Once a business letter or email has been sent with a grammatical or spelling mistake in it, there is no going back.
A web page or brochure containing grammatical or spelling mistakes will make your small business look like a bunch of incompetent amateurs.
To compete with larger companies, us smaller businesses need to work harder at getting the details right and this is never truer than with our written English.
Good written English shows other people that you value and respect them. It also avoids confusion, misunderstandings and potential conflicts.
With that in mind, this article contains lots of tips to help you write better English for business and communicate in a professional, consistent and effective way.
Avoid Jargon
Keep your language clear and simple and avoid jargon, industry buzzwords or ‘management speak’, which is a sure way to alienate, confuse and irritate your reader.
Wherever possible avoid pretentious vocabulary and convoluted phrasing which the reader may not understand and which has vague meaning. Typical examples include spectrum, leverage, synergy, value-added.
Paragraphs
Inserting one line space between paragraphs makes them easier to read and digest.
Alignment
Always try to left justify your main body text. Full justification often makes reading difficult and creates poor word spacing.
Acronyms
These are words or abbreviations formed from the initials of several words like: CDROM, DVD, PPC, SERP’s and ASBO. Always spell out the name in full the first time you mention it and put the acronym in brackets. If you do have to refer to the name again, you can use the acronym. e.g. Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s).
Proof Your Work
More than 60% of business emails and correspondence are sent with grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes. Always proof, spell-check and read through your document before posting or emailing; better still, get someone else to read it because they are more likely to spot your mistakes than you are.
Avoid common spelling mistakes by using a dictionary. It never ceases to amaze me how many people write “independant” when the correct spelling is “independent”. A really good Oxford English Reference Dictionary will only cost a few pounds and be well worth the investment. Oh and don’t skimp by buying a pocket dictionary; if you’re really serious about your business get a big, heavy reference dictionary: they are definitely worth the extra money.
Use UK Spelling
Regardless of the location of your audience, if your business is British your written materials should follow UK English spelling. For more on this read Set the Language to English.
Examples:
- Colour, not color
- Programme, not program
- Specialise, not specialize
- Focused, not focussed
Punctuation
Keep it simple and avoid writing complex sentences. Two short sentences are better than a long sentence with lots of commas.
Full Stops
Full stops are not necessary at the ends of lines of information such as bullet points (which are not sentences) or address lines.
Don’t include full stops in common abbreviations such as UK, plc and MD.
Semicolons
These are used to include two or more closely related ideas in the same sentence. A stronger break than a comma is suggested to the reader, but weaker than a full stop. Semicolons also separate items in lists or two separate thoughts in a sentence.
Colons
Use a colon to introduce a list, before a quotation or statement or, between two segments of a sentence where the latter part of the sentence explains the former.
Quotation Marks, Brackets and Full Stops
Double quotation marks enclose a direct quotation — that is, a repetition of someone’s exact words. For example, Thomas Edison declared “Genius is one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration.”
Use single quotation marks inside quoted speech or to distance yourself from a word or phrase or, to show that you are using it ironically: The prime minister said: “Describing the unemployment figures as `disappointing’ is an insult to the British people.”
Inside a quotation, use a suspension (…) to mark omitted material and square brackets to mark inserted material.
A full stop is normally placed inside quotation marks but outside brackets when it is within quoted text: “I’m delighted with the new facility.” And, “Profits declined (despite increased sales).” However, if the quotation is part of another statement, the full stop goes outside the quote marks: “The project manager said: “They’re coming”.
If the parenthesis is a complete sentence, the full stop stays inside the brackets: There was a business meeting in Coventry. (Another one took place in Northampton last week.)
Apostrophes
Are used to denote possession or a missing letter or letters:
- Can’t instead of cannot
- The company’s (singular); the companies’ (plural – if more than one company)
Capital Letters
Should only be used at the beginning of a sentence or for a proper noun such as names, places, months of the year. However this is not always the case with titles and headlines used in web pages, blog articles and other documents designed to create impact such as sales brochures and newspaper articles. For more on this read Capital Punishment for Small Businesses.
Job Titles
Using a capital for the first letter or Capitalising job titles is increasingly perceived as not only ‘old-fashioned’ but also ‘elitist’, suggesting a hierarchical company culture and tiered management structure. As a rule of thumb, stick to lower case titles in your body copy and upper case when you are signing off e.g. titles should be in upper case if you are signing-off a letter or, if it is a salutation. For example: Yours sincerely, John Smith, Managing Director or, Dear Sir / Madam. However, titles are always lower case when talking about a job title in a sentence for example: John Smith is the regional sales manager; our managing director passes on his regards; contact your local safety advisor.
Currency
Should first be referred to by currency type, followed by the amount. Figures should also be correctly punctuated. For example: £2 million, £2,250 was donated to…
Ampersands (&)
Should only be used when it is part of the name of a company, or in charts and tables. In general correspondence always write ‘and’ in full.
Italics
Should be avoided wherever possible because they are often much harder to read for anyone who is dyslexic or visually impaired.
Captions
A caption at the end of a photograph should not have a full stop unless it is a proper sentence.
Numbers
- Spell out numbers between one and nine and use figures for 10 and above
- Use commas, not spaces when numbers exceed 999. Eg: 55,000; 130,000; 1,234
- Mathematical units should be written out in full in body copy to avoid confusion, eg: 10 metres, 14 miles, one metre, 17 degrees
- At the start of a sentence, write all numbers in full
- When writing the time, write 1am, 6:30pm, etc; 10 o’clock last night, but 10pm yesterday; half past two, a quarter to three, etc. For 24-hour clock, 00:47, 23:59
Email Etiquette
- Email should be written without a hyphen.
- Never write in BLOCK CAPITALS, it’s considered to be SHOUTING and rude.
- Do not forget to include a subject line to your email, otherwise it might get sent to the junk email folder.
- Think before you email. Some communications are best dealt with in person or over the telephone, especially those of a sensitive or potentially confrontational nature.
- Do not mark emails as ‘urgent’ if they are not.
- Think about how you address someone by email. Some people are sensitive about being addressed by their first name if they don’t know you. When in doubt, use Dear Mr, Mrs, Ms (if appropriate) rather than ‘Hi’.
- Do not underline. In any web based communication; underlining signifies a hyperlink.
- Do not send large files (above 10Mb) as email attachments. Instead, send a link to Where the recipient can download the file. Alternatively, compress or PDF your attachments.
- Spell-check and read your message before sending to make sure you come across as respectful, friendly and approachable
- Treat email confidentially. Make sure the message is relevant and does not criticise or insult the recipient.
- Always include your name, title and your contact details at the end of your message. Always use email signatures.
Letter Etiquette
A business letter has five main parts:
- The Heading
- The Date
- The Opening
- The Body
- The Closing
The Heading
This is your business address, it should be located in the top right-hand corner.
The Date
The date is very important, since it can be useful in determining priorities, for filing and it also can have legal ramifications. In a typed address letter, the date goes immediately under your address. In a letterhead letter, the date can go on the left-hand side, or the right-hand side, immediately under the letterhead.
The suburb name is written in capitals with no punctuation in the address. The method of writing the date shown here is the easiest and least likely to lead to confusion. It looks neat and is clear and concise.
Always write the name of the month:
11-03-10 should be written as 11 March 2010 or 11th March 2010.
The Opening
This is the:
- ‘Dear’ Name (if you don’t know the person, ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ )
- Title (if any Manager etc.)
- Address of the person to whom you are writing and the greeting or salutation.
This information always goes on the left-hand side of the page, starting one line lower than your business name and address and the date.
The Body
When writing a business letter, you must be sure that no part of your letter will be misunderstood so don’t use ‘jargon’. This is why the language you use should be simple. There are no prizes for using the biggest words in a business letter; especially if your reader is not familiar with the words and has to waste time finding out what you mean. Time is money, so you need to ensure that you make your point as quickly as possible. Like any other piece of writing a business letter should have a beginning, a middle and an end. It doesn’t matter how short a letter is, the important thing is to communicate your message effectively. Don’t feel you have to ‘fill up’ the page to make it look ‘balanced’.
The Closing
This includes the final words to your reader – the part which tells them what action will follow or thanks them for any help given. It also includes the ‘signing off’ and name of the writer.
It is customary to sign off, ‘Yours faithfully‘ if it is a formal business letter or if you don’t know the name of the person; you sign ‘Yours sincerely‘ when you do know the name of the person.
It is acceptable to use less formal closings – ‘Kind regards‘, ‘Regards‘ or ‘Best wishes’ – if the whole tone of your letter has been the same, but don’t end a very formal letter in this way.
Your closing signature should be placed on the left-hand side of the letter with your business title underneath.
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