The Changing World of Business Writing

Typewriters. Personal secretaries knowledgeable in grammar. Shorthand. Dictionaries on desks. Photocopiers. Fax machines. Computers. Unit secretaries. Personal computers. Laptops. Spell checkers. Grammar checkers. E-mails. Internet.

Then in the early 80s we were hit with a recession. North American business strategies changed and companies became leaner and stream-lined. In turn, readers wanted their correspondence to match. They no longer wanted to take the time to sort through wordy, stilted messages. They didn't want irrelevant details but were more focused on "the facts, just the facts."

This desire was further reinforced by the amount of paper crossing readers' desks. Between 1982 and 1992 the reading material of business people-letters, memos, reports, faxes-increased 600 per cent. And then came e-mails. A study by Rogen International and Goldhaber Research Associates shows the number of received e-mail messages again increased 600% between 1995-2001.

As a result of this overabundance of written messages, today's readers don't have the time to absorb convoluted messages. They want to read a message just once and know precisely what they should do next. Sentences such as "Kindly execute the attached documents and return them at your earliest convenience to the undersigned at the above address" are no longer appropriate. They are too vague and have the readers' eyes roving all over the page to pick up the details.

A key idea to remember is that until the 80s business writers were trained to write about their own interests or what they wanted the reader to know.

However, experienced communicators in this century focus on what the reader needs to know.

Tone

This brings us to tone or how the message is delivered. Whether you are communicating internally with staff or externally with customers, today's readers expect to be treated with courtesy and in a friendly fashion.

How can you do this? Write as though you were speaking to the reader.

Explain what you can do, rather than what you can't. If you are listing features, include benefits. Use the active voice. Include the reader's name. And use words that would be used in normal conversation. For example, I doubt if any human resources person would ever say, "A prompt reply will expedite consideration of the student's application." Then why write it?

Write as though you're speaking-assuming you speak in a grammatically correct fashion.

Grammar

Grammar is making a come-back. In the past, many managers depended on their secretaries to correct their spelling or punctuation errors. However, because of down sizing, right sizing or re-engineering personal secretaries are rare.

For the most part, white collar workers are now expected to use computers and input, revise and edit their own correspondence and reports.
Surprisingly, this hasn't meant that grammar rules are slipping. Individuals are now paying more attention to their own correspondence. And more and more executives are requesting grammar workshops, reference books or software programs to keep themselves accurate.

Computer Software Packages

Software packages have been a mixed blessing to business writing. Nowadays, you can check spelling, grammar and readability levels with your computer. However, you can't rely on them exclusively. Documents must still be proofread manually as well as electronically because spell checkers can't catch words that are spelled correctly but are misused, such as "its" versus "it's" and "deer" instead of "dear."

In addition, grammar packages can indicate errors, and readability indexes can point out the ease or difficulty of the reading level, but for most people the packages don't provide enough information on how to solve the problem.

In Summary

Writing is not static. It constantly changes to match the changes in resources, society, technology and business. Smart communicators are the ones who recognize that keeping their language skills on the leading edge will mean success for themselves and their organizations.

© Jane Watson is an author, keynoter and trainer and can be reached at jane@jwatsonassociates.com or (905) 820-9909