Clear writing needs to be read only once to be understood. It uses simple, straightforward words. In addition, it presents relevant examples – those that relate to readers' experiences.
TECHNIQUES FOR WRITING CLEARLY
ften the importance of writing clearly in business is overlooked. But poor writing can mean you fail to get your message across, waste readers' time as they struggle to interpret what you mean, and make a bad impression overall.
Clear writing needs to be read only once to be understood. It uses simple, straightforward words. In addition, it presents relevant examples – those that relate to readers' experiences.
Specific guidelines can help you ensure your writing is clear:
Business writing needs to be direct. So you should use short, familiar words that are easy to understand.
Whenever there's a choice, use words with fewer syllables. As well as being easier to read, these make more of an impact.
The word approximately can be shortened to roughly, concerning can be shortened to about, and discontinue can be shortened to stop. The word endeavor can be shortened to try, and inequitable can be shortened to unfair.
As well as using shorter words, you should choose familiar words – those that most readers are likely to know.
Using too many uncommon words can make your writing harder to follow. It can also come across as stuffy, pretentious, or even silly.
Text containing too many uncoimmon words:
"Pursuant to the promulgation of the updated guidelines, addressees will be obligated to effect modifications to their passwords."
Simpler vocabulary is much more effective at getting a message across.
The revised text containing simpler vocabulary reads:
"Once the guidelines are issued, you'll need to change your passwords."
REFLECT
How would you rewrite this message using short, familiar words?
"In accordance with your request and pursuant to consideration of the fact that an extraordinary amount of time has elapsed, it is of the utmost importance that you provide us with a reproduction of your certificate forthwith."
REVISED SENTENCE
The sentence can be simplified as follows:
"To meet your request in time, we need a copy of your certificate as soon as possible."
So as you write, it's a good idea to replace long words with shorter, simpler equivalents. Even a word like "additional" reads better as "extra," and "assistance" can be replaced with "help." Remember that using a formal or respectful tone doesn't have to involve being wordy.
Similarly, you should replace uncommon words with more familiar equivalents. For example, why use "enumerate" when you can use "count"? This adds an unnecessary barrier to understanding. Even if readers know what the less common word means, "count" is simpler and easier to read.
QUESTION
Which sentences demonstrate the use of short, familiar words?
Another aspect of keeping your words short and familiar is avoiding industry-specific jargon, or "corporatese."
Within organizations, it can be common for employees to develop acronyms and words that are specific to their work environments. It's best to avoid these in your writing because they might not be understood by people outside your organization, or by new staff.
Examples of sentences that include jargon terms are:
"We have to incentivize our employees to prevent scope creep with this product"
and
"We can sign off once the SME has reviewed this."
Similarly, you should avoid jargon where it complicates text unnecessarily. For instance, describing a new model of telephone as a "dual-way communications networking apparatus" lacks clarity – and readers may even find this silly.
There are times when you need to use technical terms or jargon. In these instances, ensure that you initially define the terms or provide equivalents.
"Please refer to the CMS (client management system)" is an example of acceptable jargon.
You should also limit the use of cliches in your writing. These are stock phrases that have little impact because they're overused. In modern business writing, they often add to the length but not the meaning of a message. So "thinking outside the box," for example, is a cliche that may sound impressive, but contains little meaning.
Some examples of cliches are "thinking outside the box", "win-win situation", and "let's hit the ground running."
As well as avoiding cliches, you should avoid euphemisms. These are indirect terms that disguise or "soften" your intended meaning.
In some cases, a euphemism is appropriate because it shows sensitivity to the reader's feelings. So the words "passed away" is an appropriate euphemism for "died."
The appropriate euphemism is used in the sentence "He passed away last night after a long illness."
In most cases, though, it's best in business writing to say what you mean, directly and in the simplest way you can. For example, you should replace terms like "revenue enhancement" and "wage-based premium" with "tax increase" if this is what's really meant.
I have been teaching and training agents, team leaders, supervisors, managers and admins of call centers and other businesses in BPO related fields. This series, comes as a result of that experience. I have more than 4,000 modules that I plan on sharing here. This is # 003-02
