Writing in business

Communication, especially writing, is central to the business world. Because business writers generally aim to persuade or inform their audiences, they place a premium on clarity, brevity, and focus.

Business writers always take into account their audiences. They generally use a formal tone when writing for clients or prospective clients, and they often use a slightly less formal tone for their colleagues or co-workers. In all situations, business writers avoid complex metaphors and elaborate language; they also avoid slang and colloquial language.

Writing for your audience in business

When you write in business, your audience may be varied. One type of audience might be executives, managers, and employees in various departments of a company—accounting, research and development, sales, and clerical support. Another audience might consist of stockholders, clients, and potential customers.

Audiences within a business organization read to consider proposals for revising existing products, services, projects, policies, or procedures or for creating new ones. Business owners and executives may read to gather information to help them evaluate projects in progress, to assess sales, and to make decisions about changing product designs or adopting new marketing strategies. They read to understand whether a course of action would be feasible and profitable for the business.

Managers, salespeople, and other employees read memos, e-mail, and other documents to help them conduct the daily transactions and activities of the organization, solve daily problems, and respond to customers. Customers read the publications of a business to learn about products and services and to determine whether it would benefit them to do business with a particular company.

For all of your readers, present empirical data such as sales figures or cost structures in easily readable formats such as tables, charts, and graphs. It might also be appropriate to give your readers opinions from questionnaires or surveys. A business owner deciding whether to adopt a marketing strategy might want to read feedback from potential customers, and a potential customer might want to read testimonials from satisfied customers.

Respect your readers’ time. Make sure your writing is clear, straightforward, focused, attractively presented on paper or a Web site, and as brief as possible. Because trust is essential in business transactions, maintain a respectful tone and project a credible image. Business writing should make personal connections and use inclusive language.

Related topics:

Forms of writing in business

Questions business writers ask

Kinds of evidence business writers use

Writing conventions in business

APA or CMS system for citation in business writing

Sample student papers: An investigative report and a proposal

metaphor A figure of speech based on an implied comparison.

colloquial Informal; more appropriate to speech than to writing.