INCORPORATING THE

BUSINESS STYLE OF

WRITING

Writer: Ozzy Mirza

Source: Business Writing

Information

Core Principles of Styling Your

Business Writing

Minding the Active and Passive

Voice

Striking the Right Balance with the

Length of Your Write-ups

Stating the Core Purpose

Representing Yourself

Style and Fonts

Remember the time you heard a senior executive making a

speech at some corporate dinner or employee‟s day when the

speaker said something so crisp that it made you go, “That‟s

what I‟m talking about… you nailed it!” In ways more than

one, those are exactly the sort of sentiments that good

business style writing should evoke every time.

To me, personally, business fashion writing flirts

with creative & academic writing; it is like a hybrid of the latter

two. You cannot say that a particular writing style is better than

the other two; each one has its distinguishing tone &

distinctive purpose. However, there are some professional

business writing standards which you are supposed to

follow rigidly while working with business correspondence and

communication.

Core Principles of Styling Your Business

Writing

To successfully identify a correspondence as business

writing, one must be familiar with the acceptable and frowned

upon characteristics of corporate style writing. That will be the

main focus of this humble excerpt; to attempt to touch upon

what business cut writing entails.

To start off with the core concept, readers is like to play Bull‟s Eye

with business style writing; the „bottom line‟ should become

apparent in as less words as possible. Subsequently you will

find other things to be mindful of in order to add flair to your

Core Principles of Styling Your Business

Writing (Cont.)

The active voice should be used for the most part. As a business

writer, you should be aware of the difference between the active

and the passive voice. An example has been inked below to make

it easy to understand.

The grass was cut by the landlord. (Passive voice)

The landlord cut the grass. (Active voice)

The passive voice should be brought into play when you want to

make a point without placing too much emphasis on it; as if you

want to glance by it.

Minding the Active and Passive Voice

After the active and passive voice distinction, a business writer

must also appreciate the differentiation between making

something sound “short & sweet” & giving someone a “shut-

up call”

What that means is that even though you want to nail the points

in as less words possible as logic permits, you do not want to

make your reader feel disrespected; you don‟t want to make

scrambled eggs out of your writing. Keep it concise but make

sure it maintains a rational flow of thoughts & ideas. Some

experts have coined the term KISS for this practice i.e. Keep

Striking the Right Balance with the

Length of Your Write-ups

To make the thought flow smoother, state the purpose of the

correspondence at the beginning. Consequently, run a

quick overview of the points that will be elaborated in the

subsequent text.

Stating the Core Purpose

Also be wary of where you use „I‟ and „We‟. „I‟ is specifically

for your sole actions and beliefs. „We‟ is used to refer

to the company as a whole. Therefore, do not use „we‟ in

place of an „I‟ because your wrong choice of words can

drag the firm in to the legal courtyards.

Representing Yourself

The popularly adopted business style font should be a 12pt text;

either Arial or Times New Roman – something that is easily

legible. Keep scanning through various commercial style

writing excerpts with the eyes of an observer; you want to

see how the message comes across to you as a reader and

what, if any, changes would you make if you had to convey

the same message.

Style and Fonts

Related Links

Business Writing Guide

Professional Business Writing Etiquette Guideline

Advanced Business Writing

Business Writing Training for Dummies

Basics of Writing Business Letters