Editor's Note | Introduction | Benefits of Working on your Business Writing Skills 
Ways to Develop your Business Writing Skills
Business Writing Mistakes to Keep in Mind | In Summary

Business Writing Mistakes to Keep in Mind

We've taken a close look at how you can develop better, more competent business writing as a project manager. Avoiding common writing mistakes is an important part of learning how to do something better, business writing included. Here's what you should not do in your writing to be a better project manager or business writer overall:

1. Being overly casual in your business writing

Odds are that you'll become familiar with your team over time. Working with the same stakeholders for some time will lead to you bonding over work-related topics and becoming more relaxed as a team. This doesn't mean you should neglect the basic principles of business writing and revert to a more casual writing approach. Always write your business correspondence as if a neutral third party would someday read it. Don't write casually, and maintain a sense of professionalism and objectivity throughout your business writing.

2 . Being vague and wordy at the same time

Business writing isn't about how much you can say without saying anything — it's about being direct and informative. Many project managers fall into the trap of adopting flowery language filled with niche abbreviations without focusing on what matters most. Your team, clients, and other stakeholders want clear instructions, reports, and requests from you. They don't want to sift through and discern what exactly you wanted to say in your several paragraphs-long emails. Instead, keep your copy short, on-point, and focused on a single outcome you're aiming for.

3. Not editing your writing before sending it

We can often get carried away when writing emails or digital documents. This is why editing is a great way to amend any unnecessary sentences you might have written. Editing your business writing is a good way to keep things professional and to keep your texts free of any "train of thought" sentences you wrote by accident. Again, this goes back to keeping your texts focused rather than disjointed and unclear. Assume that someone with no prior knowledge of who you are or how you write has to read your business writing — will they understand you?

If not, edit, reformat and read your copy again until you've cleaned it up to a satisfyng level.

Ways to Develop your Business Writing Skills

In Summary

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