Bizzymedia

Albert Einstein was not just an eminent scientist. He also had a natty way with words. The man behind the theory of relativity reckoned anything should be easy to explain.

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"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough," he said.

That is the same philosophy we should take into our business writing. Even when talking to an educated audience, you need your story to be easy to read and free from jargon. You can strive to be entertaining for even the most technical of articles. Try to be witty with words, rather than forcing your jokes.

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At the end of the day, you want to engage with your readers, provide relevant information, get your key points across, and hopefully provide an enjoyable experience. After all, nobody will read your copy if they find it boring.

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A short trim off the back, please

 

Strive for a nice pace to your content – using a mix of long and short sentences is the best way to avoid monotony. But be conscious to not make sentences too long. Anything that the eye has to scan several times means it is too difficult to read. The general rule is to create a piece of writing that has an average of between 24 – 28 words per sentence.

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Always look to write in the active tense. It’s the difference between a footballer being ‘on the balls’ of their feet or languishing on their heels. Take this as an example: ‘The tiger ate the deer’ or ‘The deep was eaten by the tiger’. The first is active, it is more direct, and the sentence tends to be shorter than the passive.

 

Here’s a short, two-minute video that will help you write in the active tense.

 

Making your copy easy to read is especially important when it comes to SEO rankings. The more people who read your copy, the higher it appears in search engines – and the more people will read it again…and again.

Tools to help 

 

The good news is, there are a number of on-line tools that can help to enhance your writing skills. Your standard spell check should include a grammar checker – here are some instructions on how to turn it on in Word.

 

Just click on the Show Readability Statistics box to activate it. It takes you through to the Flesch Kincaid checker. We don’t need to go into the ins and outs of FK, although if you do want to find out more, you can do so here. 

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Suffice to say, the higher the FK score, the easier it is to read a piece. ‘The cat sat on the mat’ scores 100 for example. But even highbrow publications such as The Economist or Time magazine will generate an FK score of around 50. That’s where you need to be aiming for most pieces of business writing – if you really want people to understand them.

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Other tools you can use will include Hemingway, named after the famous author. This will highlight areas of improvement to your writing – such as difficult to read sentences, simpler phrasing alternatives, passive voices etc.

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Grammarly is a popular free to use tool that is especially useful as you can use it in Outlook when drafting emails. It will suggest alternatives or improvements to your prose as you write. The basic tool is free to use and for most, that will serve all you will need.

 

Finally, it’s worth taking a look at Grammar Girl – she’ll provide popular hints and tips on writing improvements, linked to regular videos and online tutorials.

 

That’s it. All you need to do now is get writing and enjoy the experience. Your first assignment is an easy one – explain the theory of relativity so anyone can understand it…

 

How did I do?

 

This article has a Flesch Reading Ease of 68.6 with an average of 16.5 words per sentence. Hemingway rated the article at Grade 6 (the US-based educational system) with a single use of the passive voice (my example). It does say however that 3 of the 44 sentences are very hard to read – so worth reviewing those few sentences to see if there is further room for improvement.