Blog: 6 Steps To Develop Your Business Writing Skills

6 Steps To Develop Your Business Writing Skills

By Daniela McVicker

Photo Credit: Needpix.com

​Writing is such a broad term. It's one thing to write due to a flash of creativity, and completely different to write an academic essay for college. The purpose of the written content determines its structure, style, vocabulary, and other elements. That's why you need to know the right steps to improve specific writing skills.

When it comes to business writing, the situation is no different. There are steps you need to take and skills you need to master to become a great writer in the domain of business. If you’re curious to learn more, make sure you continue reading.

Here are 6 steps you can take to develop your business writing skills:

1. Expanding The Vocabulary

It's a long way from a beginner to advanced business writing skills. That means that everyone's got to start somewhere and vocabulary is a great starting point.

Therefore, it’s best that you start acquiring business writing skills by expanding your vocabulary and making sure you know all the right terminology.

You can do this by:

• reading glossaries of technical terms
• reading credible magazines 
• keeping up with news and happenings in your domain of business
• keeping notes about the terms you’re struggling with

Keep your eyes wide open and try acquiring as much vocabulary as you can.

This will ensure your business writing skills have a solid ground that you can continue building on.

2. Brushing Up On Grammar

Even though we've all paid close attention to English lessons, it often happens that mistakes creep up to us and take us by surprise.

If you want to be taken seriously by your business partners or colleagues, you need to ensure your writing is impeccable in terms of grammar.

Practice and brush up on your grammar skills by:

• writing as much as you can
• proofreading everything you write

In case you need help with proofreading, you can take a look at some of the best websites which offer such services.

Learn from your mistakes and don’t let them happen again.

3. Be Concise

Business writing is no place for being poetic or adding too many ‘decorative' words/phrases.
The best way to practice this skill is to simply ask yourself:

Does this add any value to what I’ve just written?

If the answer is no, just delete the word or phrase in question and move on. Keep doing this until you clean the entire draft from all unnecessary words.

This typically includes words like:

• definitely
• quite
• basically

and other similar words.

In addition, try simplifying the structure of your sentences like in the following example:

• It’s highly necessary that we discuss this further.
• We need to discuss this.

This way, your audience will be able to follow your written ideas and understand them easily. When you’re able to share your ideas concisely, your audience will have a clear interpretation of what you have in mind.  

4. Back Up Your Words

In the business world, facts are much more important than opinions. Your opinion matters, but it needs to have solid grounds and be backed up by facts.

Instead of stating what you think or how you feel about a certain matter, try presenting it as the status quo.

It’s the current state of affairs.

To achieve this effect, make sure you use:

• numbers
• data analysis
• experts’ opinions
• credible references

Show your readers that you know what you’re talking about and it’s more than your personal opinion. This will add weight to what you’re writing and help you achieve your goals.

5. Drafts and Editing

Business writing needs to be close to perfect and nothing makes perfect better than rewriting.

The one thing you need to avoid doing is writing a single draft of your written content and saying it’s finished.

Instead, you need to edit and rewrite over and over again until you’re completely satisfied with the result.

The best way to do it is to:

• brainstorm for ideas
• write the first draft without interruption
• make a break
• get back to it and make the necessary changes

This process will help you see your own mistakes and identify the weak points of each copy.

If you need help realizing your weakest skills, try sending your copy to one of the best writing websites and let them help you out.

6. Introduction and Conclusion

Finally, you need to make one more step to ensure the copy you’re about to send or publish is the winning one.

You need to be direct in the most important parts of your business written copy:

• the introduction
• the conclusion

The person reading what you’ve written needs to learn the following in the first couple of introductory sentences:

• What will they learn?
• Why should they read it?

Be direct and state what you plan to elaborate on.

Then, make sure to repeat the point you’ve come to once you get to the conclusion:

• What did they learn?

This will reassure your audience to trust you more and you’ll come across as a credible professional.

Final Thoughts

Business writing skills require a lot of practice and dedication. However, they also require you have the right guidelines.

Make sure to follow the steps above and improve your business writing skills.  Focus on what matters, avoid common mistakes, and work on your weaknesses.