Improve Business Writing Skills with Tools from UpWrite Press

The Long and the Short of It

Mark Twain offers plenty of advice about the craft of writing, often couched in humor and wit. Here, for example, is one of my favorite Twainisms: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Only Twain could make such a clever statement, complete with a delightful ironic twist.

Two important points can be drawn from this statement: 1. “Short letters”—concise writing—take more time to produce than “long letters.” 2. Effective writing communicates a clear and complete message using the fewest words possible.

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Using Clear Language

Clear language sells. It’s as simple as that. Whether you’re selling a product or an idea, you want your reader to get the point quickly. Here are a few ways to ensure a clear message.

• Avoid slang. Business writing should be professional, and slang “just don’t cut it,” so cut it out. Slang is often trendy, quickly outdated, and understood by only a narrow audience.
• Use appropriate terms for the reader. Technical terms are fine when your audience is familiar with them. For a more general audience, however, either avoid technospeak or define any technical terms you do use.

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Is it e-mail, email, E-mail, E-Mail, or what?

You may have noticed that we spell the common term for electronic mail two different ways on this Web site: email and E-Mail. That’s no accident. Rather, it’s based upon the fact that we are both a print publisher and an electronic publisher.

What difference does print or Web make?
In print publishing, Webster’s dictionary is widely considered the final authority for spelling, and it insists upon e-mail, with a hyphen. Consequently, all of our print products hyphenate the term, and we retain that hyphenation in those product titles on this site. Common capitalization rules account for the uppercase E and M in those product titles.

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