12 Technical & Business Writing Power Techniques for Success

People who write plainly do not have a secret talent that they are born with. They just learn how to write clearly as they practice their craft year in, year out. And the way they learn that is through applying many individual techniques, depending on the situation, problem, and context. Here we are introducing twelve such techniques that will help you improve your writing almost instantly. Apply them and you'll be a better writer who writes clearly and consistently, whether you are writing a technical document or business correspondence.

Here are some of the classic grammar errors in English. By eliminating them, you can improve your writing instantly.

Eliminating old expressions, local figures of speech, military or sports metaphors is important to guarantee that your writing will be understood by a wide audience, including your international readers. Watch this video to learn how to do that by examples.

Every action has one or more results. Taken together with its results, all actions form an "Action Unit." 

Just like individual actions within that unit all flow automatically from the first action, the description of them should also form a single seamless step instead of artificial multiple steps. 

Watch this video to learn how to write smooth-flowing procedural steps by paying attention to what forms a single "action unit" in your procedure. 

Writing in this fashion prevents your readers from looping back to the previous steps to understand the total context of action and thus creates a more positive user experience.

Variance is a sinister foe of consistent procedural writing and must be eliminated as much as possible. Not discussed frequently in books devoted to good writing, variance is at the root of most bad writing today, especially in technical communications. Watch this video to understand what it is and how it can be eliminated. Don't forget to have a look at the EXERCISE sheets and match your solution against those provided in the SOLUTION sheets (both attached to this lesson as PDF files).

Eliminate "should" from your writing to create documents that can not be misinterpreted and understood in ways that was not intended by the author. Don't forget to have a look at the EXERCISE sheet and match your solution against that provided in the SOLUTION sheet (both attached to this lesson as PDF files).

Eliminating abstract verbs like "to facilitate," "to monetize" or "to optimize" is a must to create clear documents that readers can read and understand the first time they read it. Watch this video to understand some of the ways you can eliminate such abstract verbs from your writing and improve your written communication right away. Also don't forget to download the EXERCISE sheet and check your solution against that is provided in the SOLUTION sheet (both attached to this lesson as PDF files).

Eliminating abstract nouns like "facilitation" or "implementation" is a must to create clear documents that readers can read and understand the first time they read it. Watch this video to understand some of the ways you can eliminate such abstract nouns from your writing and improve your written communication right away. Also don't forget to download the EXERCISE sheet and check your solution against that is provided in the SOLUTION sheet (both attached to this lesson as PDF files).

Eliminate all prepositional phrases that start with "in" or have "in" them to strengthen your sentences and make sure they will be understood at the very first reading. The impact of this technique can at times be nothing short of remarkable.