Use these business writing tips to craft more successful messages for your business marketing. Whether you're creating a newsletter, sales letter, email or a commercial, the effectiveness depends on how well you communicate with the listener or reader.

The Process of Business Writing

Business writing differs greatly from your high school days when you tried to "fill" three pages for language arts class. In business writing, your goal isn't to wow with long words. Your goal is to make your message easy to read and understand.

• Clarity. Make sure what you've written isn't easily misunderstood. As the writer, it's easy for you to intend one meaning, and the reader to interpret another.
• Brevity. Use as few words as possible to get your point across.
• Simplicity. Use common words and short sentences. When I say "common" words, that doesn't mean to limit your vocabulary. Sure, you may want to avoid obscure words few people will understand. On the other hand, you can avoid redundancy and wordiness by varying your word choice. Instead of "took place," you might opt for "occurred" or "transpired." Also, avoid slang, jargon or acronyms known only to those in your industry.

Write as if you're having a conversation with the reader. Your tone should be businesslike, but not stuffy. Make your writing professional, but personal. To do this, you may need to break some of those high school grammar rules:

• Use contractions. For some reason, people often avoid using contractions in business writing.
• Don't be afraid to use pronouns, especially "you" and "we."
• Use shorter sentences and fewer commas to improve readability.
• Use active, not passive voice, to give your writing a personal tone. Write, "I'll call you" not "You will be called."
• If you're writing an ad, forget what your English teacher told you. You CAN start a sentence with "and," "but" or "because." Remember, in advertising, you're writing the way people talk. For more about writing for ads, visit my copywriting page.

When writing a fiction paper for school, your writing built up to the big ending. In business writing, your main message goes in the first paragraph or the subject line of an email or memo. That's where you hook your readers. They may stop reading if you bury the most important information too far down or at the end. Build from there, using only one idea per paragraph.

Make Your Writing Readable

• Use white space and bullets.
• Use short paragraphs and subheads if the document is long. This makes it easy to scan.
• Typically, use no more than two fonts in one piece. Avoid clever fonts. Try to stick to some of the standard ones. Sans serif fonts like Arial, Helvetica or Tahoma give a more modern image. Serif fonts, like Garamond or Times New Roman, create a more traditional look. All are easy to read, but research indicates the serif fonts are the most readable.
• Use 11 to 12 point type for the main text, also called the body copy. Use 11 to 12 point bold for subheadings and 14 to 20 point for headings. Of course, depending on your piece, you can deviate from these guidelines. Just make sure the font is easy to read.
• Avoid background graphics or pictures behind text for improved readability. Black text on a white background is the easiest to read.
• Left justified text is also the easiest to read.

Find More Business Writing Tips

OWL Purdue Writing Lab
If you have any questions about grammar or punctuation, this site provides answers.

Online Dictionary and Thesaurus
Take a few seconds to look up the spelling of words in a dictionary. Those few seconds can make or break the credibility of your business writing. A thesaurus will help vary your vocabulary. A word of caution though. Don't just pull and substitute words, if you aren't familiar with them. Words in a thesaurus can have slight variations in meaning.

Business Letters
My Business Letters section also offers some business writing tips.

Ad Copywriting
If you're specifically interested in writing for advertising, find more info on my Ad Copywriting page.