5 Questions for Stronger Business Writing

Jennifer Ellis Johnson

writer and editor

One complaint I hear from clients is that they are unsure of where to start. If one is writing a novel or an article for publication, the style of writing will likely be very different. To understand this is imperative when it comes to business writing. Before I ever start editing, I ask clients 5 questions that I created based off of lessons I learned while studying creative writing.

Who is your audience? (Potential clients? Professionals in your field?)

This question is first because it is the most important question in business writing. With so many places today for potential customers to get information, the challenge is having a message that is consistent but also tailor-made for each audience. A company that prides itself on being young and hip might use a certain language showing products on Instagram. If a customer is looking up this product on the company’s own website, the company might want a more polished image and will want to use language that shows how valuable the product is. If this writing is being presented to potential investors, it is crucial that the company’s language shows that they are professionals who are intelligent and possess business acumen. Knowing your audience will tell you how to proceed.

When in doubt, it is almost always better to use smaller words that are easy to understand when making a point. In academic writing, the goal seems to be to use the biggest and most obscure words possible, but business writing is easy to read by necessity. If a reader has to stop to look up a word, they might not return to your article to finish reading it.

Whose story is this? (Is it yours? Is it about a company? Is it about a family business?)

When I was a creative writing student, my professors would ask constantly, “Whose story is this? Who’s telling this story?”

Knowing whose story is being told is vital when reading and writing. Is this the story of a town? Of an individual? Even if the story is ostensibly about an event, like a war or even a cake sale, the story is always one person’s because one person can experience the same series of events differently than someone else. Who is telling the story is also key. Is the person telling their own story? Is someone else telling the story? Can we as readers trust the person telling the story? Is the narrator a child or an adult? How will this change the language that is used?

In business writing, this becomes even more crucial to the story. Is this the president of the company talking about how great the company is? Is this a consumer, and perhaps the company’s prime target, writing a testimonial about how great a product is? Either way, the “story” will change because of whose story it is and who’s telling it.

What is your primary point? (For example, This is an example of an excellent family business.)

This seems obvious; however, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read something and wondered exactly what's the point. Sometimes it’s because it takes the writer a long time to get to the point. Perhaps there are lots of words that do not need to be in the article I’m reading. In the Twitter world we live in now, people want you to do them a favor and GET TO THE POINT—quickly!

In journalistic writing, the most important part of a story is at the beginning of an article. “There was a robbery at 1263 Malin Street in Hillsborough.” Reporters always put the most vital information at the beginning of an article and answer the questions “Who? What? Where? Why? and When?” in the first paragraph. Reporters know that an article might have to be trimmed to fit the paper, and it is crucial to get all that information in at the beginning.

In business writing, you have more latitude. You might take a paragraph or two to come to the point if you are building to it in an enticing way. As long as you are keeping the reader’s interest, you are building excitement by taking your time and getting to the point. Be careful though; if you find yourself going off on a tangent, you should stop and use the delete button. I like to read back through my work and ask, “So what?” and “Who cares?” If I can’t answer those questions satisfactorily, I delete any extraneous information.

What is your secondary point? (For example, This family has regular family meetings, a family constitution, and agreed upon family values.)

These are your supporting points. In the example above, the family is an excellent example of a family business because they do these things that lead to success. I cannot simply say this family is an excellent example of a family business because I say so, there must be real and concrete examples of what they do. If I have the space, I would like to donate at least a paragraph to each of these points to explain how it works.

What is the REAL point? (For example, I know a lot about family businesses and you should hire me.) 

In business writing, there is always a real point, and that real point is almost always that a customer should spend money on something. Even the most benevolent reason for writing, like “I want you to know these trends, or I am going to tell you about this product” is never just informational. Business writing is usually persuasive, it is about making the reader do something. We’ll leave it to the journalists to inform the public for their own good. Business people have an agenda. Marshal McLuhan writes that “Far more thought and care go into the composition of any prominent ad in a newspaper or magazine than go into the writing of their features and editorials.” There is a lot of truth in this. To write to make people do something is very powerful. It’s also very difficult. It’s much harder to make a point in ten words than it is to make a point in ten paragraphs.