BUSINESS WRITING STYLE: AN ULTIMATE GUIDE

In business writing, when one talks about style, they often refer to the force, voice, and shapes of the sentences they are constructing. Business writing is very different from academic writing in so many ways. One has to be able to distinguish the two before they begin writing and below are the major differences to look out for.

1. Purpose 

Business writing involves an author talking about getting things done, call off action as well as actionable items. In academic writing, on the other hand, its main purpose or goal is to help students learn new topics. 

2. Appearance 

Business writing content often appears attractive, pleasing to the eye, and requires one to take their time to digest the content. It also uses a lot of heading, subheadings, titles, graphs, pictures, charts, logos, different forts, and more. Academic writing needs to follow instructions given by a tutor with Times New Roman being used as well as double-spacing, margins, paragraphs, page numbers and more. 

3. Lifespan of document 

Business writing content is often kept or filed for a long period for future use or legal purposes. Academic writing content has a short life span of only a semester, sometimes. Its main purpose is to act as a guide or reference for students. 

4. The audience 

Business writing content is more for stakeholders and those associated with the company or business. Academic writing content is for lecturers, tutors, or educational instructors. 

5. Citation 

In business writing, when outside sources are used to produce the content, citation does vary depending on the person asking for the document. Academic writing often encourages students to use Harvard-style referencing, APA, Chicago, or  MLA to cite any outside sources used. 

6. The tone 

Business writing has an argumentative, friendly, persuasive, or even an authoritative tone depending on the needs and wants of the clients. Academic writing often has to show that the author understands the topic, is authoritative at times, and must also display that the author is open to new ways of thinking when it comes to their future content. 

7. The voice 

Business writing often involves an active voice with fewer words being used, easy to understand, and is more direct. Academic writing has a passive voice that will highlight the experiences of certain actions over their performances. 

1. Avoid using long sentences 

You should always try to keep your sentences short when it comes to business writing. Keep them under 25 words, and stay clear of words that will make your argument come across as weak. These words are called qualifiers and can make content come across as lackluster. 

2. Do not personalize things 

The whole idea of business writing is to highlight issues, present arguments, and solutions. Stay clear of using phrases such as “As a company, I feel you have to train your employees to make them more productive”. Instead, you need to word it differently, like “[insert company] has to make sure employees are well-trained to make them more productive”. Overall, you need to write from the point of view of the company, not your point. 

3. Avoid plagiarism at all costs and use graphs or tables

Stealing and passing off another author’s work as your own is called plagiarism, and it’s one of the biggest sins in writing. Whether one intends to or not, it is still a very serious offense that brings major consequences.  If you have things you want to say that are very important to your project, you can use images, figures, tables, or graphs. 

To ensure that content of this nature is 100% legit, many college students turn to business writing services. The companies, like CustomWritings, that offer this service not only help students with their business writing content but will also check for plagiarism to ensure their work is original when submitted. Producing plagiarism-free work with the help of business essay writing services gives you more credibility as a writer and will show your tutors and future employees that you take the art very seriously.

4. Avoid the use of passive voice, instead, use active voice 

The one mistake that many people make during the business writing process is they use what is known as passive voice. This will make your content dull for readers, however, using active voice changes everything. The difference between the two is that active voice uses a lot of action verbs, while passive voice uses various forms of the verb “to be”. Content is filled with words like “been, were, are, am, be, and is”. An example of passive voice is “What the organization is lacking is…” An example of active voice is “The organization lacks…”

5. Use words that suit your audience and proofread your work 

You need to make sure that you use a tone and words that suit your readers. If you are a student producing content for your tutors, you need to use the appropriate words. In the future, when you’re hired by a successful business and asked to produce a business piece, you’ll need to use words that the stakeholders and CEOs will understand. 

After you’ve written your business piece, you need to proofread it because delivering content that has grammar errors shows a lack of professionalism. Enlist a second set of eyes to read your content to see if they can spot something you’ve missed. This can be your friends, family, classmates, or work colleagues.

Business writing is an art and to be done properly one has to be able to follow strict guidelines. Following the tips mentioned above to help you produce good quality business reports or content even if you’re a novice. You have to understand who you are producing your content for before you begin writing. A lack of understanding puts you in a situation where you’ll deliver poor work. Whether it is for business people or tutors, you need to follow the appropriate guidelines and words to avoid miscommunication.