Businesses have no time for long or confusing words. Effective business correspondence relies on strict writing that relies on few but powerful words. Each word must convey a precise meaning that is understood in the same way by the writer and the reader. Use your thesaurus to replace long words with shorter, neater ones.
Whether you’re writing a prospecting letter or report, follow-up letter or proposal, use the shortest, simplest word you can find to convey the meaning you want. Whether you’re typing up, down, or down, choose appropriate replacements for the cold, pretentious business expressions of the past. Please remove the garbage as: attached here with please find. Instead, say exactly what you mean: I am enclosing this for you. Use plain old English, I call it shirt sleeve English, to get real results.
Simplicity makes reading easy, and professional writers know that business readers want a quick and easy read. In fact, most busy readers get lost in sentences of 21 words or more. Equally important, when you choose the biggest, most impressive word, your reader is likely to find you less impressive, not more. According to Daniel Oppenheimer, researcher and collaborator of the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology“Anything that makes the text difficult to read and understand, such as unnecessarily long words or complicated fonts, will lower readers’ evaluation of the text and its author.”
In twenty years of teaching business writing workshops and polishing proposals for my corporate clients, my experience tells me that it’s the least educated people who seem driven to use the biggest words, often with the dumbest results. One writer, for example, looked for an alternative to “old” and found one that he liked. In his letter, he actually referred to “senile” teams. Another writer tried to impress a CEO with this: I value his needs and want the opportunity to help him achieve his visions. You can laugh, but that’s a direct quote, and it’s not funny.
Now, I’m not suggesting you’d make the same silly mistakes, but the principle of writing simply and cleanly is important no matter how many titles you have or how good you are with a dictionary. Professionals don’t complicate information, they simplify it. They don’t choose ten dollar words when a fifty cent word works better. They’re not trying to dazzle with multisyllabic words when short, crisp words make reading easier and improve business results.
Don’t use “as requested” when you could say “as requested.” Don’t write “although” when you could write “although”. Don’t go for the heavy lifting, “in reference to” when “about” works better. I’m sure you get the idea.
When you write for business, it’s not your job to teach your reader a new word. Nor is it in your best interest to brag, talk badly, or confuse the reader. Clarity charms. country of simplicity Write to express, not to impress, and you’ll discover that your business writing really means business.
