Do you want to learn how to write a convincing business letter, email, report & proposal? If YES, here are 19 highly effective business writing tips & techniques. If you are in business, you are expected to learn the art of business writing because business is mostly about communication, and writing is one key means of communication.
The truth is that as a business man or woman you would need to write business letters or proposals that would help you market your products or services, to communicate your brand or to source for partnership or funds. Some business people pay experts/consultants to help them write business letters or prepare business documents.
If you don’t know how to write business letters and you don’t have the finance to hire experts to do it for you, then you might not maximize the opportunities that are available in your industry. So, if you own a business or you are interested in business writing, here are highly effective business writing tips and techniques that will help you out.
19 Highly Effective Business Writing Tips & Techniques
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Use Existing Business Related Document Template
In recent time, there is hardly any information that you want that you can’t get from the internet. A simple google search will do the whole trick. This goes to show that if you want business documents that are of international standard, then you need to source for related template from the internet. The truth is that some of these documents can be free and some others can be based on subscription or a fee. The bottom line is that part of the highly effective business writing tips that will help you run your business is to leverage on existing related template when writing business document.
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Make Use of Business Vocabularies
Perhaps the most important tip when it comes to effective business writing is ensuring that your business document is laced with business vocabularies. What is the use of writing a business document when you aren’t going to use business vocab? Indeed, it is the business vocab that makes your business document what it is. In order to get the required business vocabularies that are needed for business writing, you need to get a business encyclopedia. You can get it online or order from a bookshop near you.
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Start With a Draft
Another important business writing tip that you need when it comes to writing business documents is to ensure that you always have a draft. A draft is a rough sketch of what you have in mind when you want to come up with a business document or letter. With a draft, you will be able to pen – down key areas that mustn’t be missing from your business document.
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Be Concise and Straightforward
One of the tips that you need if you want to be highly effective when it comes to writing business letters is to ensure that you are concise and straightforward. There is no point beating about the bush when writing a business letter or document. The fact that it is a business letter/document means that it requires seriousness hence the need to make the document easy to read and understand.
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Read and Re-Read Your Business Write Up
Another important and highly effective business writing tip that you need when writing a business document or letter is to ensure that after you must have finished writing the business letter, that you read and re-read the business write up. The truth is that when you re-read a document after you must have finished writing it, you will come across some typographical errors that need to be corrected or you will come across words or statements that can be better put.
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Give a Third – Party to Help You Read Through Your Write Up
Apart from reading and re-reading your business write-up, another tip that will help you come up with error free business write-up is to give the document to a third party to help you read through and make the necessary corrections. Just ensure that the person you are giving the document to help you read through and make corrections is someone that is vast in business document editing.
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Minimize the Use of Jargons
Another highly effective business writing tip that you need to adopt when writing a business letter or document is to ensure that you minimize the use of jargons. Some people in the bid to impress the recipient of the business letter/document, tend to make use of jargons that are not relevant. The truth is that some people get easily put off when they come across several jargons in a write-up especially a write-up that is seeking their support or patronage.
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Make Use of Simple and Easy to Understand Words
The essence of writing is to communicate a message to a recipient hence the need to make use of simple and easy to understand words. Gone are the days when people deliberately make use of difficult words to communicate their intention when writing. These days, nobody gives a hoot on how much big grammar you know, all they care about is the message you are trying to communicate in your letter. So, if you are looking for a tip that will make you highly effective when writing business letters or documents, then you should ensure that you always make use of simple and easy to understand words when writing.
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Avoid Plagiarism
Another important tip to follow if you want to be highly effective when it comes to business writing is to ensure that you avoid plagiarism. You don’t have to lift or copy someone else’s business document. It is unprofessional and wrong to make use of someone’s brain child to make money without taking permission from the author. Even if you come across a business document that represents what you intend writing, the best you can do is to re – write the document in your own words. In case you don’t know, plagiarism is punishable under the law and you may be required to pay a fine or serve a prison term.
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Adopt International Best Practices in Business Writing
There are international best practices when it comes business writing and you will do your business a favor by ensuring that you adopt international best practices when writing any business document or letter. Every industry has a format in which they write business letters or documents and in order to get familiar with the international business writing best practices in your industry, then you should ensure you join relevant associations in your industry to get useful industrial tips as it relates to business writing.
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Always Edit Your Business Write Up
Another important writing tip both for business or any other writing at that is to ensure that you don’t conclude on the write up without editing. When you edit your write up, it enables you to come up with an error free and easy to understand business document. You can hire a good editor or someone in your team who is good at editing to help you edit your business document or letter before dispatching or posting it.
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Take Business Writing Lessons
Taking business writing lessons is yet another important business writing tip that you need if you want to always come up with error free and professionally written business letters or documents. There are several writing classes, both online and offline, that you can take business writing lessons. Good enough, some of these classes/lessons are free.
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Attend Business Writing Seminars/Symposium
Similar to taking business writing lessons is attending business writing seminars or symposiums. The truth is that there are several business writing seminars and symposiums that are tailored to help starters become professional business writers. All you need to do is to look for such seminars or symposiums and enroll. The fees charged for such seminars or symposiums are usually affordable.
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Know the Parts of Speech
Make it your business to understand grammar and language. Can you distinguish a noun from a verb, a predicate from a preposition? Do you comprehend tense and verb agreement? All these things are things you should know. If you do know these things, you will be adjudged a master in your writing art.
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Start a blog
One of the ways to be a master in the writing field is by being a blogger. Use it to converse about your own writing process, share your ideas and experiences, or publish your work to a reading audience. Doing this will help you to a very large extent broaden your horizon as it concerns your presence in the writing industry.
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Keep a journal or notebook handy
As a writer, do not let go a day go by without recording events in your journal, so you can jot down all of your bright ideas. Be sure that in your smartphone you have plenty note-taking apps. A voice-recording app also comes in handy for recording notes and ideas.
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Subscribe to writing blogs on the Internet
One of the best things that would happen to you as a writer is to ensure that you are mixing with the right kind of tribe on the internet. One of the ways to be sure this is happening is by joining the right crowd online.
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Read Voraciously
As a writer, it pays a great deal to read as much and as often as you can. This is important because the more you are exposed to other people’s thought lines and brain child, the more you are able to put in the very best in your own writing. Remember, every writer is a reader first.
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Create a space in your home especially for writing
Some people may think that creating a writing space at home is quite trivial, but creating such a space, especially for someone who is looking to become a professional writer, would help one concentrate better when writing. There you have it, times tested tips that will help you be the best and a force to reckon with in the business writing trade.