HBR Guide to Better Business Writing - Bryan A. Garner 2013

Be relentlessly clear
Developing your skills

Clarity can be a double-edged sword. When you’re forthright enough to take a position or recommend a course of action, you’re sticking your neck out. People who don’t want to commit make their writing muddy. Perhaps they’re trying to leave room for their views to evolve as events unfold. Or perhaps they’re hoping they can later claim credit for good results and deny responsibility for bad ones.

The fact is, though, that many readers will perceive them not as savvy wait-and-see participants but as spineless herd-followers who are slow to see (much less seize) opportunities within their reach. So clean up the mud.

Adopt the reader’s perspective

Always judge clarity from the reader’s standpoint—not your own. Try showing a draft to colleagues with fresh eyes and asking them what they think your main points are. If they can’t do that accurately, then you’re not being clear enough.

Your ideal should be to write so unmistakably that your readers can’t possibly misunderstand or misinterpret. Anything that requires undue effort from them won’t be read with full attention—and is bound to be misunderstood.

Keep your language simple

Simplicity breeds clarity. Strive to use short words and sentences. Over the years, research has confirmed again and again that the optimal average for readable sentences is no more than 20 words. You’ll need variety to hold interest—some very short sentences and some longer ones—but aim for an average of 20 words. With every sentence, ask yourself whether you can say it more briefly.

If you’re writing about technical matters for an audience of nonspecialists—for example, explaining the benefits of a software upgrade to end users or putting together an investment primer for your company’s 401(k) participants—don’t try to define each term in the sentence where it first appears. That will bulk up your sentences and make the material even harder for people to grasp. Sometimes you’ll need a new sentence or even a new paragraph to explain a term or concept in simple, straightforward English.

Show, don’t tell

You probably heard writing teachers in school say, “Show, don’t tell.” It’s excellent advice no matter what you’re writing—even business documents. The point is to be specific enough that you lead your readers to draw their own conclusions (conclusions that match yours, of course), as opposed to simply expressing your opinions without support and hoping people will buy them.

Consider these examples:

WRITE LETTERS TO SHARPEN YOUR SKILLS

Your letter writing is the best barometer of your writing skills generally. And it’s a safe way to practice—to prepare yourself for your more difficult writing tasks. Write thank-you letters, congratulatory letters, letters of recommendation (when asked), complaint letters, letters to the editor, personal notes (handwritten), and all sorts of others. If you can write good letters, you can write just about anything. (See chapter 19, “Business Letters,” for pointers on how.) That’s because they help you to focus on others. When you write a letter, you’re connecting with one particular recipient. And letters help you build goodwill with people. An e-mail message may create an impression, but it’s far less likely to be remembered than a personal letter is.

To develop the habit, try writing a few letters a week. Make many of them handwritten notes. (When you receive one in a stack of mail, isn’t that the first thing that grabs your attention?) They’re personal and, if well done, memorable and even savable. They’ll help you build and maintain relationships. Write them to tell those you supervise how much you appreciate their hard work, congratulate colleagues on promotions, motivate team members to meet goals, let new partners know you’re eager to start collaborating, and so on. To write a good one, keep it neat, try limiting it to one page, make it warm and friendly, use you more than I, and use tasteful, mature stationery.

A short, vague sentence (like “He was a bad boss”) may register in the readers’ minds—but only as a personal impression that’s potentially biased. It’s credible only if its source is highly credible. As for the long, vague sentence about OJM stock, there’s nothing for readers to hold on to, and they’ll get tired trying.

Concrete business writing is persuasive because it’s evidence-based, clear, and memorable. When you supply meaningful, objective details (explaining, for example, that the floundering company “couldn’t service the $26 million in debt”), you’re sharing information, not just your opinion that the company “lost its focus.” You earn credibility by demonstrating a command of the facts. You also give your message staying power. People don’t care about—or even remember—abstractions the way they do specifics.

So if you’re marketing your firm’s consulting services to potential clients, don’t just tell them you’ll save them money. Say how much money you’ve saved others. Don’t just promise that you’ll make their lives easier. List the time-consuming tasks you’ll take off their hands. Don’t just claim to have deep experience in the health care industry. Name names: Mention several hospitals and medical centers you’ve done work for, and include testimonials saying how happy clients are with the time and money you’ve saved them.

Recap

✵ Put yourself in the reader’s shoes to assess your clarity. Better yet, see whether a colleague can accurately summarize the main points of your draft from a quick read-through.

✵ Phrase your ideas as plainly and briefly as possible, aiming for an average sentence length of 20 or fewer words.

✵ Pave your readers’ way with concrete details. Don’t try to push them there with abstract assertions.

✵ Cultivate your letter writing to improve your writing skills more generally.