5 tips for clear and effective writing

Here are 5 tips for clear and effective writing:

Catch the Reader's Attention When you are writing you should start with a short sentence that is designed to captivate your reader’s attention. The goal of the introduction is to make your reader interested in what you have to say.

You will want to identify the bigger picture of your writing by explaining why your topic is important and how it applies to your reader’s personal or business life. You will also be able to catch your reader’s attention by knowing the audience; who they are, what their needs are and what would they be hoping to learn or gain by reading your text.

Use Strong Verbs Verbs describe action and readers pay attention to action. Use active verbs instead of static verbs, avoid turning verbs into nouns and beware of using technical terms that you reader may not understand.

Clear descriptions are powerful when communicating a message in a way that is interesting and easy to follow for your reader.

Keep Your Writing Simple If your writing is not simple, you may lose your reader’s attention. Be sure to construct simple messages, avoid parentheses, strive for simple paragraphs and have a clear and organised path for your reader to follow.

An organised writing structure with well organised thoughts is crucial to use when planning your business writing.

Keep Your Readers Involved There are several ways to keep your readers involved while they are reading your writing such as providing specific examples, using stories to paint pictures in the minds of the reader and using effective quotations when appropriate.

Use an Effective Closing When you are concluding your written content, it is important to summarise your thoughts and to include a clear call to action for the reader to follow. Be brief in your conclusion and be sure to end by emphasising your thoughts and what the reader’s learnings or calls to action should be.

You will need to learn how to be effective in all forms of written communication in business.

To learn about how to use clear and effective writing when drafting an email, read my article called “3 Incredibly Simple But Outrageously Powerful Keys to Guaranteeing your Email Messages are read”.

Emails can be used for business communication, general communication and sales messages as an autoresponder.



5 tips for clear and effective writing - To learn more about this author, visit Mark Gwilliam's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends

E-Mail | Print | More

Related Articles
5 tips for clear and effective writing
	Writing is one of the most important skills that a business owner can possess. Whether you are looking to write business letters, emails, blog postings, forum posts, articles, newsletters, eBooks, eZine, autores...
Networking Tips from the Networkers Networker
	One of the best compliments related to networking that I ever received was when a highly respected chief executive introduced me to speak as “The Networkers' Networker.” Networking is a very powerful marketing tool...
Smart Written Communications Tips - Part One
	Here are a range of tips – identified as important by some published authors – and how they can be adapted to produce effective written business communications…
Business Coaching Tips For Effective Supervision From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
	In today’s workplace there are daily examples of dysfunctional and ineffective supervision. Many people in supervisory roles have not been given the necessary training to be effective supervisors. Here are ten (10...
Effective Business Communication Tips
	Do you consider yourself to be an effective business communicator? Have you honed your skills when communicating via E-mail and voice-mail messaging, in addition to the more traditional formal business writings? C...

---

Related Forum Posts
	Try writing to a friend
	Write better Business Letters
	Re: Second attempts at entrepreneurship
	Re: Best Pen - maybe
	Blogging
	Re: Writing Tips
	The Challenges of Delegating
	Re: Setting Up your Advisory Board - Steps 7