Improve Your Communication Skills, 2nd Edition

Writing for results 
Whenever we write a business document, we are seeking a result. 
That’s why I prefer the term ‘functional writing’ to ‘business 
writing’. Functional writing has a job to do. It has a practical 
purpose. 
Writing well starts with choosing to write. You don’t need to 
achieve your purpose by writing. Writing is slow and expensive; 
even writing an e-mail can take time. A telephone call may do the 
job more quickly. Writing is useful when: 
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Putting it in writing
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136 Improve your Communication Skills
• you want a permanent record; 
• the information is complicated; or 
• you want to copy the same material to many readers. 
It may be useful to write to someone who is never available to 
talk to, though there is no guarantee that they will read your 
message among the dozens or hundreds they receive that day. 
Writing also carries a certain authority that a conversation may 
lack. A letter may get action more easily than a phone call 
because it looks more serious or official. 
Making reading easier 
Most of the advantages of conversation disappear when we write. 
Compared to talking and listening, writing and reading are slow 
and inefficient. A document isn’t dynamic; it’s static. 
Misunderstandings can easily arise. If the reader gets something 
wrong, you aren’t there to help out. Worst of all, you can’t even be 
sure that the reader will read the document. 
Good writers try to make reading as easy as possible. Reading, 
after all, is hard work. We read on three levels: 
• working out what the writer has to say; 
• scanning sentences for complete ideas; 
• reading individual words for their meaning. 
To make reading easier, you must help the reader on all three 
levels.