Business Writing Skills: Ten Ways to Improve Yours

Communication is key in businesses, and one crucial way that businesses communicate is by writing. Reports about projects and employees circulate the offices of higher-ups, and something as simple as an email can be misunderstood if not written properly. With that in mind, here are ten ways you can improve your business writing skills.

Five Classes to Improve Your Business Writing Skills

You might be thinking you don’t have the time to work on you skills by going to class, but you’re likely thinking of the usual class method—enrolling in a college, registering for the class, and spending two to four months learning how to write for business. While that is a good method, you can also find classes that will easily fit into your schedule. Each of these classes offer lifetime access, meaning you can go back and refresh yourself on anything you might have missed. They’re also all accessible through most Apple and Android mobile devices.

1. Business Writing by Webucator Training

This course gives five sections with each being well-organized. The first will give you the steps to prepare for a writing project. The second and third focus on email and other forms of electronic communication. The fourth  helps you communicate effectively, and the fifth gives you tips for writing business proposals.

2. Writing Effective Business Emails by Jane Watson

This class is shorter and focuses solely on business emails. The idea is to give you skills that will increase response time and build your image. The course begins with an introductory video and ends with a downloadable tip sheet. The other three sections brush you up on the latest news to know about emails, what writing style and tone to use, and how to organize your email so it’ll be read.

3. Persuasive Writing for Online Business by Nahid Ashby

The idea behind this course is to help you get those sales. It encompasses writing sales letters and gives you plenty of supplementary material to help you write your letters. It also gives you a book called “Timeless Sales Strategies.” For those of you that make money selling products, this class is just what you’re looking for.

4. Consulting Proposals: Your Guide to Winning More Business by Michael Zipursky

If you’re a consultant having difficulties finding business, you will want to check out this course. It will give you all the information you need to write great consulting proposals. This class is taught over a series of videos, with most of the videos being under five minutes and the longest being no more than eleven.

5. Twitter for Business by ComplySociallyTraining

In this modern day and age, everyone knows that social networking is a great way to reach out to consumers. However, if you lack the skills to approach such an audience, getting a Twitter account isn’t going to get you very far. This course will give you the tools you need to successfully tweet to millions of possible future consumers. It begins by introducing you to Twitter, a tweet, and any legal information you need to know. You start out by creating an account and just keep moving on from there.

Five Books to Improve Your Business Writing Skills

For those that learn best from books, there are many out there that can help you enhance your writing skills. They vary in price-range and subject matter so it all depends on what your specific needs are. If you’re looking for mobility, many of these books can be purchased in a form available to be read on your mobile device.

1. 10 Steps to Successful Business Writing by Jack E. Appleman

This book offers you steps to take to make your business writing really shine. It will tell you how to structure your writing as well as give you a better idea for what style of writing to use. With only 186 pages, it’s a short read, and it is available on mobile devices.

2. A Practical Guide to Business Writing: Writing in English for Non-Native Speakers by Khaled Al-Maskari

There is no getting around the fact that a great number of people here in the United States have come from a different country, and it is likely that English is not their native language. If you find that you’re in that same boat, this is a great book for you. This book has only 168 pages, and it is available on mobile devices.

3. How to Write Effective Emails by R. L. Trask

This book focuses on the main business communication that now circulates in the modern day businesses. Many of the written communications that were one handed out to employees are now sent via email, and this book makes it easy to know how to write them. This book has 224 pages, and it is available on most mobile devices.

4. How to Write Effective Business English: The Essential Toolkit for Composing Powerful Letters, Emails and More, for Today’s Business Needs by Fiona Talbot

This book is by far the shortest of the five, and it offers everything you need to write in your current position or how to write CVs while searching for a position. This book is very short—only 152 pages—making it the quickest read, and it is available on mobile devices.

5. Business English: The Writing Skills You Need for Today’s Workplace by Andrea B.Geffner

Out of the five books, this one is the longest and offers you everything you need including a brush-up on grammar and sentence-structure. The author even touches on appropriate terms to give your business writing the perfect style needed for whatever you might be writing. This book has 365 pages, and it is offered through a variety of sellers in paperback format.

Final Words

Whatever your business writing needs may be, you will likely find the answer in one of these ten options. Even those searching for a job can find something to help them with resumes, writing letters of introduction, and especially with sending out a shining email to a company. If your company is just reaching out into the social networking field, you should definitely consider the class on Twitter. You might just find yourself leading the project for social networking.