Introduction

The business writer is a results-based communicator, an editorial expert, and a skillful navigator of complex information, business purposes, and corporate environments.

The successful business writer first understands the reasons for each communication—whether it is to persuade, inform, or motivate—and envisions who is in the audience. Then the writer uses clear, accurate, creative language to deliver messages that will achieve communication and business objectives.

The skillful writer works successfully in a variety of print and electronic formats and employs efficient techniques that produce targeted communications in the least amount of time.

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Communication Planning

These are the sorts of issues the business writer thinks about when planning a communication project. The types of questions, and the level of detail, depend on the kind of project and the communication need.

1. What kind of communication is appropriate? A brochure? Feature story? Proposal? Web page? Other?
2. What sorts of research will be necessary, and what kinds of contacts will need to be made for interviews?
3. What is the purpose? To persuade? Instruct? Inform? Entertain? Sell? Motivate? Begin a dialogue? Some combination?
4. Who is in the audience? Customers? Sales prospects? Employees? Investors? Others?
5. What are the demographic, attitudinal, and behavioral characteristics of the audience?
6. What are the expectations of the audience? To be helped? Entertained? Informed? Other?
7. What outcome is the communication attempting to produce? A sale? Follow-up communication? Change of attitude? Other?
8. What basic message is the communication delivering? Is it, Our service can help you solve a problem? We have the best product? Your participation is important? Some other message?
9. What type of appeal should be used? Humor? Problem solving? Pride in work? Other?
10. If the communication is a sales piece, is the communication being inserted in the sales cycle at the prospecting stage, the proposal stage, the follow-up stage, or the closing stage?
11. What kind of tone is suitable? Formal? Informal? Relaxed? Neutral?
12. What sort of language is suitable for the communication piece? Simple? Specialized? Technical? Nontechnical?
13. Should the piece be text-heavy or spare in its use of text?
14. If the piece includes graphics, how can the writer best work with the graphic artist to develop creative ways of communicating the message?
15. How can the information and message be structured in the most logical, coherent, and creative ways?

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The Business Writer's Skills

After planning the communication, the business writer must call upon the right skills to successfully create the communication itself. Here are some of the business writer's essential skills:

1. Has a command of sentence structure, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and editorial style.
2. Has an advanced ability to use language to convey ideas and information clearly, accurately, and creatively.
3. Uses the proper voice and tone for the intended audience.
4. Knows when copy works and when it does not— whether because of problems with structure, clarity, tone, general impression, or omission. If any of these problems exists, the writer knows how to correct them.
5. Is able to think thematically and conceptually; also can place ideas and information within a creative context; for example, by developing a story line.
6. Can spot incomplete and dubious information and fill in any information gaps.
7. Is resourceful at gathering necessary information through research.
8. Can find, cultivate, and interview the sources who possess necessary information.
9. Is completely familiar with the use of the dictionary, thesaurus, and editorial style guides, such as the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook.
10. Has the ability to work with the rest of the editorial team and to understand their roles.

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The Editorial Process

The business writer is a member of an editorial team that follows a production process, which often looks like this: Writing  →  Editing  →  Visual design  →  Proofreading  →  Production. Steps in this process sometimes occur simultaneously; for example, writing and visual design. Following are descriptions of the other members of the editorial team:

The Editor

The editor reviews the work of the writer. The editor looks at writing from two perspectives:

• A holistic point of view in terms of overall structure and organization.
• A line-by-line view in terms of word choice, sentence structure, spelling, grammar, and punctuation; this is referred to as copyediting or line editing.

The editor’s responsibilities include the following:

• Works with the writer to develop writing that may be incomplete or unclear in the original.
• Corrects copy as necessary after evaluating it for the following:
• • Accuracy. Copy must be factual and free of errors.
  • Coherence. Copy must be organized to flow in ways that are logical and appealing.
  • Clarity. Copy must be perfectly clear and easy to understand.
  • Completeness. Copy must completely express all necessary facts and ideas.
  • Tone. Copy must be written in a consistent tone suitable for the audience.
  • Spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Copy must reflect proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
  • Stylistic consistency. Copy must be consistent in terms of headings, spelling, punctuation, use of numbers, and other editorial and typographic elements.
• Uses reference books, such as the dictionary and thesaurus; and editorial style guides, such as the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook.
• Develops and maintains corporate style guides. Style guides ensure consistency by defining fonts and font sizes for headings and text; the spellings of words and terms; the use of punctuation and numbers; and other editorial, typographic, and graphical elements.

Very often, the business writer acts as his or her own editor. This is because business organizations that hire writers often do not also hire editors. Because of this, a writer with good editorial skills, one who can edit his or her own work and the work of others—and prepare business communications for publication—is a great contributor to the communication process.

The Proofreader

The proofreader reviews copy after the editor has seen it and before it is produced and distributed in its final written form as a book, web page, email, or in some other medium. The proofreader’s responsibilities include the following:

• Ensures that there are no typos in the copy.
• Flags suspect copy for an editor to look at that involves anything other than obvious spelling, grammatical, or typographic errors.
• Points out inconsistencies in editorial, typographic, and graphical elements.

The Graphic Artist

The graphic artist establishes the visual tone and graphic design of communications. The graphic artist’s responsibilities include the following:

• Uses color and composition to visually communicate ideas and information.
• Creates page layouts that include copy and graphical elements.
• Creates or selects appropriate photos and illustrations.
• Collaborates with the writer to blend copy elements with visual designs.

The Production Coordinator

The production coordinator, sometimes called the production editor, coordinates editorial production by tracking a communication project from its inception to its completion. The production coordinator’s responsibilities include the following:

• Often is the one who sets and enforces production deadlines for editorial-team members.
• Distributes copy and graphical elements to team members during the production process.
• Determines whether a project is proceeding according to the production schedule.
• Hands off final files for production as a book, web page, or in some other medium.

In practice, these roles sometimes are combined depending on the size and focus of the organization. Publishing and communication firms, with longstanding editorial cultures, often have teams whose members have distinct responsibilities as described above (although the names of the positions sometimes vary).

In other organizations, the writer could be charged with carrying out more than one editorial task including being the the writer, editor, proofreader, and production coordinator on a single project.

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