Business Writing With Buzz

That little dot at the end of a sentence can mean so much. Just like a good friend, we'd be lost without it. The problem is that quite a lot of people don't know when to use them.

When I'm proofreading or editing long documents - such as annual reports, other reports, tenders and proposals - I find they often share a common trait - not enough full stops.

Some copywriters argue that a sentence should be no longer than 15 to 20 words. Other copywriters say 7 words are more than enough.

In real life, there's no right or wrong. What's important is that your sentences are not so long that your readers forget how the sentence started, and short enough that they are not jerky. Long sentences are hard to follow. Shorter sentences simpler and easier to understand.

All writing, even your marketing writing, sales writing, or when you are writing tenders or proposals, needs a lot of full stops. Here's 3 top tips for your new best friend:

1. If you start to feel dizzy when reading back your writing (email, report, letter, article or whatever) a sentence, break it up into shorter sentences with full stops.

2. It's okay to start a sentence with "And" or "But". These conjunctions often make our writing flow a little more smoothly. And for marketing and sales writing, they're less formal.

3. Lastly, when your sentence contains more than one point, separate each point with a full stop (or paragraph). This will make your message 

clearer.

Let’s have a look at what I mean. First, the long version:

“In today’s fast-paced business world, sales people are under enormous pressure to bring in greater revenue – a problem that stems largely from the corporate culture’s bonus structure, which pits individual sales people against their peers and makes them feel they need to over perform in order to secure their job”.

How about:

“In today’s fast-paced business world, sales people are under enormous pressure to bring in greater revenue. The problem stems from the corporate culture’s bonus structure. This pits individual sales people against their peers. And even worse – it makes them feel they need to over perform to secure their job”.

If you'd like more help, please give me a ring on 02 9314 7506 or 0411 123 216, or go to my free guides - you'll find more help there. You may also find my workshops on Better Business Writing helpful.