| These are only a few of the changes in the business world that have had a major impact
on writing styles. From the early 1920s to the 70s, a manager would dictate a letter to
his secretary who would type it and send it out. The letter would be written in a verbose
style aimed at impressing the reader with the sender's education and literary style. And
because a third party was involved-the secretary-it tended to be rather impersonal. 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.
©2002, Jane Watson is dedicated to
advancing business communications. She is a consultant, author, keynoter and trainer and
can be reached at jane@jwatsonassociates.com or (905) 820-9909 |
