Business correspondence doesn't have to be awful

By Susan Almazol

Special to the San Jose Mercuiy News

Considering that the average business letter costs about $10 to produce, it is no wonder that more and more business people are becoming conscious of how expensive poor writing can be.

"Some people think mystification is more important than communication," says Elisabeth Peters, general manager of Berkeley System Works. Peters complains that many individuals indiscriminately use "buzz" words in business correspondence without bothering to consider whether these words are meaningful to their readers. The result is at best momentary confusion and at worst costly mistakes if information is misunderstood.

"It's amazing how difficult it is for some people to write simply and directly," says Trina Grillo, a lawyer who sometimes finds her time taken up by re-reading documents.

One manager is still puzzling over how to respond to his boss's rambling and generally unintelligible memo. "I received this thing over a week ago, but I don't understand what he wants. I just don't know how to respond to it."

At another company, an exasperated manager angrily scrawled, "I didn't have to read all of this" on the front page of a report whose major points were buried inside its many pages.

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A headhunter shook his head in disbelief recently when discussing his search for a school superintendent earlier this year. "One criterion was good writing skills, but the top candidates we looked at ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other. You'd think that anyone getting a six-figure salary would be able to write."

Unfortunately, as anyone in business can attest, position, salary, even level of education often have nothing to do with the ability to write a clear, concise letter or report. A professor, for example, complained he had to read a one-page memo from the university accounting department at least four times before he finally understood what was being done to his paycheck.

Multiply what your hour is worth by the number of hours you spend deciphering business communication, and you can see how costly poor writing can be.

But this is all from the reader's point of view. Unfortunately, however, the picture is just as gloomy from the writer's point of view.

"I hate writing, and I try to put it off for as long as I can" is an all-too-familiar lament in the business world. From real estate agents to lawyers, from accountants to top executives, writing letters, memos and reports can be a burdensome chore, especially when added to an already full work schedule.

This attitude, especially when coupled with poor writing skills, can cost companies a lot of money. By one estimate, unclear writing costs American businesses more than $100 million each year. Poor writers simply write poor documents. Their proposals do not get funded. Their instructional manuals put off potential clients. Their letters and memos may go unanswered.

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Good writers, on the other hand, can produce successful, easy-to-read documents. But sometimes it may take them many long hours to do so — valuable time that might be profitably spent on other tasks.

What are the answers to this situation? Not many are easy. Workshops and courses on effective writing are one obvious answer, although finding the right one may take time. Strict company standards to ensure well-written documents is another. Initially requiring solid writing skills as well as technical competence may be a long-term answer.

In general, to tackle the problem now, it is back to basics that counts. People in business need to remember that their goal is to communicate, so they must plan their documents carefully, spelling out their purpose, audience, and important ideas, before they begin writing.

As for the common complaint that writing takes too long, fast writing techniques are taught in some workshops. The main idea is not to approach all writing tasks in the same rigid way but to develop a repertoire of approaches to speed up the writing of different documents.

Here are five basic guidelines to help everyone in business write better, whether their documents are simple letters or complex proposals. These guidelines are not guaranteed to produce a perfect document overnight, but following them can go a long way toward clear and concise communication.

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• Clarify your purpose

Why are you writing in the first place? If the answer to this questions is not clear to you, it is not going to be clear to your reader. Are you announcing, proposing, reprimanding, analyzing, reporting? These are all different purposes, although they may involve the same information. Different purposes may require different approaches.

• Remember your readers. 

It is not enough to know your message. You should also know your readers. Who is going to read your document? How much do they know about your message? How is your message going to affect them? The answers to these questions will govern the kinds of information you include and also the kinds of words you use, whether they are technical or everyday translations.

• Highlight important ideas.

Chronological order is the weakest, but most commonly used, way to organize business documents. Usually, however, readers want to know first what your answer is, then the details on how you found it. Another common mistake is to include too many details. Remember that these details may be interesting to you because they are part of your job, but they may not be as interesting to your reader.

• Use conversational language.

The trend in business writing is toward the informal. Pronouns like "we" and "you" are used more frequently now. For example, "we believe" is more acceptable than "it is believed." Stilted phrasing like "pursuant to your request" is also being dropped in favor of more direct phrasing like "as you requested."

• Make your documents look attractive.

No one says business documents have to look ugly just because they are serious. Make them look attractive by using short sentences and paragraphs, dividing long documents into sections, using wide margins and including visuals like flow charts.

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