and subject to numerous errors. And it takes up to four weeks from quote to approval to
work order. So we have designed a new four-step order-processing procedure that will allow
customers to place orders through our website and allow us to begin jobs faster.

Beginning January 1st, we will inform our customers about the new procedure, and on April 20, we
will implement the procedure, which will work as follows. First, to initiate or change a work order,
customers can visit our website to request a quote by filling out a detailed form and providing a
purchase-order number. Second, we will transmit a quote to the customer for approval. Third, if the
customer approves, they can return the quote with an electronic signature and purchase-order
number. Fourth, we will transform the quote to a work order immediately. Work-order changes can
be made using the same procedure except that instead of a quote, customers will request a work-
order change.

In creating this revised version, Chris focused on what he needed to say—not on formatting
or style. Now, when he reviews his second draft, he realizes there’s still room for
improvement.
He especially wants to fine-tune the language so it’s tighter, clearer, and more engaging, and
so that key points stand out more obviously to his readers. He wants to provide some
formatting to make it easier for sales personnel to absorb the information quickly and start
using the new procedure. And he needs to proofread to fix problems with grammar, spelling,
punctuation, usage, and style.
He edits further to produce the following final draft:
To: All Sales Personnel

From: Chris Alvarez

Subject: New Work-Order-Processing Procedure

Our current work-order processing takes a lot of paperwork and phone calls, so it’s hard for our
customers to make changes to the order. The procedure is inefficient and subject to error. And it
takes up to four weeks from quote to approval to work order.

We have therefore designed a new procedure that has two key benefits:

 Customers can place orders through our website.

 We can start jobs faster.

There are two critical dates involved:

 Beginning January 1st, we’ll tell our customers about the new procedure.
 On April 20th, we’ll implement the procedure.

The new procedure will consist of four steps:

1. Customers visit our website to request a quote for a job. On the website, they fill
out a form and provide a purchase-order number.

2. We send a quote for the customer’s approval.

3. The customer returns the approved quote with a digital signature.

4. We instantly convert the quote to a work order.

Customers can use the same procedure to make work-order changes. However, instead of requesting
a quote, customers will request a work-order change.

LESSON 5 of 5
Strengthen Your Writing Skills
When you sharpen your writing skills, you’ll stand out from your peers. And you’ll find it
easier to produce impactful written pieces.

Why strengthen your skills?

By developing your writing skills, you’ll find it increasingly easier to draft and revise written
pieces in a business context. Your writing will make a positive impression on others and
enable you to achieve your purpose.

Sharpening your writing skills will help you: *

 Prove quickly that the issue is important—to your readers, not just to you.

 Waste no time in conveying the information.

 Write with such clarity and efficiency that reading your material will be easy and
enjoyable.

 Achieve a tone that makes you likable, so your readers will want to spend time with
you and your message.
Writing best practices will depend on the language you’re writing in. They’ll also depend on
the setting—for instance, the degree of formality that’s expected in your industry or your
organization’s culture.

Grammar best practices

*
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing.
Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012: Appendix B.

Good writing depends on good grammar. Here are 12 grammar tips that will add polish to
your written pieces:

1. In many business settings, it has become acceptable to start a sentence with And or
But—“Sales dropped last quarter. But our new strategy should help correct the
problem.”
2. In many business settings, it has become acceptable to end a sentence with a
preposition—“That’s what the new product will be used for.”

3. The adverb corresponding to the adjective good is well—“She works well [adverb]
under pressure”; “Her work is good [adjective].”

4. A sentence’s subject determines the verb’s number—“An oversupply [singular subject]

of foreign imports is [singular verb] hurting our business.”

5. As sentence subjects, “either” and “neither” take singular verbs—“Either [singular

subject] of the marketing plans requires [singular verb] capital investments.”

6. With neither/nor and either/or in the subject position, the second element controls
the number of the verb—“Either phone or fax [singular subject] is [singular verb]
acceptable”; “Neither our accounting department nor our lawyers [plural subject] are
[plural verb] concerned.”

7. Not all English adverbs end in –ly—“Thus the sales contract was canceled”; “Doubtless
we could have done better here.”

8. When however, therefore, and otherwise are followed by an independent clause, they
need additional punctuation—“Mr. Alvarez cannot attend the meeting; however, he
hopes to call in before we end [independent clause].”

9. It’s okay to split verbs and infinitives with an adverb—“Experts have long [adverb
splitting verb] agreed”; “We plan to aggressively [adverb splitting infinitive] enter the
European market.”

10. For clarity, relative pronouns should appear alongside their antecedents—“We’ll
discuss the customer service position [antecedent] that’s [relative pronoun] being
eliminated in the sales department.” (If you write, “We’ll discuss the customer service
position in the sales department that’s being eliminated,” readers won’t know
whether it’s the position or the department that’s being eliminated.)

11. Nouns not essential to the sentence’s meaning are set off with commas; those that
are essential for meaning are not set off with commas—“My colleague, who’s younger
 than I am [not essential for meaning], agrees”; “My colleague Pat [essential for
meaning, because it signals which colleague you’re talking about] agrees.”

12. Correlative conjunctions require parallel phrasing—“We raised not only [correlative
conjunction] our market share but also [correlative conjunction] our profit margin.”
Common usage mistakes
*
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing. Boston: Harvard Business Review
Press, 2012: Appendix D.

 Not this...

Use this...

Because...

 I feel badly about the oversight.

I feel bad about the oversight.

Bad describes the nature of your feeling. Badly is an adverb that describes how you do something (not

how you feel). For example, “I stated my case badly. (And I feel bad about that.)”

 I’m feeling well about the sales figures.

I feel good about the sales figures.

Good means “satisfied” in this sentence. Well, when used with the word feeling, means “healthy.”

 Between you and I...

Between you and me...

Me is the object in this phrase. (You wouldn't say: between I.) I is a subject pronoun.

 Helen and me are going...

Helen and I are going...

 I is the subject in this phrase. (You wouldn't say: Me is going.) Me is an object pronoun.

 He’s laying on the couch.

He’s lying on the couch.

To lay is to put something down. To lie is to recline.

 If I would have been there...

If I had been there...

Had been is the correct form of verb.

 The letter was sent on accident.

The letter was sent by accident.

By is the correct preposition.

 I wish he was faster.

I wish he were faster.

Were is the correct verb form.

 Less items...

Fewer items...

Fewer is used for things that can be counted. Less is used for things that can’t be counted (“I have less

money”; “I have fewer dollars”).

 Preventative

Preventive

Preventative is not a word.

 There’s lots of reasons.

 There are lots of reasons.

Because lots is plural, the verb (are) must be plural.

 As best as she can

As best she can

As is not needed.

 Irregardless

Regardless

Irregardless is not a word.

 The affect on sales was negative.

The effect on sales was negative.

Affect is a verb (“Pricing affected sales”). Effect is a noun.

TOOL

Common Usage Mistakes

EDITOR'S CHOICE

Those Grammar Gaffs Will Get You

Study—and avoid—these common grammar mistakes.
Read More
Punctuation best practices

*
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing.
Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2012: Appendix C.

These 12 must-know punctuation rules will help you create clear, effective writing:

1. Hyphenate phrasal adjectives. (“A small-business incentive” [if the incentive is for
small businesses])

2. Use a series comma in lists of three or more items. (“Sales for shampoo, conditioner,
and hair spray increased this quarter.”)

3. If one or more items in a list consist of a subgroup of items, use semicolons to

separate the main items, (“I called him today; mailed the keys, contract, and change of
address; and will follow up next week.”)

4. Don’t use apostrophes to form plural nouns. (“We’re building four new banks.” [not
“bank’s”])

5. Keep subjects as close to their verbs as possible. (“Founded in 1963 in Mumbai by

Siddhartha Ramaswamy, BrightTech [subject] specializes [verb] in IT outsourcing.” [not
“BrighTech, founded in 1963 in Mumbai by Siddhartha Ramaswamy, specializes in IT
outsourcing.”])

6. Precede bulleted or numbered lists with an explanatory sentence ending in a colon.

(“The following tips can help you negotiate a raise:”)

7. Don’t use quotation marks to emphasize words; they can sometimes suggest
snideness or sarcasm. (Imagine how you’d feel if someone wrote that you’re “an
‘expert’ in negotiation.”)

8. Don’t hyphenate most terms that have a prefix—“midsize”; “semisweet.”

 9. Use a colon or comma, never a semicolon, after a salutation. (“Dear Ms. Wilson:” or
“Dear Barbara,”)

10. Use long dashes to frame and emphasize parenthetical content. (“Customer service—
our top priority—is key to our competitive advantage.”)

11. Don’t use a comma between a month and year (“May 2012” [not “May, 2012”])

12. For singular possessives, add ’s even if the word ends with an –x, -z, -s, or –ss.
(“Kansas’s business climate”)
Write correctly even if you don’t know the rules
*
Clayton, John. “How to Write Correctly Without Knowing the Rules.” Harvard Management
Communication Letter Sept. 2002.
You’re writing a draft of a business document, and you find yourself confused about a
grammar or usage rule. If you struggle too long to figure out the rule, you’ll waste time.
Instead, “write around” your confusion. Here are some examples:

 Dilemma

How to write around it

 “Everyone here, even [she? her?], said that the report contains mistakes.”

“Everyone here, even Linda, said that the report contains mistakes.

 “Everyone at the meeting [thinks? think?] we need to move faster on this opportunity.”

“Each person at the meeting thinks we need to move faster on this opportunity.”

 “The proposal will succeed or fail on [its? it’s?] visual presentation alone.”

“The visual presentation will determine whether the proposal succeeds or fails.”

 “The [effect? affect?] of the regulation will be an increase in costs.”

“The result of the regulation will be an increase in costs.”

 “I [complimented? complemented?] her on the excellent job she did.”

“I praised her for the excellent job she did.”

 “Performance improved this year; [e.g.? i.e.?], our profit margins and sales revenue both increased.”

“Performance improved this year; for example, our profit margins and sales revenue both increased.”

 “There’s a bonus for [whoever? whomever?] finishes on time.”

“If you finish on time, you get a bonus.”

Structure best practices

*
Weeks, Holly. “The Best Memo You’ll Ever Write.” Harvard
Management Communication Letter Spring 2005.

When people are reading a business document, they want to know your key message as
quickly as possible. Business readers are busy and have a tendency to skim. As you write and
revise, resist any urge to lead your readers through a long trail of points and arguments to
eventually arrive at your conclusion.
Get into the habit of putting your most important content first—at all levels in your
document. For example:

 Document. Place your key message at the beginning of your document.

 Sections. Put each section’s most important message in the first paragraph of the
section.

 Paragraphs. Express the topic of each paragraph in the first sentence of the
paragraph.

Style best practices

When you strike the right tone, and are concise and clear, your writing will engage your
readers and help them absorb your message.
 Tone
*
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing. Boston:
Harvard Business Review Press, 2012: chapters 16 and 17.
The tone you want to strike in a written document depends on a lot of different things—such
as the nature of your relationship with your readers, the level of formality commonly used in
your industry, and the subject matter in your document.
To create a specific tone, make decisions about the level of intensity and the degree of
formality of your words. Consider these two examples—which convey the same information
using very different tones: *
 

 Intense, informal

Less intense, formal

 “If you haven’t had your head in the sand lately, you know about the big problems we’re having in the

marketplace. Taking aim at the weaker items on our product line, a horde of well-trained competitors

is inflicting mortal wounds. As a result, we are hemorrhaging revenues. How do we stop the bleeding?

Dump our weakest products and channel our energy into the stronger ones. That means we must

pound out a powerful marketing plan to drive home the advantages of our products to the public. We

must brainstorm ASAP to come up with a strategy that has teeth. If we fumble this one, we all may
soon be standing in an unemployment line.”

“By now, most of us are probably aware of the critical challenges we’re facing in the marketplace.

Competitors are cutting into our market share and diminishing our revenues. The only solution may

be to drop some of our less successful products so that we can concentrate on the more successful.

To do this, we’d have to streamline our marketing efforts to communicate value to consumers. This

will require planning sessions to develop an effective strategy. I recommend that we take action now

to develop a viable approach. The consequences of failing to move quickly and incisively could put us

at a disadvantage we can’t recover from.”

Generally, your goal when you write is to sound natural. These tactics can help you establish
the right tone: *
  Use you, we, our, and your. These personal, friendly words add human interest and
pull readers into your document.

 Use contractions. If you would say something in the form of a contraction (“We’re
going to need a new strategy”), then write it in the form of a contraction. Your
document will have a conversational tone, which can be more inviting than a stiff,
formal tone.

 Stick to simple language. If your language is too complicated, readers will stop trying
to understand it. Use accessible words. Also avoid business jargon and clichés. Strive
for fresher language instead.

 Use the active voice when possible. Sentences using passive voice (“The memo was
written by Suki”) can seem more complex than necessary. By using active voice (“Suki
wrote the memo”), you convey the facts more clearly and concisely.

 Vary sentence length. If all your sentences are roughly the same length, your writing
will be monotonous. Introduce variety to keep readers interested.

 Don’t overuse acronyms. Readers generally dislike heavy use of acronyms, especially
acronyms they’re not familiar with. So introduce acronyms only if you’re going to use
them multiple times in a document. And spell them out at first use: “Our cost of
goods sold (COGS) increased this year over last year.”

 Avoid hyperformality. For instance, recast “How may I be of assistance?” as “How

can I help you?” and “Subsequent to our conversation” as “After we spoke.” Though
the revised phrasing is less formal than the original in these examples, the tone is still
professional.

 Avoid sarcasm. Sarcasm expresses contempt and superiority, and irritates and
alienates readers. Don’t let it creep into your writing.

Conciseness and clarity

Given how much information people consume every day, business writing needs to be
concise. At the same time, it must also deliver complex information clearly and persuasively.
Many writers mistakenly believe that using long, complicated words, phrases, or sentences
will make them sound more intelligent or informed. By striving for concision, you’ll create
documents that are not only shorter but also clearer, more readable, and persuasive.

To trim your prose: *

 Keep paragraphs tight. Limit your paragraphs to no more than six lines of type.

 Drop long titles. Instead of writing “Patek Seer, Vice President for Corporate
Communications and Government Relations, says...,” write “spokesperson Patek Seer
says...”

 Cut out the obvious. If something’s obvious, don’t write that it’s obvious. Revise
language like “Obviously, this means we will need to raise prices, which could reduce
sales” to “Raising prices could reduce sales.”
  Use the possessive. Convert phrases like “the success of the company” to “the
company’s success.”

 Condense. Replace bloated phrases with simpler language. For instance, rewrite “An
adequate number of” as “enough”; “notwithstanding the fact that” as “although”; and
“during such time as” as “while.” Keep sentences short—under 15-20 words.
Wordiness takes many forms—rambling statements, unnecessary repetition, and verbose
expressions you could replace with shorter, sharper alternatives. Here are some examples of
how you can tackle wordiness:
 

 Wordy and unclear

Concise and clear

 We are unable to fill your order at this point in time because there is an ongoing dock strike that is

negatively affecting our operations.

We cannot fill your order right now because of the dock strike.

 I am writing in response to a number of issues that have arisen with regard to the recent

announcement that there will be an increase in the charge for the use of our lobby computers.

You may have heard that we’re raising the fees for using our lobby computers.

 The greater number of these problems can readily be dealt with in such a way as to bring about

satisfactory solutions.

Most of these