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About this lesson
What are the most important principles to remember in business writing? What emerging trends should we pay attention to?
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Quick reference
Golden Rules & Course Takeaways
There are 5 main areas to focus on in business writing.
Main Points
- An organization shows its personality shows through written documents
- Grammar and spelling are still important
- The content of a document will dictate whether it should be written with a formal or informal tone
Written communication is more prone to being misunderstood because the facial element is removed. Therefore, accepted standards of business etiquette are useful.
Quantity of writing should lean toward less. Stick to simple language and concise documents. Reports should be comprehensive and complete.
Tone should be formal when writing a salutation to unknown contacts, except for sales contacts, which are usually greeted by first name. The tone of a letter depends on the type of letter. Reports carry a formal tone, written in passive voice.
Instant messaging is considered a hybrid between formal email or letter, and the casual tone of social media communication
Privacy concerns should prompt organizations to sensitize employees to data security threats. Companies have a responsibility to protect communication and documentation with clear and enforced data protection policies
Login to download- 00:05 Organizations have personalities.
- 00:07 A large part of the personality of your organization is what it puts out in
- 00:11 writing.
- 00:12 Its internal documents, its website, social media marketing and
- 00:16 other advertising efforts, the letters and
- 00:19 messages it sends to existing and prospective clients and press releases.
- 00:25 Documents that carry spelling mistakes say to the reader,
- 00:29 this organization might be less than competent.
- 00:33 Documents that are informal when they should be formal might be saying,
- 00:37 this company isn't as mature as it should be.
- 00:41 And documents that are formal when they should be friendly might be saying,
- 00:45 this outfit is boring.
- 00:47 We've covered a large range of topics that relate to written communication in
- 00:51 business.
- 00:53 You might not be able to remember every single format required, but
- 00:56 you've probably learned some changes that you need to make so
- 00:59 that your writing is professional quality.
- 01:03 Here are the main takeaways.
- 01:06 We learned that written communication is a special challenge because it's more prone
- 01:10 to being misunderstood.
- 01:12 The facial element has been removed.
- 01:15 We try to reduce these types of misunderstandings by adhering to accepted
- 01:20 standards of behavior and etiquette that are common in business settings.
- 01:25 How much should we write?
- 01:27 We learned that less is more.
- 01:29 The less you write, the more likely it is that they'll read it.
- 01:34 So, stick to simple language and
- 01:36 reduce the length of your correspondence to what people need to know.
- 01:42 For reports we make an exception, reports should be complete,
- 01:46 accurate and comprehensive.
- 01:49 Readers will usually pick out what's of interest to them anyway, but
- 01:53 it has to be there first for them to pick it out.
- 01:57 Our tone in writing.
- 01:58 We learned that when you're writing to someone you don't know for
- 02:02 the first time, the salutation is usually written in a formal
- 02:06 tone using the recipients full name or their preferred title and last name.
- 02:12 Sales cold contact emails are an exception to this principle
- 02:16 where the first name is often used.
- 02:18 The type of letter that you're writing will usually dictate the tone
- 02:22 of the letter itself.
- 02:25 Reports carry a formal tone and are written in passive voice.
- 02:31 For instant messaging for businesses,
- 02:33 these are a hybrid between the more formal email or letter and
- 02:37 the casual tone of social communication with family and friends.
- 02:42 We learned to avoid humour in official letters and memos, but
- 02:45 we learned that business appropriate humour and the use of emojis among
- 02:49 coworkers are usually okay on instant messaging platforms.
- 02:54 For privacy and security, we learned that the care we take
- 02:58 with written communication doesn't end with the text we write, but
- 03:02 also takes into account how and where it's stored, and who has access to it.
- 03:08 A complete security policy includes documenting and
- 03:11 implementing steps to keep digital and hardcopy communication safe,
- 03:15 and to get all members of the organization to buy into the policy.
- 03:21 As we've seen, when smartphones changed the way we accessed work in the early
- 03:25 2000s, it also shrank the length of emails.
- 03:28 People were no longer sending long emails, so
- 03:31 they found ways to say what they wanted with fewer words.
- 03:35 Today, with trends like working from home and remote work, it's now becoming more
- 03:39 acceptable to see our co-workers, clients and service providers living spaces.
- 03:45 Will that also mean a shift towards less formal tones?
- 03:49 Well, we're not quite sure, but we do know that consumer purchasing
- 03:53 has definitely changed towards more online purchases.
- 03:57 And since many of us are, or at least were, isolated from our coworkers for
- 04:02 extended periods of time, that means we're also doing less face-to-face and
- 04:07 more written communication.
- 04:10 So, being able to communicate well in writing is more relevant than ever.
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