Communication
Business Writing
Writing so the reader gets the point on the first pass, not the third.
Business writing is writing built for a reader who is busy, distracted, and deciding within the first line whether to keep reading. That's a different job from writing an essay or a diary entry: the goal isn't to show your reasoning in the order you thought of it, it's to get the point across as fast as the reader needs it. Most workplace writing fails not because the ideas are wrong but because the structure makes the reader work to find them. Good business writing puts the point first, the support second, and cuts everything that isn't doing a job.
Scenarios
You need three people to review a document by Friday. What would you write — a message that opens with context about why the document exists, or one that opens with the ask and the deadline, with context available below for whoever needs it?
A stakeholder asks for a status update on a project that's behind schedule. What would you do — write a message that leads with everything that went right before mentioning the delay, or lead with the current status and the recovery plan, in that order?
You're documenting a decision that reversed an earlier one, and you know it'll be read by someone who wasn't in the room when either decision was made. What would you write — a message that assumes the reader remembers the history, or one that states the current decision first and then gives just enough history to explain the change?
Takeaway
- Put the point in the first sentence. Everything else supports it or gets cut.
- State who should do what by when — explicitly, with a name and a date, not implied by who's on the thread.
- Use active voice: name the actor. "I decided" or "the team decided," not "it was decided."
- Cut a sentence if removing it changes nothing the reader needs to know or do.
- Reread your message and ask: could someone who's busy get the ask from just the first two lines? If not, move the ask up.