Typewriters.
Personal secretaries knowledgeable in grammar. Shorthand.
Dictionaries on desks. Photocopiers. Fax machines. Computers.
Unit secretaries. Personal computers. Laptops. Spell checkers.
Grammar checkers. E-mails. Internet.
These
are only a few of the changes in the business world that
have had a major impact on writing styles. From the early
1920s to the 70s, a manager would dictate a letter to his
secretary who would type it and send it out. The letter
would be written in a verbose style aimed at impressing
the reader with the sender's education and literary style.
And because a third party was involved-the secretary-it
tended to be rather impersonal.
Then
in the early 80s we were hit with a recession. North American
business strategies changed and companies became leaner
and stream-lined. In turn, readers wanted their correspondence
to match. They no longer wanted to take the time to sort
through wordy, stilted messages. They didn't want irrelevant
details but were more focused on "the facts, just the
facts."
This
desire was further reinforced by the amount of paper crossing
readers' desks. Between 1982 and 1992 the reading material
of business people-letters, memos, reports, faxes-increased
600 per cent. And then came e-mails. A study by Rogen International
and Goldhaber Research Associates shows the number of received
e-mail messages again increased 600% between 1995-2001.
As
a result of this overabundance of written messages, today's
readers don't have the time to absorb convoluted messages.
They want to read a message just once and know precisely
what they should do next. Sentences such as "Kindly
execute the attached documents and return them at your earliest
convenience to the undersigned at the above address"
are no longer appropriate. They are too vague and have the
readers' eyes roving all over the page to pick up the details.
A
key idea to remember is that until the 80s business writers
were trained to write about their own interests or what
they wanted the reader to know. However, experienced communicators
in this century focus on what the reader needs to know.
Tone
This
brings us to tone or how the message is delivered. Whether
you are communicating internally with staff or externally
with customers, today's readers expect to be treated with
courtesy and in a friendly fashion.
How
can you do this? Write as though you were speaking to the
reader. Explain what you can do, rather than what you can't.
If you are listing features, include benefits. Use the active
voice. Include the reader's name. And use words that would
be used in normal conversation. For example, I doubt if
any human resources person would ever say, "A prompt
reply will expedite consideration of the student's application."
Then why write it?
Write
as though you're speaking-assuming you speak in a grammatically
correct fashion.
Grammar
Grammar
is making a come-back. In the past, many managers depended
on their secretaries to correct their spelling or punctuation
errors. However, because of down sizing, right sizing or
re-engineering personal secretaries are rare.
For
the most part, white collar workers are now expected to
use computers and input, revise and edit their own correspondence
and reports.
Surprisingly,
this hasn't meant that grammar rules are slipping. Individuals
are now paying more attention to their own correspondence.
And more and more executives are requesting grammar workshops,
reference books or software programs to keep themselves
accurate.
Computer
Software Packages
Software
packages have been a mixed blessing to business writing.
Nowadays, you can check spelling, grammar and readability
levels with your computer. However, you can't rely on them
exclusively. Documents must still be proofread manually
as well as electronically because spell checkers can't catch
words that are spelled correctly but are misused, such as
"its" versus "it's" and "deer"
instead of "dear."
In
addition, grammar packages can indicate errors, and readability
indexes can point out the ease or difficulty of the reading
level, but for most people the packages don't provide enough
information on how to solve the problem.
In
Summary
Writing
is not static. It constantly changes to match the changes
in resources, society, technology and business. Smart communicators
are the ones who recognize that keeping their language skills
on the leading edge will mean success for themselves and
their organizations.
