Business and Technical Writing: An Overview
“Don’t write merely to be understood. Write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson
12 Hallmarks of Excellence in Business and Technical Communication
(Closely adapted from Technical Communication, 7th edition, Markel; also based on guidelines provided
by Mississippi State University’s Shackouls Technical Communication Program)
1. Honesty: Honesty in business and technical writing is a question of ethics, safety, and legality.
2. Clarity: The goal in business and technical writing is to produce a document that is, above all,
clear and informative. Ambiguity can be dangerous for companies/customers and expensive to
rectify (also, time spent clarifying misleading, inaccurate, or unclear information for customers
sacrifices productivity). Always use the simplest, most accurate word, phrase, design, or
graphic. Be consistent but not repetitive. Use the same name for a person or object every time,
but do not start more than two sentences the same way (e.g., “This is…, This is…”), which makes
your writing sound repetitive.
3. Accuracy: Major and sometimes minor inaccuracies can be dangerous for companies/customers
and damaging to a writer’s credibility. Check your facts repeatedly, and make sure your coauthors fact check, too. Remember, even if you did not write every section of a document, you
are still responsible for any document that has your name attached to it.
4. Comprehensiveness: Be thorough. Readers will not mind additional details if your design
allows for navigating around them. Documents should provide all the necessary information
that the reader needs to understand the document thoroughly, such as background, context,
and relevant details. Reserve details for appendices. Give your reader a choice about whether
or not to read all the details.
5. Conciseness: Never use two words where one will do. Make your main points early, keeping in
mind your readers’ interests. Avoid asking, “What do I want to communicate?” Instead, ask
yourself, “What do my readers need to know about this subject?”
6. Accessibility: Documents should be written and organized to allow the reader to use, navigate,
and understand information quickly. Effective techniques include adding white space, a table of
contents, an index, tabs, a glossary, etc. Fill a document’s section only with the information that
should logically be there. Inevitably, your readers will use skimming and scanning techniques to
identify the information that is most relevant to them. Do not fight this tendency by readers;
facilitate it.
7. Professional appearance: Always strive for an attractive, consistent, well-spaced design. The
good first impression this creates is invaluable. Page design plays a key role in accessibility. Ask
yourself if the document looks inviting and presents information clearly. Also, the document
should abide by conventional standards in your field or company. Most companies will have
standard templates for reports, memos, PowerPoint presentations, etc. that are made available
to the public. These guidelines typically also govern the use of company logos, trademarks, etc.
Learn and follow these guidelines.
8. Correctness: Eliminate mechanical and stylistic errors. They distract readers, invite ambiguity,
and damage credibility. Revise for content as well. The best writers revise several times before
a paper is “finished.” At the same time, do not let perfectionism stand in the way of getting
your writing into the hands of the reader. A famous writer once said, “I never finish a piece. I
surrender it.” Proofread at least three times, keeping in mind that this step is ultimately your
responsibility, not the typist’s, printer’s, graphic designer’s, or copy editor’s.
9. Flow: First, jot a brief outline or a list of ideas you THINK you want to cover in the document.
Then group related ideas together and cross out unnecessary ideas, topics that do not quite fit,
and repetitions. These natural groups of related ideas will show you where to put headings and
sub-headings and will point to an introductory statement. All major points in your document
should flow from the introduction. Make sure that all sentences in a paragraph lead into one
another and that they fully support the topic sentence of that paragraph. Connections between
ideas should be obvious, but help readers by providing transitional words and repeating key
terms. Use signposts and transitional words (however, moreover, first, second, third) to point
out changes in direction of thought. Finally, in longer documents, use the conclusion to recap
major points. By the time your readers have reached page 5, they will have already forgotten
page 1.
10. Illustrations: Clearly label graphics in business or technical writing. Within the text, refer to,
explain, and cite (if necessary) every table, chart, figure, illustration, photo, or other graphic you
use. Write captions that explain the significance of illustrations and tables. Instead of “See
Figure 4,” state what the reader will see there: “As Figure 4 shows, X increases directly with Y.”
11. Tone: Get in the habit of writing a little more formally than you speak in everyday
conversations. Avoid contractions, slang expressions, clichés, and euphemisms. Remember that
formality does not mean using fancy words, the use of which negates your goals of simplicity
and immediate comprehension. Avoid “five-dollar words” in business and technical documents.
12. Read, read, read! One of the best ways to improve your writing is to read. Not everything that
is published is well written, but by reading, you pick up various styles, tones, and organizational
methods. Good writers will help you hone your own style, and bad writers will demonstrate
what NOT to do.
Remember this simple rule of thumb: Pamper your readers. Make your job hard to make theirs easy!
The Big 16: A Grammar and Mechanics Checklist
(From Technical Communication, 7th edition, Markel; and BCOM, 5th edition, Lehman & Dufrene)
During the revision process, ensure that your writing is mechanically and stylistically sound using these
basic rules. Go through this checklist BEFORE submitting a final draft for a grade in this class. This list is
not exhaustive but should help you catch many common errors.
1. Lists: Number lists to show chronology or rank of importance within the listed items; otherwise,
use bullets for listed items (or shadow boxes for checklists). Lists should contain no more than
8-10 items and must be preceded by a lead-in statement (usually followed by a colon). Listed
items should be punctuated consistently and structurally parallel (see number 4).
2. Flow: To improve flow, vary sentence length and type, do not needlessly repeat key terms or
information (use a pronoun instead, as long as it is not a vague pronoun), ensure sentences
build logically upon one another, and use transitional words like “also,” “next,” “however,” and
“in addition.” Read the document aloud to check for flow. If your tongue trips over a sentence,
it often means that sentence is difficult to comprehend during initial reading.
3. Real subject/real verb: Avoid weakening a verb by nominalizing it (converting it into a noun).
Avoid expletives (a sentence that postpones the subject by beginning with “there” or “it” and a
form of the verb “be”—am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been), such as, “It was John who won
the award last year” or “It is probable the request would have angered management.”
4. Parallel elements/parallel structure: When listing items in a series, put them in a similar
pattern (e.g., “I like playing computer games, comic books, and to go to the movies” should be “I
like playing computer games, reading comic books, and going to the movies” or “I like computer
games, comic books, and movies”).
5. Modifiers: Do not set off restrictive modifiers with commas because they are vital to the
sentence’s main idea, but do set off nonrestrictive modifiers, which add extraneous information.
Avoid misplaced modifiers (which are incorrectly placed in the sentence), dangling modifiers
(which lack a clear, logical referent entirely), and squinting modifiers (which could modify one or
two referents in the same sentence, thus creating ambiguity for the reader).
6. Passive voice/active voice: Opt for active voice whenever possible. (Active voice involves the
subject performing the action, such as in “Kelly studied the material and presented her findings
to management.” Passive voice involves the subject having the action performed to it, such as in
“The results were studied and presented to managers by Kelly.”)
7. Be specific: Choose words that cannot be misinterpreted (e.g., “the right button” has two
possible interpretations).
8. Jargon/shoptalk: Avoid “shoptalk” whenever possible, and, when using unfamiliar terms, be
sure to explain them thoroughly. Define acronyms upon first use in business or technical
communication, especially because acronyms do not necessarily translate interculturally. Jargon
can come across as condescending or intimidating, not to mention confusing, to the reader.
9. Positive constructions/negative constructions: Use positive constructions over negative
constructions to tell what something IS instead of what it IS NOT. For example, instead of
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
writing that an employee’s performance is “not acceptable,” write “unacceptable.” The term
“positive construction” has nothing to do with having a positive attitude or a positive result.
Long noun strings: Avoid these when possible, since they are hard to comprehend at first
glance and require second or third readings, thus wasting the reader’s time (e.g.,
“preregistration procedures instruction sheet update” is better written as “an update of the
instruction sheet for preregistration procedures”).
Inoffensive language: Avoid the generic “he,” which can be offensive to women, even if
unintentionally so. Instead, use “he or she,” alternate between the generic “he” and the generic
“she” in lengthy documents, or opt for genderless pronouns (like plural pronouns). However, do
not use a plural pronoun (“they,” “their”) to refer to a singular antecedent, which violates rule
12.
Pronoun-antecedent disagreement: Always ensure that your pronoun and its antecedent (the
noun that the pronoun replaces) agree in number. For example, “An athlete has a heavy burden
on their shoulders” should be “Athletes have heavy burdens on their shoulders.” “Everyone
needs to take their seats” should be “Everyone needs to take his or her seat.”
Semicolons/colons: Use semicolons to join together independent clauses (words that can stand
alone as complete sentences), avoiding using conjunctions (FANBOYS—for, and, nor, but, or,
yet, so) with semicolons. Semicolons are also useful for separating listed items that already
contain commas, as in “The students were from Slidell, LA; Huntsville, AL; Starkville, MS; and
Knoxville, TN.” Colons are used to set apart elements of a sentence, such as listed items, and
should be preceded by independent clauses.
Prepositions: Avoid ending sentences with prepositions. Find a list of common prepositions in
your grammar handbook or at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/730/1/.
Split infinitives: Infinitive verbs (to work, to run, to prepare, etc.) should not be split apart. For
example, “to quickly work” should be revised as “to work quickly.”
Spell check/grammar check: These tools are excellent, but keep in mind that they cannot catch
many common mistakes. For example, spell check misses homonym errors (which-witch,
principle-principal, led-lead, its—it’s), and grammar check frequently confuses subject-verb
agreement. Read and carefully consider the suggestions offered by your spell check and
grammar check programs.