| The
Readers of Business Documents
We all
know the adage "write to the reader." And we all
agree it makes perfect sense. Why then do most business writers
neglect their readers when they prepare an e-mail, a letter,
a proposal or a report?
I maintain
it is because they don’t really understand who today’s
readers are. Think about it. Would you agree today’s
readers are busy, impatient, overloaded with paper or screen
information, multi-taskers, and skim readers?
If this
is the case, then when you write you have to make it easy
for your reader (a busy skimmer) to obtain key information
easily.
One good
trick is to keep your sentences short. In letters and reports,
the average sentence length should be 18-20 words. In e-mails
and websites, keep the length to between 15 and 18 words.
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