Four Steps to Good Business Writing

Most all of us have to at sometime write business correspondence or some kind of business document. The following steps will help your documents achieve their purpose, be clear, engage the reader's attention, and be enjoyable to read. Yes - enjoyable to read.

1. Plan

1. Why are you writing? Decide your purpose, objective, or goal in writing.
2. Who are you writing for/to? Decide on your audience.
3. What is your strategy? Decide type of document and reader action.
4. What should you include? Brainstorm, sort, and then organize ideas.

2. Write

1. Write first draft without stopping - no editing. Just write.
2. Work during your best hours. Mine are between 10pm and 1am - the house is so quiet and no one wanting my attention.
3. Make sure your work area is ready for you to work. Got your paper, pencil, thesaurus, and  background paperwork?
4. After completing first draft, take a day break before beginning to review.

3. Polish

1. Is the tone appropriate?
2. Is it well organized? Purpose obvious? Action step clear? Smooth flow?
3. Is the writing style readable? Remove unnecessary terms, eliminate passive voice, and pompous language.
4. Is your writing lively? Vary sentence length. Use ordinary words. Use humor. Use strong/action words.
5. Is it visibly pleasing? No typos or misspellings. Correct grammar and punctuation. Consistent format.

4. Format

1. Grab the reader's attention in first sentence or paragraph.
2. Short paragraphs.
3. Use headings for longer documents.
4. Lists should be indented and bulletized.
5. Use graphics for effect, but sparingly.