At its core, business writing means effective communication. That’s why well-structured business writing—clear in tone and free of errors—helps you win more clients.
However, writing for important clients can be stressful. Still, it doesn’t need to be that difficult. With the right knowledge, you can trim your text and correct your grammar mistakes in no time. All it takes is setting aside some time and focusing on your business writing.
Read this post to find out what you can do, right away, to make any business documents shorter, more concise, and error-free.
Trimming Your Business Writing—A Must
Experts in business writing often tell us that less is better. Business writing should always be concise and direct. The fewer words you use to get your message across, the better.
However, trimming a business text isn’t a simple task. You need the right techniques to do it effectively. In what follows, you will learn what you must do to write better and avoid grammar mistakes.
Some Principles of Business Writing
Go directly to the main idea. Telling too much and offering too much context is a grave sin in business writing, especially when you have a limited amount of writing space. Go to the main idea as soon as possible and cut the clutter that we often tend to fill our texts with.
Some people want to tell the company’s or product’s story before getting to the point. Skip any unnecessary information and go to the main idea. Remember that readers are busy people, and you need to respect their time.
If you were taught that your introductory paragraph must offer a preview of the text, forget about it. It takes up too much space and doesn’t offer real value. The only time an introduction is proper: when the document is long. How long? At least 10,000 words. Other than that, it is a waste of time.
Make use of formatting creatively. You may think that adding a headline or a graphic element would make the text harder to read, but nothing could be further from the truth. For example, you can place the idea of a part of the text as a headline. This way, you can save space because now, instead of writing two or three sentences, you can have a one-row headline telling the reader what the main idea is.
On the same principle, graphics can save a lot of space. Instead of using long rows of words or paragraphs, you can show what you want to communicate using an enticing graphic. On the same idea, tables can save you a lot of space in a business document.
Join sentences. Pay close attention to your sentences. Can you reduce their number? If so, could you combine the ideas found in two or three sentences into one?
Take the following paragraph as an example:
“Our team is currently in the process of analyzing the data from the most recent customer feedback survey. We plan to use the insights gained to improve our product offerings. These improvements will help us better meet customer expectations and increase satisfaction.”
This paragraph contains three sentences. However, it could very well be reduced to only one sentence, as in the following example:
“We are analyzing recent customer feedback to improve our products and boost satisfaction.”
Whenever you have the possibility, reduce sentence length; always reduce the number of sentences.
For more advice on grammar, read also: Ten Common Grammatical Errors to Avoid if You Want to Improve Your Writing
Other ways in which you could reduce the length of the text include the following:
• Look for the obvious: delete unnecessary adverbs and phrases that do not add anything to the text.
Instead of writing, “Certainly, this means that taxes could be higher next year,” simply write, “Taxes could be higher next year.” The central idea remains, and no other changes are needed.
• Change phrases of possession. It is lengthier to write “the budget of the company” than “the company’s budget.” Check the text for every “of” construction and see if it is possible to change it.
• Make use of active verbs more. The active voice is sharper and more concise than the passive voice. It also takes less space in a text.
“He wrote the cover letter in just three days” is sharper, shorter, and more concise than “The cover letter was written in three days by him.”
• Never express a number in both letters and digits. If it’s permissible, always use digits; they are shorter than spelled-out numbers.
• Cut lengthy titles. Instead of “Bob Dylan, members of the sales team, said …,” simply write “Bob Dylan said …”
Writing Correctly Without Knowing the Rules
We’ve discussed a couple of useful tips on how to trim a text. However, a trimmed text without the proper use of grammar won’t help your cause. Previously, we’ve discussed the most common grammatical errors in business writing, and it’s a good thing to review them. But time can be short, and you need to act fast.
Is it “Everyone was …” or “Everyone were …”?
Is it “The data show …” or “The data shows …”?
One solution, especially if you are short on time, is to avoid such issues by rephrasing sentences and restructuring content.
Are you unsure whether to use a singular or a plural verb with “Data”? The correct answer is to use the plural form of the verb. “Data” is an atypical plural form, its singular form being “Datum.”
However, if you are not sure, you can write something like the following:
“The piece of data shows …”
Now, we are dealing with one single piece of data. It becomes irrelevant whether “Data” is singular or plural.
There are a couple of such problematic nouns in English—memorandum/memoranda, criterion/criteria, etc.—but you can always have this approach.
In the case of “Everyone,” remember that this is always singular. Think of it as suggesting something like “Each one, individually, is …” If you have clear names, and they aren’t many, write them down:
“Dan, Clara, Marian, and John are …”
A source of endless problems in business writing is the choice between “Whom” and “Who.”
Which is the correct version?
a) There is a bonus for whoever finishes first.
Or
b) There is a bonus for whomever finishes first.
How can you solve the issue without knowing the grammar behind it? Simple. Just rewrite the sentence:
“If you finish on time, you will get a bonus.”
Common grammatical errors happen in business writing all the time, even some of the most efficient writers committing errors. If you do not have the time and energy to check the grammatical rules, remember that you always have the possibility to rewrite your sentences.
Trimming and correcting your writing for errors are part of business writing. With practice, you can become better, deliver quality work for your business partners, and help your organization grow.
At Thumos Writing, we help your business stand out with clear, professional writing that gets results—on time and tailored to your goals. Let’s talk about how we can support your growth.
