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5 tips for clear and effective writing

Written by: Mark Gwilliam

Article Overview: 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, autoresponders or sales copy; your ability to be both clear and effective will determine your levels of impact on you readers.

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.

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Article Tags: active verbs, business life, business writing, conclusion, effective writing, knowing the audience, learnings, nouns, paragraphs, parentheses, quotations, several ways



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