Write Less - and Achieve More!

I am reading an article in this morning’s Metro newspaper about the destruction of a shanty town in Calais, and the detainment if its migrant inhabitants, with great interest. According to Keith Best, of the charity The Immigration Advisory Service, “The liquidation of the jungle will have a transient effect.” Or, if I can translate this apparent piece of doublespeak into plain English, if they knock down the camp, these poor souls will probably just build a new one someplace else.

If I emailed this quote to some of my friends and colleagues around the world who, although not fluent, speak pretty good English, would they understand exactly what Mr Best means? It is often said that English is the global language of business. In my opinion, having worked extensively around the world, the global language of business is actually ‘pretty good English, although certainly not fluent’.

When running business writing workshops for my clients at Matchett, upon asking the delegates what feedback their business writing elicits, the number one response is:

“Positive, but maybe a bit too wordy.” Or:

“Good, but I tend to use five words when one would probably do” And often:

“I can be a bit flowery with my language”

‘Flowery’. Such a lovely word.

It is quite ironic therefore, that the more one enjoys language and is experienced and articulate in using it, the more one is likely to be a tad verbose, the more the resulting prose becomes rather discombobulating, and the more the reader perceives the author as faintly sesquipedalian.

Or to put it another way, the more you show off your so-called writing skills, the more likely your meaning is lost and you come across as a bit of a ponce.

Communicating in any form is about changing your audience: Changing how they feel, how they think, how they act. Published authors can choose to be a little indulgent with their prose as whoever is reading the book has chosen to pick it up and read it, and is therefore probably a fan of their particular style. Business writing is a little different however. Commonly, people don’t choose to read your email, report or memo because they are a fan of your creative writing, but rather because either they feel obliged to, or because there is a benefit in them doing so.

So is there a benefit in you reading this article? Well yes, I believe there is, as the key to successful writing is exactly that – articulating the benefit in reading the document as quickly, clearly and concisely as possible.



It has been said that we are bombarded with more information in a week than someone fifty years ago would have received over their entire lifespan. I shall leave it to you to decide whether that could be true, and exactly why it might be true. The following however, is true: On some ‘Business Writing’ courses they will spend some considerable time explaining why it is very bad form to end a sentence with a preposition, and explaining what a split-infinitive, exactly, is. Unless you are the next Dan Brown (Or even the current Dan Brown) there is a far more succinct and beneficial lesson to take away:

If you do, God forbid, happen to split an infinitive in your next executive summary, whether intentionally or not, the grammar police are not going to beat down your door, arrest you, take you to some dark governmental carbuncle and flagellate you vigorously with a hardback copy of ‘Eats Shoots and Leaves’.

Darn it, I’m getting all sesquipedalian again.

In business writing splitting an infinitive really doesn’t matter. Your main goal should always be to:

a) Communicate your meaning, the change you are looking to create, in the simplest language possible, and in the fewest number of words.

b) Give the reader something that makes their life better in some way – saves them money, time, gives them peace of mind. If they don’t know how the information does this – tell them.

If you do these two things, more of your audience will be motivated to pick up (or click on) your document, read it, absorb it, use it and make your change actually happen.

So, have I achieved that goal with this article? Well, you tell me. But keep it brief or I’ll probably read the paper instead.