Concise Business Writing Needed
Business writers are buried in information: email, web searches, reports, telephone conversations, television, text messages, and news updates wash over a business person throughout the workday. And yet, overwritten, bloated business writing is epidemic. Business writers need to streamline narrative, so it is concise and lively, for readers suffering from information overload to absorb.
Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”) and is said to have called it his best work. Wired challenged authors of sci-fi, horror and fantasy literature to match this. Here are some notable responses:
- Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?
- Eileen Gunn
- Automobile warranty expires. So does engine.
- Stan Lee
- We kissed. She melted. Mop please!
- James Patrick Kelly
- It’s behind you! Hurry before it
- Rockne S. O’Bannon
- I’m your future, child. Don’t cry.
- Stephen Baxter
- Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses.
- Richard Powers
- Bang postponed. Not Big enough. Reboot.
- David Brin
- Deadline postponed. Five words enough…?
- David Brin
Business Writing Tip:
Remember these five rules from George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language:”
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Learn More in This Course: Effective Business Writing Techniques
