http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/despite-email-business-letter-writing-is-still-critically-important.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/despite-email-business-letter-writing-is-still-critically-important.html Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:10:08 -0500
But it has not happened.

In fact, business letter writing is as important today as ever. Email is handy. But when something is really important, it is written as a letter.

In addition, the postal service reports that advertising letters are as strong as they have ever been.

But the arrival of the internet and the prolific use of email has had an impact on business letter writing:

• In the fast paced world of the 21st century, business letter writing has to be briefer and more concise than most other types of writing.

• In business, writers have to be conscious of the fact that a business letter, may only gain the reader's attention for a few seconds. If you only have a few seconds, you cannot afford to waste time building an edifice. You have to be hard hitting with the critical facts from the very first line.

• For business letter writing, the challenge is to get to the point as quickly as possible. The more punchy the text, the better.

For people who are new to business letter writing, the main pillars to be aware of include the following three points.

At the outset, you need to clearly establish what you want to achieve from the letter. You may be launching a new product and advising a good customer, trying to recruit a potential employee, apologising for a company mistake or any number of other possible things. Whatever it is, be clear and set your specific objective for the letter.

The next thing to do, before you begin writing, is to make sure you have the relevant accurate facts available. For a late payer, for example, gathering the facts might include relevant invoices, complaint forms, talks with your sales department, and any previous correspondence from the customer.

Write in the language of your recipient. Try to put yourself in the position of the recipient. Read it from his/her point of view. Is the letter clear or open to misinterpretation? If you know the recipient, use this knowledge to phrase the letter to generate your desired response.

The way to get good at business letter writing, is to practice. But if you don't have the time to practice, or you don't get called on to write sufficiently often, then a practical solution may be to engage a professional business writer. And the good news is that an excellent business writer will guarantee his or her work.


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Action Words is premium business letter writing company in Melbourne. Action words not only offers business writing and letter writing, but also business writing courses and SEO copy. Written and distributed by Shout search engine optimisation.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/understanding-your-telecom-bill.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/understanding-your-telecom-bill.html Sat, 05 Sep 2009 19:47:39 -0500
The FCC requires telephone companies to provide you with clear, plain language in their invoices when they describe their services. However, even then, you may not understand what you are being charged for.

Here is a list of terminology associated with your business telephone bill, your wireless bills, or both.

Access Charge: fees charged by a local phone company for the use of its local network.

Airtime Charges: These are per-minute charges for the time you spend talking on your wireless telephone. Some wireless providers will round fractions of minutes to the next highest one, two, or three minutes.

Billing Increments: A call duration measurement unit expressed in seconds or minutes. Depending on your service provider, some services are measured and billed in sixty-second increments and some may be in durations of six or even ten seconds. For example, if you have one minute billing increments, any call less than 1 minute will be billed as 1 minute.

BTN (Billing Telephone Number): Your main billing telephone number.

Cramming: When a charge is placed on your phone bill that you didn't order or authorize.

Detailed Billing: This service provides detailed information such as date, time, duration, type of call (incoming or outgoing), number called, or calling party, for each call.

Direct Dialing: When a customer is pre-subscribed with a long distance company and makes a call using 1+ the area code (or country code) and the telephone number, without operator assistance or using a dial-around number.

Directory Assistance: Charges for dialing 411 or (area code) 555-1212 for directory assistance calls.

Domestic Call: Any call that originates and terminates within the United States.

Downloading Fees: Fees charged for downloading options offered by your wireless service provider, such as ring tones. If your plan includes Internet access, these are fees for downloading data from the Internet.

E911 Charges: These are Enhanced 911 or E911 service. This lets your wireless telephone automatically transmit your geographic position to emergency responders when you dial 911. Your provider is charged for this and may choose to pass their costs on to you.

Features Charges: Both wireline and wireless telephone companies offer features such as call forwarding, call waiting, voice mail, three-way calling, and caller identification. These services may show up as separate charges on your bill.

FCC (Federal Communications Commission): The United States government agency that regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. Established by the Communications Act of 1934, the FCC's jurisdiction includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.

Federal Excise Tax: A three percent tax applied only to local service that is billed separately from long distance service. In 2006, the IRS stopped enforcing the toll portion of the tax. The tax still applies to customers who only subscribe to local phone service. Earlier this year H.R 3011 was introduced (Telephone Excise Tax Repeal Act of 2009) to repeal the federal excise tax on communications services.

Interstate Calls: Calls that start in one state and end in another state.

Intrastate Calls: Calls that start and end within the same state.

LDU: Long Distance Usage is the amount of long distance a customer uses.

Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) Billing: When a customer receives their invoice directly from their Local Exchange Carrier (your local phone company).

Local Number Portability (LNP): This allows customers to retain their existing local telephone numbers when switching from one telephone service provider to another. Companies may pass on to customers the fees they are charged. These are fees and not taxes.

Minimum Minute Charge: Some calling plans will have a minimum number of minutes that they bill for a call length. A 10-minute minimum charge would mean that even if you talk less than 10 minutes on a call, you would still be billed for a 10-minute call.

Minimum Monthly Charge: Some long distance calling plans have a minimum monthly charge. This means that if your plan has a $50 monthly minimum, your monthly bill will always be at least $50 even if you have a month where you have only made $25 in calls.

Minimum Usage Charge: A calling plan where you would pay a small fee if your monthly long distance usage is under a certain amount. This is different from a minimum monthly fee.

Monthly Calling Plan Charge: Charges applicable to any monthly calling plan. For example, unlimited long distance calling on your wireline bill or unlimited minutes on your wireless bill.

Operator Assisted Calls: These are charges for any calls that are connected by an operator. Usually, it is more expensive to have an operator help you with a call.

Roaming Charges: Roaming charges require you to pay for using your wireless telephone outside of the "home" service area as defined by your service provider in your service plan or contract. Usually the charges are higher when roaming. In addition to roaming charges, there might be a daily access fee.

SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module): Also known as a "smart card," this is the physical card in a mobile telephone that contains all necessary information for uniquely identifying a subscriber.

Single Bill Fee: This is a fee that the carrier can charge for combining your local and long distance charges onto one bill. This fee is not an FCC charge and some companies waive it.

SLA (Service Level Agreement): Documentation or a contract that details service quality commitments between a carrier and the subscriber.

Slamming: The unauthorized conversion of a customer's long distance phone service from their current carrier to a new long distance carrier. Slamming is illegal.

State & Local Taxes: Taxes that are imposed by state, local, and municipal governments.

Toll Call: Any call, subject to charge, to a destination outside of the local service area of the calling station.

Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS): This is a charge that pays for the relay center to transmit and translate calls for people with hearing or speech disabilities.

Text Messaging: This service allows sending of short messages, usually less than one hundred characters in length. This will either be a flat monthly fee or a per-message fee.

Universal Service Fund (USF): This is a charge on some long distance services to offset a carrier's mandatory payment into the Federal Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes rural, low income, and health and education telecommunications customers. The FCC sets the USF rate every three months. It applies only to state-to-state and international phone calls. The FCC doesn't require this charge to be passed on to customers, and each carrier decides if and how to recover its Universal Service costs. If this line item appears on your bill, it means the carrier has chosen to pass their charges onto you.

You should check your phone bill every month and make an effort to understand the meaning of each item to make sure that you're paying the proper rates for your contract. If you make any changes to your lines, make sure they apply the right charges to the change. If you see something that you don't understand, ask your provider to explain the charge. If you have a Telecom Expense Management company working for you, they can explain the charges as well as make sure you're not billed for something you're not using.

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Nermine Shaker has generated millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Partner at The Sygnal Group of Abilita, a telecom consulting firm that offers telecom expense management, telecom auditing and VoIP management to businesses of all sizes. Find out how to lower your telecom expenses at http://www.SygnalGroup.com or visit our blog at http://www.TelecomExpertise.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/telecom-expense-management-spotting-telecom-billing-errors.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/telecom-expense-management-spotting-telecom-billing-errors.html Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:13:46 -0500
Telecom Expense Management, or TEM, involves the constant monitoring of telecom expenses that accrue monthly. The goal of TEM is to ensure that invoices match agreed upon contract rates and tariffs, and to optimize the services offered by the telecom provider with the needs of the individual business. Effective TEM is an essential accounting task that must be conducted by companies and firms working in virtually all industries.

Billing errors lead businesses to overpay for the services rendered by the telecom provider. These errors can waste money on services that were neither asked for nor used and will significantly eat into profit margins over time. Billing errors can range from honest mistakes made by the telecom provider, to more insidious and deceptive practices that rely on a business's preoccupation with other matters to sneak changes into the billing terms.

Here are some errors that have been known to occur.

1. Simple Human or Computer Miscalculations

A common error is one in which either a computer or human miscalculation leads to an incorrect total on a billing invoice. The miscalculation may only affect the amount charged for a single telephone call, or it might be one that substantially alters all the monthly charges. These miscalculations can be fixed by bringing them to the attention of the telecom provider.

2. Duplicate Bills

Large telecom providers are susceptible to the same issues that negatively affect any other bureaucracy. With multiple agents handling the same account, confusion and mistakes are likely to eventually occur. If an account is not properly flagged as being billed, or communication between employees is poor, duplicate bills can accidentally be sent to clients. And unless your company is vigilant in detecting duplicate billing, you might be overpaying. Once again, this error can be fixed by bringing it to the attention of the provider.

3. Incorrect Contracted Rates

The agreed upon terms between the business client and the telecom provider may not always be honored. Due to miscommunication between the client and provider or sloppy account management, the rate assigned to the business may differ from the contracted deal that was negotiated when the telecom services were first acquired. This error - especially if the difference is relatively minor - can continue unbeknownst to the client for months at a time. Keen and meticulous oversight of billing statements is needed to spot this error.

4. Unnecessary Surcharges

Surcharges on services that should be included in the contracted plan are sometimes added to an account without the client's knowledge. Surcharges related to limits on data transfer, available phone lines or long distance use could be tacked onto the monthly bill. These additional fees unreasonably inflate communication costs, and unfairly penalize the client for using services to which he should already be entitled. Knowing what's in your contract is important here and keeping on guard for any additional fees.

5. Cramming, Slamming and Modem Hijacking

The most unethical of billing errors is the intentional altering of the agreed upon terms between the client and provider. 'Cramming', as it is commonly called, involves additional fees that are unrelated to any actual use or services. The provider will select and choose additional 'phantom' services and amend them to the original contract. They may be labeled as a 'Membership Fee' or 'ISP Service Fee', but are in fact nothing more than boldfaced attempts to slyly bilk more money from clients. Occasionally the terms of the original contract are ambiguous and reserve the provider's right to increase or otherwise manipulate future rates and options. A client must take charge and directly confront telecom providers that engage in this practice. They should ask their provider why they were charged those specific fees and attempt to have them removed.

"Slamming" is the practice of switching a telephone customer's long-distance service provider to another carrier without the customer's permission. In recent years, this practice has lessened because customers now have to go through a series of verifications to change their long distance service.

"Modem hijacking" is a variation on cramming. It occurs when software, usually delivered through a pop-up ad, is downloaded onto a business computer over the Internet. It then uses dialing software to reroute the computer modem to dial long-distance numbers. The fees charged for this can be ridiculously high.



6. Unreimbursed Refunds or Credits

Another error involves a late or absent refund or discount from a telecom provider. This occurs when billing errors have been brought to the attention of the provider, but the expected refund is not given. A special rate or discount reserved for business clients may likewise not be actualized. These delays and errors can be frustrating, increasing the animosity between client and provider.

The wide range of errors that can effect your bottom line, and the subsequent monitoring that preventing them entails, is a time and resource drain that is sometimes best managed by professionals who have the industry experience to know both the needs and demands that business clients have. Though it is possible for some small clients to adequately manage their telecom expenses on their own, for most the task is demanding. Effective TEM should not be relegated to beleaguered employees already busy with other daily obligations. Using experienced experts provides the peace of mind to focus on the more important task of successfully managing your business.

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Nermine Shaker has generated millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Partner at The Sygnal Group, a telecom consulting firm that offers telecom expense management, telecom auditing and VoIP management to businesses of all sizes. Find out how to lower your telecom expenses at http://www.SygnalGroup.com or visit our blog at http://www.TelecomExpertise.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/reverse-cell-phone-number-look-up-a%80-do-the-shopping-first.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/reverse-cell-phone-number-look-up-a%80-do-the-shopping-first.html Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:43:30 -0500
Those who managed to find legitimate sites have used the search facility for many purposes. Users, who have the cell phone number, but not the name of the owner, have found the search useful. There are also those who countercheck the identity of the number's owner before attempting to make a call. Suspicious husbands and wives can check on their spouse's fidelity. Parents too can find out who the companions of their children are.

There are more reasons that one, but as a whole it all boils down to search the owner of that cell phone number. This time you have to throw away the idea of finding a free reverse number search because there isn't any as of now. The truth is that you have to pay for the useful information that you need.

Websites differ in the manner in which they charge fees. There are those that collect a one-time fee and entitle you for unlimited searches for a period of time; others charge by pay-per-search.

You might ask what level of information a reverse cell phone number search gives. Basic search results are the name and the address of the owner. The more valuable information can be attained from advanced searches. These are background checks, public records, marriages, divorces, sex offender records, police records, and much more.

You do not need advanced internet knowledge to do the search. It is as simple as entering the cell phone number in the search box and hitting the "start" or "search" button. The confidentiality of your search is safeguarded by the provider. No one would know that you searched on any number.

It is advised that before you settle on one website, you do shopping first. There are many sites that charge affordable fees, but it is an advantage choosing the one that has access to millions and millions of data especially cell phone numbers from across the country.

Finally, give high preference on a website that offers updated and accurate information. This is important because it is useless to pay for information that is already a thing of the past. If you can find one of these kinds, your reverse cell phone number look up will be a rewarding experience.

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Start your reverse phone number lookup immediately to discover everything you need. Also, read another of his popular article on reverse cell phone lookup.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/cheap-reverse-cell-phone-search-a%80-how-to-find-one.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/cheap-reverse-cell-phone-search-a%80-how-to-find-one.html Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:15:18 -0500
Doing a reverse cell pone search is available 24/17 and practically comes for free. It would be hard to believe that this huge task of compiling database of cell phone numbers, page numbers and other information would only be given away by the service provider for free.

Considering the tremendous work of compiling a host of information, reverse cell phone search cannot be totally given without a cost. The free reverse cell phone search would only lead you to a very limited amount of data such as in which state and city the cell phone belongs. To get more useful information, lookup sites would ask you to pay for that search.

The available cell phone number lookups offer basically two kinds of services. There are those that offer a pay-per-search basis, and those that will request you to pay only if your search turns positive. Your choice between the two would need your wise direction. As it is, the first type is less secure and would leave you open to scammers. The second one may not be cheap at all if you would need to know more information.

A cell phone reverse search service can provide details on the owner's identity. These are the basic data like name, address, provider, status of provider, previous address, relatives and martial status. More important details like criminal records, business profile and background checks may also be available for another fee.

The need to find the identity of the owner behind the numbers has grown out of people's need. Spouses who doubt about their partner's fidelity can use this service to know the identity of the suspicious number that has established a pattern in their spouse's call list.

Even parents can also check up on their kids' activities without entirely violating their privacy. Parents will find out what kind of group their children are going with. These and other areas in life can be resolved by using a reverse cell phone lookup.

Whichever purpose you would like to use the service, the bottom-line is that you should be careful when choosing the provider. In the end, you will see that it is not totally free. Find one that is legitimate and scam-free, one that really offers cheap reverse cell phone search.

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Start your reverse phone number lookup immediately to discover everything you need. Also, read another of his popular article on reverse cell phone lookup.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/business-writing-course-adds-efficiency-and-effectiveness.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/business-writing-course-adds-efficiency-and-effectiveness.html Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:28:32 -0500
Such investment is not surprising, because staff represent the company. Your customers and all your stakeholders mostly judge your company on the performance of your staff.

Common training programs include presentation skills, sales skills, time management, finance for non financial people … and the list goes on. But most businesses forget about writing.

It is not often that you hear of a business writing course. Yet writing is done every day and is a fundamental form of presentation in most businesses. Plus, when they sit down to write, many people in business suffer from mental blocks, many have trouble organising their thoughts and others just hate writing.

The reality is that the professional image of your organisation is profoundly affected by the way your people write. That's why a business writing course is so important.

After attending a business writing course, most people can significantly improve their writing very quickly.

There are three major areas that any worthwhile business writing course must address.

• Sentence length - shorter sentences are clearer;
• Varying sentence length - your writing is immediately more interesting if the length of sentences varies;
• Simpler words - you communicate better when you use them.

These things do not come naturally to many people. In addition, today we suffer a major problem relating to clutter. There is generally too much information in most business documents, and writers tend to load their sentences with unnecessary words and complex thoughts.

Within a properly constructed one-day business writing course, attendees should be able to come to terms with all the generally accepted practices in business writing. These include:

• Writing concisely;
• Using bullets and headings;
• Employing plenty of short sentences;
• Keeping paragraphs brief; and
• Getting to the point quickly.

A credible business writing course will provide valuable check lists that attendees can use long into the future. For example, a check list for ensuring that writing is focused and in a logical order, such as:

• Is my writing in a logical and effective order?
• Does it follow a sequence that makes sense to my audience?
• Do my ideas relate to one another?
• Is the document focused or does it include unnecessary information?

Then there are reminder questions for ensuring that you use simple words and expressions, such as:

• Are there expressions in the text that some readers may misunderstand?
• Are there any unnecessary long or unfamiliar words?
• Does the text contain clichés, buzz words, trendy phrases, acronyms or jargon?
• Are abbreviations spelt out in full where they appear for the first time?

Your ability to communicate successfully in writing is fundamental to business efficiency and effectiveness.

A business writing course emphasises the importance of the target audience when planning, writing and designing various business documents. Attendees are made aware of essential business writing techniques and given the chance to practice with the help of a qualified trainer.

As with all training, investing in a business writing course is a long term investment in your own future or the future of your team. It can pay rich dividends over the longer term.


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Action Words is premium business writing company in Melbourne. Action words not only offers business writing and letter writing, but also business writing courses and SEO copy.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/copywriting-pillars-to-watch-for.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/copywriting-pillars-to-watch-for.html Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:14:15 -0500
Essentially, brevity means saying things in the most economical way. A good copywriter does not give the reader anything he or she does not need.

Writing is like a good watch. You can be quite certain that a good watch does not have extra bits just for show. Every piece inside the watch is doing a job. Well, so it should be with copywriting. It should function smoothly, with no extra parts getting in the way.

Generally in writing, short is better than long. Short words are better than long words. Short sentences are better than long sentences. Short paragraphs are better than long paragraphs.

And why is this so? Quite simply, because readers comprehend more when you keep things brief.
Possibly more than anything else, copywriters are engaged to write business letters. A key pillar here is to focus on creating an effective heading.

For the completed copy writing to connect with the audience, sometimes the solution is to use a provocative quote in the headline. To gain attention, the quote should contain news, a startling statistic or something outrageous.

The quote must be like the lead of a quality news story - it must raise a question or arouse curiosity to make the reader want to read the body of the letter to find out more.

No matter how experienced the copywriter, sometimes finding the right quote is just not possible. Or at least, not possible in the time allowed for the copywriting task. On these occasions, other options that can be considered for most types of copywriting include headlines that:

• Give news
• Offer a benefit
• Ask a relevant question
• Announce a deadline
• Feature a testimonial
• Begin with ‘How to . . .'

Obviously, professional copywriting has to adhere to reasonable levels of grammatical correctness. In most copywriting this is not normally a problem, however there is one form of punctuation that some writers can get confused about: apostrophes.

This topic may sound boring, but where an apostrophe is used incorrectly the writer, or more likely, the client for whom the writer is writing, can be seen as very unprofessional.

The main use of apostrophes relates to possession.

A. The dog's bone = the bone of the dog (one bone, one dog).
B. The dog's bones = the bones of the dog (two bones, one dog).
C. The dogs' bones = the bones of the dogs (two bones, two dogs).

Notice, the word ‘dog' is a noun. For the possessive, you only use apostrophes with nouns.

You'll notice with example C above, where the plural noun ends in ‘s' i.e. dogs, there is no need for an additional ‘s'.

Similarly, when a singular noun ends with an ‘s' you normally do not add an extra ‘s' as in Hawkins' newspaper or the genius' habit of getting top marks. (But to complicate matters more, this last is not an absolute rule, for sometimes you will see Hawkins's newspaper or the genius's habit of getting top marks).

In the case of pronouns such as ‘its' ‘hers' and ‘theirs', there is no apostrophe because these are possessive words in themselves:

• The dog enjoys its bone.
• The bone is hers.

Then to complicate matters even further, there is the matter of contractions.

• Do not = don't
• Cannot = can't

Using an apostrophe for a contraction is a completely different use of this tiny punctuation mark.

Discussion about apostrophes illustrates that copywriting is very much a detail business. You cannot produce copywriting that has impact unless you focus on the detail. Every word has to be deliberate.


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Action Words is premium business writing company in Melbourne. Action words not only offers business writing and letter writing, but also business writing courses and SEO copy.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/rewriting-the-cornerstone-of-quality-copywriting.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/rewriting-the-cornerstone-of-quality-copywriting.html Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:43:27 -0500
There may not be a great deal of structure. And that's fine for the first draft.

But then you move into the rewriting or editing phase. This is where you check that there is a logical flow to your work. Plus, you delete unnecessary words to make the writing sparkle with vigour and clarity.

Cutting words you don't need adds strength to your copywriting. So there is no need for ‘a general principle' where ‘a principle' will do. Not too many people look for a ‘feminine hair product for women'. ‘Feminine hair product' is just fine. And we don't need to ‘reverse backward' when we can simply ‘reverse'.

Quality copywriting always involves rewriting or editing. Some of the specifics to look out for include:

• Unnecessary words: cut where possible.

• Appropriate words: use strong verbs as much as possible and nouns, but avoid modifiers (‘the conference was very engaging and rather inspiring' - well that's lovely for you, but ‘very' and ‘rather' are not convincing me).

• Do a witch hunt on jargon and clichés (the latter can be ‘the kiss of death').

• Voice: brochure copy for a ‘big four' chartered accounting firm is going to have a different tone from an ad for a local radio station. Make sure you have it right.

For any worthwhile copywriting task, rewriting is not an extra that's nice if you have time. It is an essential ingredient. All professional copywriters embrace rewriting. In fact, it's the part of the job they love.

During the rewriting and editing stage, there is one very simple way to improve your copywriting. Dramatically. It is so simple that most beginners have difficulty believing in its power. And what are we referring to here? Cutting the length of sentences!
It's a technique that really works. And you can start using it from today.
Long sentences should be seen as the enemy. They create confusion for readers and they block clarity. And we all know how important clarity is. If you have a long sentence in your first draft, take the knife to it. Enjoy cutting. And don't be surprised if you end up with three or four sentences. Your readers will thank you for it.

In most writing workshops, the leader will talk about the power of shorter sentences. In most cases, attendees are inclined to be disbelievers. But when they try short sentences, their attitudes change. Most people can see for themselves that reducing sentence length leads to better communication.

Of course, like with so many guidelines or tips, common sense is needed. Copywriting that consists of all very short sentences will almost certainly be distorted and uncomfortable for readers. Using plenty of short sentences is important, but for effective copywriting a great variety of sentence length is essential.
One of the most important parts of the rewriting phase is to check that the length of your sentences is right.


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Action Words is premium copy writing company in Melbourne. Action words not only offers business writing and letter writing, but also business writing courses and SEO copy.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/business-writing-must-focus-on-the-audience.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/business-writing-must-focus-on-the-audience.html Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:23:07 -0500
It's almost impossible to spend too much time getting to know the people you are trying to reach.

As with advertising, if business writing is to have an impact, the writer has to connect with the audience. To walk in the shoes of the audience members. To understand their wants and their needs.

If you are writing a report for your Chief Executive, you have to think clearly about her requirements. What does she want to read about? What results really interest her? How much time will she have?

Imagine you are a retailer and you hold a special after-hours opening for your gold card loyalty members. If you write a report of this event for your manager, that report will almost certainly be very different from a report in the Loyalty Membership Newsletter. It's all a matter of the audience.

In such a case, your boss would, presumably, want to know about the sales figures during the event, the costs and the breakeven point. Positive or negative feedback from attendees would also probably be of great interest. In contrast, very little of that content would be featured in the newsletter because the newsletter has a different audience.

Generally, business writing has some accepted formats, such as how to organise memos, reports, letters and newsletter articles. In addition, business writing has a number of generally accepted practices: writing concisely, using bullets and headings, employing short sentences, creating brief paragraphs, and getting to the point quickly.

Many specialist writers say that the critical point about business writing is that it needs to be in ‘plain English'.

Plain English refers to:

• Writing in a way that gives a co-operative, motivated person a good chance of understanding the document at first reading.

• Plus, the reader will understand the text in the same sense that the writer meant it to be understood.

To achieve these goals, the writer has to pitch the language at a level of sophistication that suits the readers. And it means using an appropriate structure and layout to help readers navigate through the document. However, it does not mean always using simple words at the expense of the most accurate words, or writing whole documents in kindergarten language.

Business writing needs to use words that the writer is sure the intended reader will understand.

Some top tips for keeping your business writing user-friendly include:

• Over the whole document, make average sentence length no more than 15 to 20 words.
• Use only as many words as you really need.
• Prefer the active voice unless there's a good reason for using the passive.
• Use the clearest, crispest, liveliest verbs to express your thoughts.
• Reduce cross-references to a minimum.
• Avoid sexist usage.
• In letters, avoid dull first sentences and formula finishes.

In brief, business writing must be reader friendly. If it's not, your efforts to communicate may very well fail.


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Action Words is premium business writing company in Melbourne. Action words not only offers business writing and letter writing, but also business writing courses and SEO copy.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/business-writing-not-so-simple.html http://www.articletrader.com/business/communication/business-writing-not-so-simple.html Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:57:49 -0500
The sort of writing you do at school and at university normally has no place in business. The teachers and the professors do not teach business writing. They expect a form of academic writing. Business writing is something else again.

If you are writing an essay, you usually lay out your foundation then proceed to expound on your thesis or argument. You allow the essay to grow and develop as you take your reader, step-by-step, through your thinking process. Academics love it. They can monitor your thought processes and make a (usually) reliable assessment of whether or not you know what you are talking about.

But business writing is not like that at all.

• business writing is briefer and more concise than most other types of writing. As a student you are given a required target. "Write a 2000 word essay on the life of Jean-Paul Sartre," you are told. The student who really researches the topic well, and is able to pen succinct thoughts in a comprehensive analysis, is penalised if he or she stops before the critical 2000 word mark. This is the exact opposite of what happens in business. Has anyone ever heard a manager complain that a report was comprehensive but not long enough?

• In business, writers have to be conscious of the fact that a letter, memo, or report may only gain the reader's attention for a few seconds. If you only have a few seconds, you cannot afford to waste time building an edifice. You have to be hard hitting with the critical facts from the very first line.

• For business writing, the challenge is to get to the point as quickly as possible. Effective politicians develop this skill expertly. They are able to make a point for the nightly news by getting it across in a bite-size chunk. Business writing has to do this too.

However, there are some niceties involved with business writing. When delivering bad news, for example, you don't leap right in, but you work up to your message using diplomacy and tact. Furthermore, you don't waste the reader's time by being obscure.

Generally accepted practices in business writing, include:

• Writing concisely;
• Using bullets and headings;
• Employing plenty of short sentences;
• Keeping your paragraphs brief; and
• Getting to the point quickly.

Of course, the best way to get good at writing essays in school or university is to practice. By the time they are in their last year at school, many teenagers have honed the skill to such an extent that you can give them a topic and in no time at all, they will come back with the required number of words.

And so it is with business writing. The way to get good at it, is to practice. But if you don't have the time to practice, or you don't get called on to write often enough, then a practical solution may be to engage a professional business writer. And the good news is that an excellent business writer will guarantee his or her work.


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Action Words is premium business writing company in Melbourne. Action words not only offers business writing and letter writing, but also business writing courses and SEO copy.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>