Grammar and Language in Business Writing

iFixit CEO Kylie Wins, in his controversial post at the Harvard Business Review blog,  claims that “grammar signifies more than just a person’s ability to remember high school English. I’ve found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing  

something completely unrelated to writing — like stocking shelves or labeling parts.” He furthers that in his company where programming, like writing, is crucial, “the devil’s in the details. In fact, when it comes to my whole business, details are everything. I hire people who care about those details.” For clients or partners, language may echo a company’s competence, culture, openness to development, and way of treating business. Hence, there is a need to prevent grammatical errors and inappropriate writing in business communication.

On words, phrases, and sentences
The book “Effective Business Communication,” by Ronnie Bouing, suggests that complex and general nouns and wordy lines should be avoided. There should be less jargon–unless it is a technical document–and more specific words and brief yet strong phrases. Let’s take a look at his examples:

• instead of “wealthy business person,” use “tycoon.”
• not “business prosperity,”  but “boom”
• not “consensus of opinion,” but “consensus”
• not “kind consideration,” but “kindness” or “consideration”
• not “as a result of,” but “because”
• not “at the present time,” but “now”

The Miami University presents the following pointers:
- Turn nouns into verbs: Instead of “We would like to make a recommendation that…” say “We recommend that…”
- Refrain from overusing “it is” and “there are”: Not “It is imperative that we examine this…” but “We examine…”
- Avoid the use of fancy terms and stick to simple ones: Not “utilize” but “use”
- Be cautious with pronoun reference. For example, to which is “this” referring to in this sentence “This is the reason behind the company’s restructuring.” If this is placed at the end of the paragraph, anything in your previous sentences can serve as a reason. Be as definite and as clear as possible.
Here are other tips for better business writing:

1. Use the active voice instead of the passive voice to sound more assertive and powerful. For example, not “The report was submitted by the team lead to the CEO,” but “The team lead submitted the reports to the CEO.”
2. For the tone, the Purdue University emphasizes the need to be confident, sincere and courteous. Its example suggests that instead of saying “You must agree that I am qualified for the position,” write “My qualifications in the areas of accounting and customer service meet your job requirements.”
3. The Purdue University also explains how to apply parallelism in professional writing. For example, if a series of items starts with a verb, the rest of the lines should start with a verb as well: “duties: analyze data; call clients; write reports”

The Pepperdine University – Graziado School of Business and Management lists the action words one can use in professional writing:
Achieve          Coordinate     Exceed          Judge                 Prepare      Review
Acquire          Correct             Execute        Justify               Prescribe   Revise
Adapt              Counsel            Exhibit          Launch              Present       Revitalize
Address          Craft                 Expand          Lead                   Preside       Satisfy
Advance         Create              Expedite        Lecture            Process       Schedule
Advise            Critique            Experiment  License           Procure       Secure
Advocate       Decrease         Export            Listen               Program     Select
Analyze          Define              Facilitate        Locate              Progress     Separate
Apply             Delegate           Finalize           Maintain          Project       Serve
Appoint         Deliver             Finance           Manage            Project       Manager
Arbitrate      Demonstrate  Forge               Manipulate      Promote    Simplify
Architect      Deploy             Form                Manufacture   Propose     Sold
Arrange        Design               Formalize       Map                    Prospect    Solidify
Ascertain     Detail                Formulate       Market              Provide      Solve
Assemble      Detect              Found              Mastermind     Publicize    Specify
Brief               Discover          Halt                  Modify               Rate             Structure
Budget         Dispense            Head                Monitor             Realign       Succeed
Build             Display              Hire                  Motivate           Rebuild       Suggest
Calculate     Distribute         Honor             Navigate            Recapture Summarize
Capture        Diversify          Hypothesize Negotiate          Receive       Supervise
Catalog        Divert                 Identify          Nominate          Recognize  Supply
Champion   Document       Illustrate        Normalize           Recommend Support