The document discusses key aspects of effective business writing. It emphasizes that business writing needs to be clear, succinct, and "scanable", meaning the reader can easily find the most important information. It also stresses using clarity techniques like defining acronyms the first time and using proper titles to aid comprehension. Additionally, it notes the need for succinctness given the large amount of information people now consume, suggesting saying more with less words. The document concludes by saying grammar rules continue evolving and should prioritize clarity and brevity over strict adherence to conventions.

1. copyrighted material of Bruce Birkett Associates (bba.birkett@gmail.com) 24 June 2015, Page 1 of 2
Some Thoughts on “Business
Writing”
The following are my own personal thoughts looking back on
over 40 years of a wide range of business writing both in the US
and other countries – all of which has been in English.
None of the following is meant to directly recap any grammar
and writing rules of either American, UK or Euro-English and the
following is not meant to be either exhaustive or comprehensive
– it is a quick overview.
What makes business writing different?
To start with, there are many different types of business writing;
but, unlike other types of writing (news, novels, etc.), it is
particularly important that business writing needs to be clear,
succinct and “scanable”.
What do I mean by “scanable”? Basically, the thought is that when looking at a piece of business
writing, we want to enable the reader to spend the least possible time to acquire their needed or
sought after information.
Where do these ideas of “scanability” come from?
Years ago, when I lived in Chicago, I had a regular luncheon partner who went on in the 1980s to run
the artificial intelligence group at Hughes Aircraft in California. We would meet regularly in a glass
enclosed atrium restaurant overlooking the Chicago River and chat about whatever.
But I was curious in terms of my friend’s being able to read 400 page novels in a day and being able
to discuss the book better than I could. So I asked her how she did it.
The answer was something like “you look at whole sentences and phrases [as most people read
individual words] and you only read the first and last parts of each paragraph”.
How many of us (speed readers) quickly scan an article and then realize we have to slow down and
try and figure out what was being said in a particular paragraph?
So, how does this affect business writing? To me, it was a lifelong lesson in clarity and succinctness.
Different audiences require different vocabulary levels, simplicity of sentence structure, styles, etc. –
these are givens. But, what about clarity?
Clarity
In one of my businesses, which translates European business text into English, I do a lot of reviewing.
There is nothing more confusing than the use of acronyms and titles where the meaning of the
acronym is unclear or the lack of title casing (only the first word of a title is title-cased in UK and
Euro-English) makes referencing impossible.
So, I make it a point to always givie the definition of an acronym the first time it is used (in the text or
a footnote) and, if there is any question about the title of a document, a particularly important
reference or text, add quotes, indent, etc. – as appropriate for clarity.
Succinctness
One of the outcomes of digitization and the internet is that there is a need for saying more with less.
How many of us now take for granted the digital click “read more” and “read less”.

2. copyrighted material of Bruce Birkett Associates (bba.birkett@gmail.com) 24 June 2015, Page 2 of 2
Another great “succinctness” invention that we now take for granted is “PowerPoint”. Here we are
looking at slides that often summarize a much more lengthy document. For example a “pitch deck”
as a summary of a “business plan”.
And, all of us write in a different way and with a different style. That’s what makes life interesting.
But, in terms of not wasting our time, we need to only say what needs to be said and say it in such a
way that the reader can quickly learn all they need to learn – avoid adding unnecessary verbal bulk.
I gave up on reading a certain well-known newspaper a few years ago because, upon its sale, I found
that most of the writers added nothing to their news stories that wasn’t summarized in the title of
the story and perhaps the first sentence. Instead, I focused my attention on a digital periodical that
hired more intelligent writers who would always provide additional information in the text of their
articles.
We all are exposed to and need to keep up with more-and-more information every day. So, we
hopefully continue to improve all our writing-related skills – including composition, business
grammar, clarity and succinctness.
Are there really any fixed grammar rules anymore?
I would just like to conclude with a suggestion that all of the grammar rules we’ve learned and
mastered are like the English language itself – always evolving. And, as such, if the grammar rules
(things like title-casing and punctuation) can be improved upon for the purposes of greater
succinctness and clarity, then they are and should be used in our business writing.
One of my associates and I were translating a business document and I was a bit of a stick-in-the-
mud for some old grammatical conventions until my friend pointed out that “it isn’t done that way
anymore on the internet”.