A Checklist for Business Writers

A good part of my job involves writing or editing other people’s writing, so it’s not uncommon that I get asked for advice on how to write effective articles or other documents for business audiences. In response to one such request, here are a few pointers I put together for Connections, the monthly newsletter of one of my clients, applications support and maintenance company RIS:

The Inverted Pyramid: A classic structure for news articles, the inverted pyramid refers to the concept of starting your article with the most important information, and proceeding in order of decreasing importance from there. The premise is that, if someone only reads the top 10% of the article, they’ve read the most important 10%.

Be Your Audience: Before you even put pen to paper – or finger to keyboard as it were – put yourself in your readers’ shoes and ask “why would I read this article?” Write the article from that perspective to answer your audience’s questions, not to tell them what you want them to hear.

Speak English (or Romanian, or…): Especially in the world of high tech, writers are often tempted to use industry buzzwords, “unofficial terminology in quotation marks,” or the dreaded Proprietary Overly-Complicated Abbreviations (POCAs). Resist the temptation, and write in a language your audience will understand.

Back Up Your Claims: Whether your article is reporting on facts or expressing your opinions, back up what you say. Common ways to back up your points include describing specific personal experiences, citing research statistics or – even better – by quoting an expert on the topic.

Know Your Medium: Just as you need to start with your audience in mind, it’s also helpful to know where your article is going to be published. Find the publication(s) where you want the article to appear, and read up on some back issues to familiarize yourself with its writing style, and to make sure your topic hasn’t been covered already.