Basics of Strong
Writing
Business English Writing
ENGL 3221
Ajarn Haha
Learning Outcomes
Differentiate business and
academic writing;
Identify the 8CS of professional
good communication; and,
Apply those principles in
business writing.
Our
communication
says something
about us…
ACADEMIC WRITING BUSINESS WRITING
The information is often highly complex. Ideas are expressed as simply and concisely
as possible.
The language is often highly specialized. Specialized words and jargon are avoided if
possible .
Sentences tend to be long and complex, in Sentences have one main idea, with perhaps
keeping with the complex subject one or at most two supporting
Different matter.
Paragraphs are long enough to explore each
ideas.
Paragraphs are short—four to eight lines
complex idea deeply would be typical.
styles because The style is formal—it avoids “I” and
“you,” although “we” is sometimes
The style is more informal than in academic
writing; first (“I,” “me,” “we”), second
of audiences acceptable, and it doesn’t use contractions (“you”), and third person (“he,” “her,” “they,”
etc.) are all allowed, as are contractions
(“don’t” rather than “do not” is acceptable).
and purposes. Academic citation and works-cited styles, N/A
like APA, MLA, or other academic formats,
are highly detailed and strictly followed.
Grammar rules are strictly followed Grammar rules are somehow relaxed
(sentence fragments are sometimes allowed)
Clear Concise
8cs of Concrete and
specific
Complete
Professional
Good Courteous Coherent
Communication
Constructive Correct
Clear
Avoid jargon and technical or obscure words.
Make your writing concrete and specific.
Use active rather than passive verbs.
Avoid long strings of prepositional phrases (“word salads”)
× The results of the chemistry tests of the students at the University of Vermont were excellent.
Student chemistry test results at the University of Vermont were excellent.
Make pronoun references crystal clear.
× The manager asked her executive assistant to finish the report before she left for the day.
The manager asked her executive assistant to finish the report before the assistant left for the day.
× Each cabinet member must be responsible for the security of their briefcase.
Cabinet members must be responsible for the security of their briefcases.
Each cabinet member must be responsible for the security of his or her briefcase.
Briefcase security is every cabinet member’s responsibility
Clear
Avoid dangling and misplaced modifiers.
× Flying into Seattle, the mountains were beautiful.
Flying into Seattle, we/Simon/the passengers thought the mountains
were beautiful.
Concise
Use active verbs.
Avoid the verb “to be” whenever possible.
× The meeting is going to be attended by students in the economics faculty next week.
Economics students will attend the meeting next week.
× The gardener is of the opinion that we should prune the roses.
The gardener thinks we should prune the roses.
× There are five ducks in the pond
Five ducks are in the pond.
Five ducks splashed in the pond
Concise
Don’t turn verbs into nouns (“nominalizations”).
× The teacher made the comment that the class was sleepy.
The teacher commented that the class was sleepy.
× Morgan asked the managers to make a decision about the new sales strategy.
Morgan asked the managers to decide on a new sales strategy.
Avoid long strings of prepositions (those “word salads” again).
Avoid repetition and redundancy
× In order to finish this job, we need to work overtime.
To finish this job, we need to work overtime
Concrete and specific
NOT ENCOURAGED ENCOURAGED
This is a lot of fun! Riding a zip line in the rainforest is a lot of fun!
A lot of fun…. is exhilarating….
Small town A rural prairie town of 2,000 people…
Old man A 50/ 60/ 70-year-old man
The fire was huge… Towers of flame rose 60 feet above the treetops, throwing off
vast billows of smoke and ash.
Nitrogen is the most common gas in At 78 percent of the air by volume, nitrogen is the most common
Earth’s atmosphere. gas in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Who?
What?
Where?
Complete When?
Why?
How? The finance committee will meet at 10 a.m.
The finance committee will meet in Room 232 at 10 a.m. on
Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Be gender neutral.
• Chair or chairperson instead of chairman or chairwoman.
• Use “his or her” and “he or she” instead of “his” or “her”
and “he” or “she” only.
• Use “their” and make the subject plural instead of singular.
Use “their” as singular (but grammatically controversial)
• Take the gender reference out entirely.
Courteous Put the audience first (“you” rather than “we”).
• Focusing all your attention on the client.
× We will send your shipment of pencils to arrive on
November 25.
You will receive your shipment of pencils on November 25.
× You forgot to include your check with your order, so we
can’t send you the merchandise.
We will be happy to send the merchandise when we receive
your check.
Be tactful.
Follow the traditional forms
of courtesy.
Courteous Dear Name, Yours Truly,
Your Sincerely
Use a reader-friendly
format.
Construct paragraphs carefully about one topic.
• Break long paragraphs into more short paragraphs.
Write sentences with one main idea.
× Miriam Parker was planning to write about her recent trip
Coherent to Beijing, where she saw many examples of Chinese
painting through the centuries, examples that, she felt,
reflected the changing social conditions in China over
time.
Miriam Parker was planning to write about her recent trip
to Beijing, where she saw many examples of Chinese
painting through the centuries. These paintings, she felt,
reflected the changing social conditions in China over
time.
Coherent
Use transitional words to unite sentences
and paragraphs into a logical and coherent
whole.
“for example”, “First of all”, “such as”, “also”,
“Furthermore”, “secondly”, “in addition”,
“although”, “however”, “on the contrary”, “on the
other hand”, “in the same way”, “similarly”, “just
as”, “because”, “consequently”, “as a result”,
“therefore”, “after”, “before”, “in front of”, “next
to”, and etc.,
Be consistent in formatting numbers.
• Spell out the numbers one to ten; use numerals for numbers 11 and
above.
• In general, for technical documents such as engineering, scientific,
or economic reports, feel free to break the above rule
• Never start a sentence with a numeral.
• Don’t start a sentence with a large, written-out number.
• Spell out numbers that aren’t precise figures.
• Use figures for currency
Coherent • Use numerals for ages, years, dates, percentages, and addresses.
• Use decimals if fractions are hard to read in print.
Begin lists with the same grammatical construction.
(Parallelism)
• stay within the lines, don’t break the crayons, and colors should be
vivid.
• stay within the lines, don’t break the crayons, and choose only vivid
colors.
Constructive
emphasizes the positive,
states what you can do, not what you
can’t do,
avoids negative words such as
“unfortunately,” “sorry,” and the like,
focuses on how to improve when
delivering criticism, and
says sorry when necessary!
Correct - Grammar
Exercises
Exercises
