Business Writing as a Tool of Management Control

The purpose of business writing is to convey information to someone else or

to request information from them. To be effective writing for business, you
must be complete, concise, and accurate. Your text should be written in such
a way that the reader will be able to easily understand what you are telling or
asking them.

A lot of writing for business is sloppy, poorly written, disorganized, littered

with jargon, and incomplete. Often it is either too long or too short. All these
attributes contribute to ineffective business writing.

Whether you are writing a sales proposal, an email to your department, or an

instruction manual for a software package, there are certain steps you need
to follow to create effective business writing. You need to:

1. organize your material

2. consider your audience
3. write
4. proofread
5. And edit your text.
Organize
First, organize your material. When writing an email announcing a staff
meeting, this may be as simple as collecting your thoughts. On the other
hand, you may need to write out a multi-level outline of the material when
writing up the results of a pharmaceutical trial. Without an appropriate level
of organization, you can't be sure you will include everything or that you
will give prominence to the most important topics. Omissions or incorrect
focus can make your business writing less clear.

Audience
Before you start to write, think about your intended audience. For example, a
presentation about your company's new 401(k) program may have the same
outline when given to your CFO or to all employees, but the level of detail
in various areas will differ. A quick email to your team, reminding them of
the company's security procedures, won't have the same tone as your
department's section of the company's annual report.

Start Writing
Good writers have different styles of writing. Some prefer to write
everything out and then go back and edit. Others prefer to edit as they go
along. Sometimes their style varies depending on the piece they are writing.

As you write, or when you edit, be aware of length. Use enough words to
make your meaning clear, but don't use unnecessary words just to make it
flowery. Business writing needs to be clear and concise, not verbose and
flowery. No one in business has time to read any more than necessary.

Conversely, don't make the piece too short. Write enough that your meaning
is clear and won't be misunderstood. A part in a warehouse was labeled
"used but good". It was unclear whether the author was trying to say the part
had been really heavily used, or that the part was not new, but was still
functional. Another couple of words would have made his writing more
effective. Don't try to shorten a piece by using jargon or abbreviations.
These often mean different things to different readers.

Regardless of the style you use when writing, you need to proofread and edit
what you have written.

Edit and Proofread

After you write anything, you need to proofread it. You may then need to
edit it. Proofreading is re-reading what you wrote to make sure all the words
in your head made it correctly onto the paper or the screen. Since our brains
work faster than our fingers, you may omit words, leave off an ending, or
use the wrong homonym (there instead of their, for example). Proofreading
catches these errors so you can fix them.

Obviously, proofreading a one-line email is pretty easy. Just glancing over it

as you type may be enough. However, if you are writing an instruction
manual, your proofreading will be more complicated and take longer.

After you have proofread your material, you need to edit it. Sometimes these
can be done together, but it is more effective when they are done
sequentially.

You edit to fix or change what you wrote in order to make the material
better. When writing for business, this means fixing the errors and making
the text clear and concise.
Manage This Issue
You are writing for business, not writing the "great American novel". Your
writing should be as descriptive as necessary, but it does not need to paint
vivid word pictures using lots of big words and figures of speech. If you
mean "glass houses", don't write "vitreous domiciles".
 Writing Research and Proposals

INTRODUCTION

A research proposal is similar in a number of ways to a project proposal;

however, a research proposal addresses a particular project: academic or
scientific research. The forms and procedures for such research are well
defined by the field of study, so guidelines for research proposals are
generally more exacting than less formal project proposals. Research
proposals contain extensive literature reviews and must offer convincing
support of need for the research study being proposed. Doctoral
dissertations begin with research proposal; the proposal must be accepted by
a panel of experts (usually professors) before the actual research can begin.
In addition to providing rationale for the proposed research, the proposal
must described a detailed methodology for conducting the research--a
methodology consistent with requirements of the professional or academic
field. The links below offer explanations and examples of research
proposals.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Research.
Steps conducting research.
Proposals.
Business proposals.
Research proposals.
Technical proposals.
Formal structure.
Writing tips of proposals.
Pre writing
Writing
Post writing
Goals and objectives.
Conclusion.
Research

Any honest attempt to study a problem systematically or to add to man’s

knowledge of a problem may be regarded as research.
Research is all about addressing an issue or asking and answering a
question or solving a problem, so…
Identify an issue, question, or problem.
Talk with people who want or need your study.
Find out what's already known about it.
Talk with experts and/or read their reviews and the original research on the
topic.
Plan, cost, and do your study accordingly.
Write it up and submit it for assessment.

Steps conducting research.

 Choose a topic
 Do research on the topic
 Write an essay based on your research
Proposals

A written offer to undertake a project for designing, creating, something new

or for changing or modifying an existing procedure, method system or
structure within a specified period of time.

Business Proposal

Proposals which deals with the business, commerce or industry.

Research Proposals:

Proposals which requires scientific enquiry or systematic investigation.

Technical Proposal

Proposal with the objective to modify or create something requiring

technical knowledge and skills.
Formal Structure

 Title page

 Table of contents

 List of illustrations

 Executive summary

 Statement of the problem

 Introduction

 Proposed plan or schedule

 Conclusions

 Recommendations

 Appendices
Writing Tips of Proposals

Pre-writing
Writing
Post writing.

Pre-writing

 Purpose Identification
 Audience Analysis
 Project Analysis
 Analysis of the action desired

Writing

Writing a proposal involves organizing the data that has been collected,
outlining what will be presented in the proposal and writing the first draft.
Post Writing

Post writing involves revising, editing and evaluation in order to improve its
content, layout and structure. It should further involve editing the text for
grammatical and lexical accuracy. It should also be evaluated critically to
ensure that the proposal can achieve its purpose. Finally, the draft is
prepared.
Goals

Align Your Goals - show how your vision aligns with their strategic plans
and where their goals will be realized by your research findings. This also
helps if you want to win repeat business from this client.

Improve organizational productivity.

Be selective.

Be specific.

Better writing skills.

Conclusion

Once you have completed the Research Proposal, review it and see if you
have covered the following key areas: purpose, feasibility, needs, funds,
accountability and competence.