The purpose of this blog is to discuss the importance of business writing and how business writing can be used effectively in business. As a small business owner, I have come across many situations where business writing skills come into play. These include designing an effective website, client surveys, and writing letters and emails to my clients. If you are considering starting a business, or even if you are just an employee, I would highly recommend either taking a course on business writing, or buying a book on business writing. I have found Philip Kolin's book Successful Writing at Work very useful.

Every business in some way, shape, or form, has used a genre of business writing to communicate with its employees and/or customers (clients). Whether it is to break bad news, a proposal, a follow-up letter, a report, etc., these documents should all be well written and formatted correctly for more effectiveness. You may have heard plenty of times that "communication is the key in any relationship", well, this same concept goes with writing business letters. WHAT you are saying, HOW you are saying it, and WHERE you say it is very important in these letters. Let's take a bad news letter, a good news letter, and a complaint letter for example.

BAD NEWS LETTER:
In a bad news letter you want to use the indirect method of breaking the news, which means you don't want to give the recipient the bad news first in the letter. Instead you should slowly work your way up to the bad news by giving the reader something positive like benefits or solutions to the bad news. Be positive but don't be too passive.

Sample

GOOD NEWS LETTER:
Good news letters are usually a little easier to write. Who wouldn't want to hear good news?! Use the direct method of breaking the good news in these letters by stating the news in the beginning of the letter.

Sample

COMPLAINT LETTER:
A complaint letter is usually a letter to a company or business from a customer (client) about how the customer did not like a product or service. Personally, if I am really upset about a product or service my first thought is to call the company and give the person in charge a piece of my mind, and a few "not so cool" comments. However, this is not necessarily the best way to handle the situation. Take some time to calm down and collect your thoughts so you can be rational about the situation. Letters are a form of formal communication that can be used to convey your message in a professional tone. Tone plays a huge role in an effective complaint letter. Avoid name-calling, insults, threats, INTIMIDATING FONT SIZES, etc. Here are the key elements to an effective complaint letter:
  • Start with a detailed description of the product
  • State exactly what is wrong with the product
  • Describe any inconvenience you have experienced
  • State the solution or what you want done as a result of the problem
  • Ask the company or business to handle your claim promptly
Sample

Hopefully, this blog has helped you and has provided you some insight on how to write effective business letters to companies, co-workers, employees, etc. Feel free to do some of your own research on other letter formats and business writing forms. I will also cover a few tips on designing effective websites in a future blog. So stay tuned!



Anthony Clint Jr.
CEO