How to Be a Better Business Writer
When you write your resume and cover letter you need to be knowledgeable about how to compose your writing. Learn how to be a better business writer so you can make your writing more professional.
Business writing is so ubiquitous in society that like it or not, most everyone must partake in this activity.
Whether it is writing a resume, annotating a meeting, or simply sending an email, everyone who reads it expects you to write with professionalism and skill.
Isn't Business Writing Difficult?
If you didn't go to school as an English major, how do you know how to write your resume and cover letter correctly? The trick is to follow a few basic rules to make your writing appear more professional and more concise.Writing isn't that difficult to do if you have guidelines to follow. If you get confused or get stuck when you write a certain word or phrase, think back to these rules and suggestions to make your business writing better.
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Tips to Be a Better Business Writer
Following these suggestions should help you appear to be more professional to your coworkers and clients. However, keep in mind that there is always room for improvement. If you are serious about improving your writing abilities and you struggle with this task, think about getting help and practicing your skills to enhance your abilities.- Keep it Simple
When you are writing professionally, such as your resume or cover letter for example, remember that you are not working on your next mystery novel. There is no need for fancy embellishments or exaggerated phrasing. Avoid using metaphors, similes, and other types of stylistic writing.
Your associates are not going to want to decipher what you wrote. They merely want to receive the information loud and clear, then move on to the next task at hand. Even the language that you are using should be simple in nature. Any nouns, adjectives, or verbs should be the most direct and literal words that you can use. - Cut Unnecessary Phrases
Read through each email and report that you have put together to eliminate wordiness and extra fluff. Your reader doesn't want to waste their time trying to decode a message that you have embedded in your writing. Please get to the point; they want the data to be in front of them immediately. - Write in the Present
No matter what you are writing, try to keep it in the present tense. Every part of speech should speak as if it is currently happening. Unless there is a specific instance or event from the past, you should be writing in the now.
It is also imperative that you keep all of your tenses the same. When you start speaking about a topic, make sure that all the tenses match until you move on to the next idea. Be on alert for certain forms of the verb “be.” If you are speaking about something, avoid using the conditional tense could, should, or would, and instead, use present tense and direct verbs. - Avoid Jargon
When you are writing for business, compose your document so the audience will be able to understand what you are saying. If you are consistently incorporating jargon and other large or niche words that not everyone can understand your writing will be incomprehensible to some readers.
When a reader spots complicated words that you have added to your document, they may detect arrogance in your tone and not take what you wrote seriously. - Be Mindful of Punctuation
When you are writing for business purposes, like a resume or cover letter, you must understand that only certain forms of punctuation are appropriate. Please stay away from exclamation points because they are not very useful in this form of writing. If you feel that there is an instance in which an exclamation may fit into your writing, avoid using more than one in succession which will completely discredit what you wrote.
Try your best to sneak a semicolon into your sentence. Using this punctuation correctly will make you look better educated. The problem is that people often attempt to use semicolons and fail in their usage.
To use a semicolon correctly, you should look for a location in between what could be two complete sentences, also known as clauses. However, the second clause must add additional information to the first clause. If the two clauses meet these conditions, go ahead and insert the punctuation there!