Blogs Like All Forms Of Writing Are An Art Form That Takes Knowledge And Practice To Do Well
Writing…Blogs…Blogs are on-line journals where people express themselves through writing. Writing…Writing is the process where one puts down words of a language on a format that others can read. This process has not been around very long, to use...
Eliminate Redundancies for Fat Free Writing
This article may be freely published in your print or online Newsletter or on your website provided 1. You include the byline and the resource box; 2. You print the article in its entirety, unchanged; and 3. You notify the author when and where it's...
Five Benefits of Article Writing
By Nicholas Dixon
http://WWW.Oceanroc.blogspot.com A few years ago as a webmaster with no money, I looked around for
the best free methods to drive traffic to my website. Search engines were my primary source of traffic and due to the
fact...
How Ghost writing Articles and Booklets Can Earn You Big Money!
Do you want to make $5000, $10,000 or more every month as a freelancer? Does your current published materials earn you that much or are you still struggling looking for new jobs every month? Well, ghost writing articles and books for businesses...
Writing for Publicity and Profit on the WWW
I sincerely believe that there has never been a better time in
history for we (or is it us?) writers to making a comfortable
living on the internet.
The World Wide Web offers you an opportunity, unique in history,
to speak directly to...
You can contribute significantly to your business' success by developing your writing skills.
If you're operating a business, eventually you will be required to write a business document. It could be a business letter, a business proposal, a business plan, a marketing strategy, copy for your web site, a white paper, a job description, an inter- office memo, a Board report, a press release, or…?
There is good news if writing is not your strong point. Writing is a skill that can be learned. With practice, almost anyone can learn to write an acceptable document.
Why is good writing important? First, some people will judge you by your writing. Why risk losing customers or investors because of a poorly written document?
Secondly, good business writing is easier to read and easier to comprehend than poor writing. Clarity is always a goal when writing business documents. Flowery prose is best left to those who write fine literature.
Many written documents show dramatic improvement when a few common writing errors are corrected. Try this test. Find a letter or document you have written, and go through it making the changes listed below. You could be surprised at the improvement when you follow these basic guidelines.
Use the Active Voice Write in the active voice instead of the passive voice. That is, rather than writing, "The computer that belongs to my brother," say, "My brother's computer." Rather than writing, "The merchandise that was delivered yesterday," say, "Yesterday's merchandise delivery."
Many people find that by making this one change, they can improve their writing substantially.
Tip: Use MS Word's Spell and Grammar feature to help find the passive sentences. It's found in the Tool menu.
Use Tenses Consistently Changing tenses through a document is a common mistake. Decide which tense you want to write in, then stick to it. "Tense" refers to the past, present, or future.
Past Tense: We did it this way. Present Tense: We do it this way. Future Tense: We will do it this way.
It is jarring to a reader to encounter tense changes such the ones in this paragraph:
business in 1995. We sold and serviced vacuum cleaners. My brother and I do everything ourselves."
The sentence would be better if written like this:
"We started our business in 1995. We sold and serviced vacuum cleaners. My brother and I did everything ourselves."
Use Consistent Spellings and Punctuation
Certain words or terms can be written correctly in more than one way. For example, "ecommerce" and "e-commerce" are both correct. The key is to pick one spelling and use it consistently throughout the document.
Similarly, Jane Doe, MD and Jane Doe, M.D. are both correct. Again, you want to pick one usage and use it consistently.
If you're using numbers, decide whether to use the number signs or to spell out the word. It's a common practice to spell out numbers under ten and to use numerical signs for numbers over ten. i.e. We have eight employees." Or "We have 28 employees."
Limit the use of Adverbs and Adjectives
Business writing is improved when adverbs and adjectives are removed or used sparingly.
For example, "Our new facility is very, very spacious" is better written as, "Our new facility is spacious."
"Our spacious, new facility really meets our needs," is better written as, "Our spacious facility meets our needs."
And, most importantly of all:
Strive for Clarity
Be clear about your message. Identify the main point you want to make for the entire document, then condense that point into one sentence. You might use that one sentence, or you might not. But you MUST decide what it is. If you have not formulated this one point in your own mind, your writing will not portray the most important thing you want to communicate.
For example, what is the one main message I want to communicate with this article? It is sentence #1.
"You can contribute significantly to your business' success by developing your writing skills."
About the Author
How to Write Business Plans, Business Proposals, JV Contracts, Human Resource Package, More! No-cost ebook "Beginners Guide to Ecommerce". Business Writing by Nightcats Multimedia Productions http://www.nightcats.com
