How can I improve my business writing skills?

Developing any skill depends on slow, steady progress, step by step.

Developing good writing skills is no different.  Here are ten things you can do, on an ongoing basis, to improve your ability to write clearly, concisely and convincingly.

1   The key to writing well is to write it badly first, then know how to edit.

Get someone else to read what you’ve written and tell you what they’ve understood. That could be very revealing!

Each time you write, improve on one little thing, be it your spelling, vocabulary or logical flow.

2    Proofread in various ways. Once you’ve checked your document for sense and consistency of style, proofread it for spelling mistakes and typographical errors.  Read it backwards to pick up those tiny errors that tend to slip through.

3    Don’t rely on your spell-checker to check spelling, as it will miss words used in a different context, for instance, ‘there’ and ‘their’.  Both spelt correctly, but may be wrong depending on the context.

Business writing skills for all.

4    Build a solid working vocabulary which will enable you to say clearly what you mean with the least amount of words and waffle.

Start a large index book in which to note words and phrases with examples of how they may be used.  Do look them up in a dictionary to check if they’re being used correctly before you copy them!  Use Roget’s Thesaurus of Synonyms and Antonyms to expand the range of words at your disposal. (Roget’s is the best).

The Macquarie dictionary is the Australian one.  Oxford is English and Webster’s is American. As far as I know, Collin’s is somewhere in between.

5   Write as if speaking to your reader: Imagine what you would say to the person and write that first, then edit for grammatical accuracy. Read what you’ve written aloud.  If you trip over your words, so will your reader.

Reading will improve business writing skills.

6    Read as much as possible: Read fine literature, read business journals or newspapers, read reports.  Notice where you stumble, notice what flows well or makes an impact on you as the reader.

Examples of badly written documents can be just as useful as models of mistakes to avoid.