Effective Writing
Christine Phillimore
Following a successful career in
Education, Christine Phillimore
became a freelance trainer. Focused
and well-read, she has worked in
Uganda, Israel, and South Africa,
as well in England and Europe. She
has delivered training courses in
Communication Skills and Business
Writing Skills. Her clients include GSK,
PIMCO, Addaction, the NHS, various
universities, and the armed forces in
the United Kingdom, the United States,
and Germany.
Business Expert Press 978-1-63157-913-4 (2018)
www.businessexpertpress.com
Abstract: Good writing skills lead to increased customer
satisfaction, an improved, more professional image, and
better understanding within your organization. This short
guide offers tools and techniques to help you write more
easily and acts as a reference for the rules of grammar. It
includes the correct use of commas, colons, semicolons,
apostrophes, and paragraphs. It also talks about how to
pitch your writing at the right level for the audience,
recommended sentence length and structure, and how
to effectively and efficiently proofread your own writing.
Keywords: appropriate audience, proofreading, punctua-
tion, rules of grammar.
Effective Writing
Every e-mail, report, or letter speaks volumes about you
and your organization. This is why it is important to e nsure
that every document leaving your organization is crisp,
professional, and polished. It is not easy to do with so many
writing rules to follow, but with p reparation and care, this
can be done. Accurate writing leads to increased customer
satisfaction, a more professional image and better under-
standing within your o rganization, and greater personal
confidence in your ability to express yourself well.
If people can read a document only once to receive
and understand the message as it was intended, instead
of having to read it two or three times, a lot of time can
be saved, creating greater understanding and with less
stress for either party.
Why Write in the First Place?
The first question to ask yourself is, Why are you
writing? Would your goal be more successful in a
telephone call or a face-to-face interaction? Whether it is
to make a recommendation or complaint, to inform, to
create a record, apply for a position, looking for a certain
result such as a refund, or simply for pleasure, it is im-
portant that the writing is accurate, well-spelt, clear, and
grammatically correct so that your message is well-pre-
sented and easily understood.
Keeping your specific aim in mind as you write is v ital
and ensures that you tailor your words and message to
Expert Insights
1
 Effective Writing
avoid going off piste. It is a good idea to
have your objective jotted down in as few
words as possible to act as an aide-memoire
and placed in front of you as you write.
Too many people start writing without
having any clear plan. Simply because we
think we know what we would say in a
face-to-face conversation, and we know how
to react to peoples response, a plan is con-
sidered unnecessary. Planning gives any
document a specific structure and means
that everything that we need to say is in-
cluded. Otherwise, the writing can sound
disconnected and lacking in fluency, without
apparent links. This is no way to convey the
message effectively or as quickly as possible.
This is where mind mapping comes into
its own as an efficient tool, or at least, start-
ing with a spider diagram. Establish how
long you have to actually write the docu-
ment, what resources you have at your
disposal, what equipment is available,
what information is needed, and when it
needs to be started and finished. All these
specifics influence how you go about your
writing and how it will be produced. With-
out addressing all these points, success is
much harder to achieve.
This is especially true of e-mail. This
is quite often where communication goes
awry. E-mails frequently start abruptly,
without salutation, or end just as brusquely,
without a final greeting or signature. P eople
tend to take no a ccount of how their reader
will react; they simply write as they talk,
ignoring polite c onventions or how words
can be misinterpreted, addressing senior
management in the same way they would
a friend. Text abbreviations are not suitable
in an e-mail, nor is the overuse of slang.
Who Is My Audience?
An awareness of audience is essential so
that your writing is pitched at the right
level. Writing for an academic audience is
very different from writing for a business
one, or a close friend or acquaintance. Se-
lecting the appropriate tone and style is
fundamental, as well as choosing the right
2 Business Expert Press 978-1-63157-913-4 (2018)
www.businessexpertpress.com
level of vocabulary and suitable terminol-
ogy. Otherwise, your potential audience
will be alienated. Adopting too formal a
tone is inappropriate for a light-hearted
document, whereas being too informal for
a serious business proposition is, likewise,
wrong.
Pitching the level of your writing too low
can be as bad as pitching it too high. We
all know people who think it is evidence
of their higher education or intellect to use
as many long words as they can, whether
or not they understand them themselves.
In a recent rugby match, the commentator
was heard to say that the player was being
existential with the referee! Im still trying
to work that one out. If in doubt, err on the
side of using clear, simple, but effective
English, with a well-presented argument
that is accurately written.
Understanding who will be reading
your writing is important to know exactly
where to pitch it. Such questions as How
much time does the reader have available
to spend reading this document?, Is my
reader already familiar with the topic?,
What do they know already?, What else
do they need to know?, and How diverse
is my audience? need to be asked. You also
need to be aware of peoples attitudes to
the subject and to you, the writer.
As an effective writer, it is essential
that you guide your reader through your
document so that it is easy to understand
and your message is transmitted speedily
and correctly. This is done by making your
structure or argument clear by including
such phrases as the outcome of this is ...
or by contrast . . . and itemizing ideas
such as second or finally. Consider also
using subheadings, where appropriate.
Paragraphs are vital to support your struc-
ture. This also allows you to be on track.
English has approximately a third of a
million words, derived from Greek, Latin,
Sanskrit, Egyptian, Arabic, the European
Romance languages, Old Norse, Germanic,
Norman, Persian, Hindi, and Icelandic,
among others. This accounts for its variety,
Expert Insights
 Effective Writing
but also explains why the language is so
hard to learn and get right, as seen in the
following sentences:
The farm was used to produce produce,
The soldier decided to desert his dessert
in the desert, Since there is no time like
the present, he thought he would present
the present, and After a number of injec-
tions, my jaw got number.
Comprehension can be so difficult
with apparently simple language. In the
following examples, probably the writer
was clear about the message he wanted
to convey, but something went drastically
wrong in the execution and the documents
were clearly not proofread:
If you think that our products are
unsatisfactory, you should see our
manager.
I want a list of staff, broken down by
age and sex.
Miss Jones performed particularly
well in all positions in the bank, but
has proved to perform particularly
well over the counter.
Free dog! Eats anything and e specially
fond of children.
Desks for sale. Suitable for ladies with
large drawers and thick legs.
Sentences
Writing in complete sentences is vital for
writing correct business English so that
your reader can fully understand what is
being said in the way that you mean it.
Writing a shopping list does not require
sentences, but applying for a job does.
It helps to bear in mind the following
three points when constructing a sentence.
The difference between a phrase and a sen-
tence is that the sentence is a group of words
that makes complete sense on its own. In
the wardrobe may be the response to the
Business Expert Press 978-1-63157-913-4 (2018)
www.businessexpertpress.com
question concerning the whereabouts of an
item of clothing, but does not make sense
on its own, although to the people having
the conversation, the meaning is clear.
Cheese sandwich plate table are just
a series of words with little meaning, but
The cheese sandwich is on a plate on the
table is much clearer.
A sentence is generally considered to
have a subject and verb. The subject is
the person or thing carrying out the verb.
Averb is often described as a doing word.
It can express a physical action, such as
walk, talk, or swim; it can be a mental
action such as think, wonder, or consider;
it can also be a state of being such as exist,
seem, or appear.
Last week, Sam cooked chicken for
dinner.
Tuesday was lovely and sunny.
Sam is the subject and cooked is the verb;
Tuesday is the subject and was is the verb.
However, should the sentence be an in-
struction or a request, then the subject can
be left out.
Shut up!
Please sit down.
Sentences can be any length, depending
on what needs to be said and the desired
effect; the perceived wisdom is that for
the average general reader, they should be
between 18 and 22 words in length. Any
longer, and people tend to forget what has
been said and have to reread the sentence
at least once. Varying the length of your
sentences adds interest and keeps the
reader involved. Check that you have not
written too long a sentence that should
really be split into several.
Use the correct punctuation when
writing sentences, with a capital letter at
the beginning and a full stop, a question
mark, or an exclamation mark at the end,
Expert Insights
3