Bad business writing costs American businesses nearly $400 billion every year. Yup, $400 billion—with a “B.”
That’s according to Josh Bernoff, who conducted a survey about businesspeople who write at work. He says American workers spend 22% of their time at work reading, and also believes that more than a quarter of that time—6%—is wasted due to poor writing. And so therefore, 6% of the time we spend at work—and the money spent on those unproductive wage hours—is wasted, simply because we have to slog through murky words.
What’s 6% of your company’s spending on wages? At my company, it’s a sizable sum. Cash flow may only be a problem for 34% of small businesses, but who wants to waste anything?
So surely we need to change this. If we could just get rid of bad business writing, it’d be a 6% increase in productivity, right? Well, one blog post is a little brief for fixing this epidemic. But it’s long enough to give you the CliffsNotes version. And let’s face it… part of the reason I’m writing this—and you’re reading it—is because we all need to be briefer.
1. Understand that people would prefer to not read
Let’s start with mindset first, and leave the grammar ‘til later.
It may be a harsh truth, but all good advertising writers know it: People don’t really like to read. Most of them won’t tell you that, of course. But people’s reptilian brains will avoid reading if they can—especially work documents.
Don’t believe me? Consider this: Infographics are shared and liked three times more often than blog posts. Really grasping this resistance to reading will do more to clarify and condense your writing than anything else. Once you understand how busy and distracted your readers are, you’ll know why convoluted sentences and windy paragraphs are death.
So be kind. Keep it brief. Keep it clear.
2. Make your writing scannable
Here’s a corollary to the first point: Almost no one reads online—they scan. This can actually be a good thing. If you can write for scanners, you might just get your message across. Here’s how to make your writing scannable:
- Add subheads
- Use bullet points wherever possible
- Keep paragraphs to no more than five lines, maximum
- Keep sentences relatively short—no more than three full lines
- Bold key words when they first appear
Understanding this scanning habit can be particularly helpful with emails, which make up the bulk of business writing. Most of your emails will be too short for subheads, but there’s one simple formatting tool that can double the readability of your emails: It’s the return key. Yep, just adding a few more returns to your emails can make them far easier to read. So let those sentences breathe.
RELATED: Is Bad Writing Costing Your Company Valuable Time and Money?
3. Think before you write
Clear writing requires clear thinking. And while writing can—and does—support and enhance thinking, it’s often best to do your thinking before you sit down to write. In other words, know what you want to say before you sit down to write.
Some writers have to spin this rule a bit. They’ll sit down and write a lot, simply to figure out what they think about the subject. Then they’ll go off and do something else for a bit. When they come back, they’ll sit down and write their piece all over, but this time knowing what they want to say. That second version of the writing is always better.
This reveals another old writing trick: Rewrite. Then rewrite again. Don’t just edit with a red pen, start a completely new version of the piece. It’s more work, sure, but you’ll be clearer, and your readers will appreciate it.
4. Write like you talk
Most of you reading this are good communicators; some of you are great communicators. You speak clearly, succinctly, and effectively. And yet, as soon as you sit down at the keyboard, everything falls apart.
Maybe it’s because you think good writing is lofty (it doesn’t have to be). Or that writing by smart people is hard to read (not necessarily). But whatever it is that’s making you think you have to write like a lawyer or an academic, stop it.
Here’s my best writing secret: When I sit down to write, I imagine I’m walking out on a stage. The audience is people like you. What I type is what I’d say to them—or to you. I write exactly the words I’d want to say to you if you were here, and we were face to face.
Try that, and see if you writing doesn’t become more direct.
5. Get help
You can get help from apps or people. Here are your best options for apps:
- Hemingway Editor, which will tell you what grade level your writing is, and how to make it clearer.
- Grammarly, which will catch most typos, grammar errors, and other issues; it has a browser extension that will check your words everywhere you write—even in emails.
Or consider hiring an editor. There are many editing services available for business writers. You could also find an editor-for-hire on Guru.com, Fiverr, or any of the other freelancing platforms. If you have a major report due, it might be the best investment of your career to have your writing professionally edited.
Conclusion
Good writing benefits everyone. It benefits you because it gets your ideas across—and it might get you a raise, too. It benefits your coworkers because they don’t have to struggle to understand you. It benefits your customers because it makes you easier to work with.
Always remember: Writing is a skill—not a gift. So before you send another email, review it. Check it with the Hemingway Editor or Grammarly. See if it can’t be shorter and clearer, and practice makes improvement.
RELATED: Typos on a Sales Letter? Please No!
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