Writing communications

 

Business writing essentials

At some point in your professional life, you may need to write something. It’s nothing to be intimidated by, though!

Business writing is any written communication used in a professional setting, including emails, memos, and reports. It’s direct, clear, and designed to be read quickly. With time and practice, you too can become an effective business writer.

The basics of business writing

Good business writing shares crucial information and keeps the concerns of the audience in mind. So before you write anything, ask yourself these two questions:

What do I need to say?

Who is my audience?

Your answers will influence what and how you write, so take a moment to understand exactly why you’re writing. If you can’t clearly answer these questions, you’ll probably have trouble communicating effectively.

Most business writing needs a call to action, which is information that instructs and encourages a response. Let your readers know what they should do, where to go, and so on. Provide your contact information (such as your phone number or email address) in case anyone has questions.

Essentially, make sure everyone knows what their next move should be, like in the following example.

Writing craft

Get to the point quickly. Do you need to tell your employees about a change in work schedules or an update to company policy? Tell them what they should know upfront, and don’t leave them guessing.

Make every sentence as short and clear as possible. Simplify your word choices, as you shouldn’t use complex words when simple ones will do. Also, cut any rambling thoughts. A company-wide memo about a health insurance change is not the best place to mention your recent fishing trip. In short, always omit needless words.

Although you’re in a professional setting, remember to speak to others how you would like to be spoken to. Consider using a brief greeting or conclusion, especially if you’re sharing unpleasant news, and remember that saying please and thank you goes a long way. And whenever you’re in doubt as to whether something is appropriate to write, don’t include it.

Aim to keep your paragraphs brief, as they will add focus to your message while making it easier to scan and remember. The example below is an efficient read, thanks to short paragraphs, clear sentences, and a polite, professional tone.

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How to write a formal business letter

Whenever you need to communicate with another company or share important news, business letters can present your message in a classic, polished style. Unlike internal memos, business letters are usually written from one company to another, which is why they’re so formal and structured. However, letters are also quite versatile, as they can be used for official requests, announcements, cover letters, and much more.

Despite the formality, letters can still have a friendly tone, especially because they include brief introductions before getting to the main point. Regardless of the tone you use in your letter, your writing should remain concise, clear, and easy to read.

The structure of a business letter

The business letter’s precise structure is crucial to its look and readability. As you write your letter, you can follow the structure below to create an effective document.

·      Opening: Include your mailing address, the full date (for example, July 30, 2017), and the recipient’s name, company, and address. Skip one line between your address, the date, and your recipient’s information. Don’t add your address if you’re using letterhead that already contains it.

·      Salutation: Address the recipient using “Dear,” along with their title and last name, such as “Dear Mr. Collins” or “Dear Director Kinkade.” If you don’t know the recipient’s gender, use their full name, such as “Dear Taylor Dean.” Finally, be sure to add a colon to the end of the salutation.

·      Body: In the first paragraph, introduce yourself and the main point of your letter. Following paragraphs should go into the details of your main point, while your final paragraph should restate the letter’s purpose and provide a call to action, if necessary.

·      Closing: Recommended formal closings include “Sincerely” or “Yours truly.” For a more personal closing, consider using “Cordially” or “Best regards.” Regardless of what you choose, add a comma to the end of it.

·      Signature: Skip four lines after the closing and type your name. Skip another line and type your job title and company name. If you’re submitting a hard copy, sign your name in the empty space using blue or black ink.

·      Enclosures: If you’re including documents with this letter, list them here.

Another important part of the structure is the layout, which determines how the text is formatted. The most common layout for a business letter is known as block format, which keeps all text left-justified and single spaced, except for double spaces between the paragraphs. This layout keeps the letter looking clean and easy to read.

Example of a business letter

To see this lesson in action, let’s take a look at a polished business letter by reviewing the example below.

 

This letter looks great! The structure is perfect, and the text is left-justified and single spaced. The body is formal, friendly, and concise, while the salutation and closing look good. It also contains a handwritten signature, which means it’s ready to be submitted as a hard copy.

Knowing how to write a business letter will serve you well throughout your career. Keep practicing and studying it, and you’ll be able to communicate in a classic style.

How to write a powerful business report

When a company needs to make an informed decision, it can create a business report to guide its leaders. Business reports use facts and research to study data, analyze performance, and provide recommendations on a company's future.

The basics of a business report

Business reports are always formal, objective, and heavily researched. Every fact must be clear and verifiable, regardless of whether the report focuses on a single situation or examines the overall performance of an entire company.

Because objectivity is crucial in a business report, avoid subjective descriptions that tell the reader how to feel. For instance, if sales were down last quarter, don’t say “Sales were terrible last quarter,” but rather let the sales data speak for itself. There should also be no personal pronouns, such as “I think we should invest more capital.” A business report should remain impersonal and framed from the company’s perspective.

The structure of a business report

Although the size of a report can range from one page to 100, structure is always important because it allows readers to navigate the document easily. While this structure can vary due to report length or company standards, we’ve listed a common, reliable structure below:

·         Front matter: List your name, job title, contact information, and the date of submission. You can also create a title for the report.

·         Background: State the background of the topic you’ll be addressing, along with the purpose of the report itself.

·         Key findings: Provide facts, data, and key findings that are relevant to the purpose stated in the background. Be clear and specific, especially because the entire report depends on the information in this section.

·         Conclusion: Summarize and interpret the key findings, identify issues found within the data, and answer questions raised by the purpose.

·         Recommendations: Recommend solutions to any problems mentioned in the conclusion, and summarize how these solutions would work. Although you’re providing your own opinion in this section, avoid using personal pronouns and keep everything framed through the company’s perspective.

·         References: List the sources for all the data you've cited throughout the report. This allows people to see where you got your information and investigate these same sources.

Some companies may also require an executive summary after the front matter section, which is a complete summary that includes the report’s background, key findings, and recommendations. This section lets people learn the highlights quickly without having to read the entire document. The size of an executive summary can range from a paragraph to multiple pages, depending on the length of the report.

Revision

As mentioned in Business Writing Essentials, revision is key to producing an effective document. Review your writing to keep it focused and free of proofreading errors, and ensure your factual information is correct and presented objectively. We also recommend you get feedback from a colleague before submitting your work because they can spot errors you missed or find new opportunities for analysis or discussion.

 

How to Write an Effective Business Email

The basics of a business email

All business emails should be direct, clear, and easy to read. The tone of a business email, however, can vary from informal to formal. The formality can depend on your company, the intended audience, subject matter, and several other factors. If you’re unsure how formal your email should be, review our lesson on how formal an email should be.

Regardless of the formality, remember to stay professional because you lose control of the email once you click Send. Emails can be copied and forwarded to others indefinitely, and if you’re inappropriate or unprofessional, your poor choice of words could follow you.

Writing a business email

As with any email, a business email should include a brief but descriptive subject line, one or more recipients, and an attachment if needed. If you are including multiple recipients, consider using the CC (carbon copy) field to keep the extra recipients in the loop without requiring them to respond. To learn more about the basic parts of an email, take a look at our lesson on common email features.

When you start writing the main content of the email, there's a simple and effective structure you can follow:

·      Greeting: Make it brief and friendly, and address the recipient by name if you know it. For instance, “Hi Jonathan” or “Greetings Ms. Childress” are both reliable introductions. The first name is preferable if you're more familiar with the recipient, while you should use their last name if you want to be more formal.

·      Body: Start with your main point so no one has to hunt for it, and keep your writing concise and focused on the concerns of your audience. If you need a response from the recipient, make sure to include a call to action so they know how and why to respond. Also, if you've attached a file, be sure to mention it here.

·      Ending: Offer a quick farewell, such as “Thanks” or “Sincerely”, then give your name and contact information in case they have questions.

Revision

Although email is meant to be quick, always take time to revise your writing before you click Send. Review your spelling and grammar, and confirm the accuracy of any facts you present. If you read the email aloud, you may find additional errors or realize that your words are missing a professional tone.

Make sure any attachments you mention are actually attached, and confirm that any included web links are correct. Broken links, missing attachments, and incorrect information only slow things down and force you to send correction emails.

Examples of business emails

To demonstrate the principles of this lesson, let's look at two examples of business emails. First, let's start with a poor example.

 

 

 

 

The example above is looking rough. The subject line is vague, the body is full of spelling errors and rambling thoughts, and the main point is difficult to find. Plus, the overall tone is unprofessional.

Now let’s take a look at a more polished example.

This example looks good! The subject line grabs your attention, the body is concise and error-free, and there’s a clear call to action. Emails like these help businesses run smoother and more efficiently.

Writing concise emails is a key skill in the professional world, which you can develop through consistent practice. Keep writing and learning, and you'll become a more effective communicator with each email you create.

 

Once you’ve revised your content, think about the report’s appearance. Consider turning your front matter section into a cover page to add some visual polish. You can also create a table of contents if the report is lengthy. If you’re printing it out, use quality paper and a folder or binder to hold the report together. To diversify the presentation of your data, try using bulleted lists, graphics, and charts.

Understanding the different types of writing in business

Business writing is a complicated — and costly — craft.  

Even experienced writers sometimes struggle to find the right words. And sloppy copy costs companies billions each year. Without well-defined writing strategies and systems, teams set themselves up for miscommunications, project delays, and unintended complications.  

To refine your team’s writing skills, take a step back to review the different types of writing and how to incorporate them into a comprehensive communications strategy. A thorough understanding of major writing categories will help your writers identify the most suitable style for projects and structure thoughts into truly polished copy. 

What’s business writing?

Business writing refers to any written communication — including memos, reports, or emails — in a professional workplace environment. 

Typically, work-focused documents favor a formal tone that fits a company's brand image and highlights the team's professionalism. Even when co-workers share texts internally (called “transactional writing”), business writing relies heavily on the etiquette appropriate for a professional setting. 

In addition to formality, business writing should also prioritize clarity, concision, and specificity. While there are exceptions in sales and marketing, most types of business writing feature short sentences, easily digestible text, and unambiguous calls to action. 

What are writing genres and styles?

In writing, the terms “genre” and “style” identify and organize texts into separate categories according to their distinguishing traits. Style is often used to describe a writer's particular way with words, while genres are more broad classifications that group together texts with similar purposes and conventions. 

For example, “comedy” is a genre of fiction encompassing texts such as long-form novels, scripts, or short stories, all of which share the goal of making readers laugh. Although all comedic writing shares the same objective, there are significant stylistic differences — including tone, literary devices, and syntax — between different comedic writers. It’s what separates Tina Fey from Jordan Peel, even though both writers have created multiple comedic works. 

The 4 types of writing in business, explained

There are as many styles of writing as there are reasons for written expression, but the primary reasons people pen to paper in the business world boil down to a few categories. Before starting down a blank page, consider which of the four writing types best suits the project's specifications:

1. Expository writing

You could substitute “expository” for “explanatory,” as this writing style focuses on educating readers and transmitting clear, unbiased facts. An expository piece highlights news, events, or data in concise and precise language, and it's most associated with journalism, business documents, and technical writing.

Academic writing, such as essays and scientific reports, also falls into the expository writing category. 

2. Descriptive writing

The descriptive writing style stimulates a reader's imagination by conjuring up sensuous sights, smells, or sounds. Although most people associate descriptive writing with setting a scene in narrative fiction, it's also commonly used in business-oriented writing — especially advertising or marketing — to evoke sensations and put images in the reader's mind. Whenever you see writing that riffs on the five senses, chances are it fits within the descriptive model. 

3. Persuasive writing

If authors want to sway a reader's opinion, they cast a stylistic spell called “persuasive writing.” Even if authors don't openly admit they're giving a subjective opinion, persuasive writing often implicitly creeps into documents like marketing strategies, job applications, and advertisements.

It's common for descriptive writing to overlap with persuasive techniques, especially when advertisers paint tantalizing pictures to get viewers interested in products or services.  

4. Narrative writing

Narrative writing aligns closely with literary works because its purpose is to tell the reader a story. Common examples of narrative prose include novels and short stories, but that doesn't mean narrative writing is purely fictional. For instance, when authors write autobiographies or historians compose biographies, they tell a story about someone's life.

Narrative writing sometimes appears in journalism when reporters spotlight interviewees or write human interest pieces. Advertisements may also use customer narratives to generate buzz and increase product credibility. 

How to choose the right writing style

Most business writing is formal and expository, but there are instances when it's appropriate to incorporate creativity into your copy. Evaluating the motives and target audience for a project can help your team choose the most relevant and effective writing style. Here’s how:

1. Define the text's primary objective

The first step to choosing the optimal writing style is understanding what you want to accomplish with your text. That may seem self-explanatory, but it's easy to get bogged down in distractions and superfluous details throughout the writing process. 

Formulating a clear, one-sentence objective for a text keeps writers on-task and informs their stylistic choices. For instance, teams working on marketing promotions are more likely to use persuasive and descriptive writing versus those writing interdepartmental memos.

Keep a text's essential aim in mind throughout the writing process, and be sure the writing style reinforces and elaborates on this objective. 

2. Take on the target reader's perspective 

There's little point in defining the goal of a text if writers can't communicate this message to their target audience. 

Consider the background, interests, and expectations of readers and imagine their reaction to a document in its current form. Constantly refine the writing style to make the reading experience as straightforward as possible with the target readership in mind. Be especially wary of overloading written communications with needless jargon and technical details, unless you intend to send this info to trained specialists. 

3. Keep brand messaging consistent 

Even if writers have more leeway to add descriptive or narrative elements to their work, the overall tone must fall within the company's brand guidelines. Any glaring deviations in the standardized language or formatting for business communications threaten your organization's professional integrity and public image. 

Before submitting a final draft, put it through a quality assurance review to ensure the style fits the official guidelines and avoids obtrusive inconsistencies. 

4. Use text analysis for extra insights 

Text analysis tools harness the power of machine learning to sift through mountains of content and extract critical data points for teams to review. 

One valuable way to use text analysis to inform writing style is to monitor client and customer engagement via sentiment analysis reports. Feed information such as social media posts, emails, and reviews through a sentiment analysis portal to identify trends, strengths, and weaknesses in written campaigns. 

Share these findings with the marketing or sales staff to brainstorm ideas, strengthen current campaigns, or shift writing strategies to stay relevant and better engage with customers. 

Improve your writing with Notion  

Whenever you feel stumped, use Notion templates to brainstorm through that writer's block. 

With excellent templates like this writing base, you have the tools you need to jot down ideas, visualize outlines, and organize bite-size daily goals to stay on track without feeling overwhelmed. Notion also has pre-built templates for dozens of business documents like memos, emails, and proposals to help preserve your brand image and keep formatting consistent across departments.