PowerPoint Presentation

[Audio] Business Writing Technique Buan Tum. . . Business Writing Technique.

[Audio] Unsmother Your Verbs • Unsmother your verbs. Smothered verbs are so common in business writing that they feel correct when you use them. However, a smothered verb adds nothing, but bloat and the tone feels both timid and boring to a reader. • Focus on verbs. They are the action of a sentence, and the best opportunity to enhance clarity. • Imagine watching a Bruce Willis movie that shows Bruce napping or knitting or whittling on a park bench for 90 minutes... Bored yet? So too are readers if your writing has little action or wimpy verbs..

[Audio] Avoid Adverbs Choose powerful verbs that connote meaning, which don't need a second modifying word to do their job! For instance: "The attendant shouted loudly." "The attendant shouted," is a perfect sentence. "Loudly" is inferred and extraneous..

[Audio] Recognize the Power of Short Words. • Business writers felt they conveyed their intelligence more by dropping long words, when short words actually worked better. Rhetorically, this has never been good writing. • Long words don't make you sound intelligent unless used very skillfully and judiciously. In the wrong situation they'll have the opposite effect, making you sound pretentious and arrogant. They're also less likely to be understood and more awkward to read..

[Audio] • Example: • Fine, but can be improved: • It has never been a good writing practice to use big words indiscriminately. • Better: • It has never been a good writing practice to use big words needlessly. ("Needlessly" is shorter and simpler than "indiscriminately.") • Best: • It has never been a good writing practice to bloat with big words. (More powerful verb " bloat" instead of vague verb " use" eliminates the need for modifying adverb "needlessly.") • Remember this maxim: Write to express, not to impress. Good business writers use short words well..