Too often, people and organizations that we otherwise respect expose their flaws through the way they communicate in writing. Finding obvious punctuation mistakes in a letter, grammatical errors in signage, or weak writing skills in a newsletter can be a severe letdown. These small mistakes can generate very large changes in our attitudes toward a company, an association, or a consultant.
The following tips—from the Franco Group seminar, "102 Tips for Improving Your Business Writing"—will help you preserve your company's image by enabling you to write more compellingly.
1. Write in the active voice
In sentences that are constructed in the active voice, the subject clearly performs the action, as in: "I caused the mistake," or "Your team hit a home run." In the passive voice , the source of the action is mushy or unknown, as in "Mistakes were made," or "A home run was hit." Writing in the active voice generally will make your sentences stronger.
2. Avoid beginning sentences with "There is."
A warning flag should go up anytime you start a sentence with the weak phrasing "There is" or "There are." While in some cases this phrasing may be the only way to state a message clearly ("There is not a penny's worth of difference between the candidates."), in most instances the sentence can be strengthened by putting the subject and verb up front. For example, instead of writing, "There are people who are offended by this proposal," try "This proposal offends some people." Or instead of "There is a majority that favors my action," write, "A majority favors my action."
3. Understand the words you use and be precise with them.
We tend to make words with slightly different meanings interchangeable, but that dilutes their effectiveness. For example, "enormous" means not just "very large," but wicked or shocking. "Terribly" means not just "extremely," but in a manner that causes fright or alarm. And "anxious" does not mean "eager." It means causing anxiety or worry.
4. Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate.
Short, powerful statements are memorable; long, intricate sentences are merely tiresome. After you have written your message, review it to determine if it contains unnecessary words. Avoid long phrases when short ones will do. Replace "in order to" with "to," "whether or not" with "if," "at this time" with "now" or "yet," "in addition to" with "additionally" or "and."
5. Use precise synonyms in place of unnecessarily repetitive words
Using the same words repetitively in a message can make you appear to have a very limited vocabulary and can make reading your message tedious. Avoid constant repetition of the same adjectives, adverbs or verbs to describe every subject or action in your message. Your thesaurus will list at least a dozen alternatives for "unique" and two dozen for "very." Don't use a synonym just to change the word; use it because it more precisely expresses what you intend to say.
For example, this series of sentences sounds stilted: "Paul said he would be here. He said he wouldn't miss it for anything. He said he'd arrive before 6:00 p.m." Instead, try: "Paul promised he would be here. He said he wouldn't miss it for anything. He anticipated that he'd arrive before 6:00 p.m."
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