Written Communication: Improve Your Business Writing Skills

Master business writing by analyzing audience, planning communication, and structuring content to deliver clear, concise messages with proper tone across reports, emails, and memos.

Identify the audience type and analyze readers' background knowledge, experience, and training needs. Plan for mixed audience types and expectations, and use headings to guide readers.

Analyze your audience to choose the right communication medium, balancing physical media such as face to face meetings with mechanical media like email and newsletters.

Learn to organize your communication by ranking key points and using planning worksheets to create logical order, save time, and craft clear topic sentences with supporting details.

Explore top-down versus bottom-up writing, where top-down presents key points first and details later, while bottom-up starts with backup information and the desired outcome.

Include only relevant details in communications to save readers time and improve clarity. Ask whether each detail enhances understanding, prompts action, or affects decision quality.

Structure your message with five visual tools—subject lines, headings, typeface emphasis, bullets and numbers, and graphics, tables, or charts—to quickly reveal key points and trends.

Organize key points before you write, let your speech guide your writing, and keep the message clear and concise. Use active voice, simple words, and avoid repetition and platitudes.

Balance informal and formal tone in business writing, and read aloud to catch awkward sentences. Use simple language, avoid jargon, and explain acronyms on first use.