Business English Writing: How to Help Our Clients Write with Impact

This session was presented by Shanthi Cumaraswamy Streat and was one I wish I had been able to attend live as I sometimes have to teach Business English. I did learn how to write business letters in my previous working life but we can always learn something new. I am grateful that it was recorded. It was interesting for me to hear about her because I, too, came to teaching later in life!

She talked about what students need (even if they don't always realise it themselves!) Her clients want to have more vocabulary,  to use more complex sentence structures, to use more sophisticated language - in short to write like a 'native speaker' and not spend so much time doing it!

What they really need is to be clear about their objective, their reason for writing. they need to think about their reader and to have better cohesion of thought and to use simpler language. This was very popular when I worked in the bank. We needed to  write to customers in language they could use not in jargonese! It still bugs me when people write long winded sentences to explain a simple concept.
The students need to learn about the structure of their texts. This is all very similar to what I teach when teaching writing skills.

Shanthi asks her students to think about the above questions when they want to do a piece of writing, again generally similar to the questions I teach my students (but I am teaching General English or Exam English)

They need to decide whether they are writing to a client or internally, their position in the heirarchy and leading on from this the formality of the text to be produced. The next question is to determine the function of the communication. It is selling, persuading, informing, complaining or giving news. Again the type of function depends of the style of language to be used.

Something she gained from a Business Maximiser book was the detail in the following slide.

I need to remember that this is for real business communication so the first point is very important. Will a phone call cover this situation? and then the rest of the points need to be looked at. Then she started to look at the procedure and a common theme from the participants (me too ) is to make a plan or brainstorm first. and then build your communication from these notes.  I have spent so much time telling my students to make a plan before they write to make sure that they have all the content they need before they start writing. Using these notes they can prepare an outline and easily select and reject things they want to include. I also had a problem which I called the crazy bumble bee. The students would write long rambling texts which were all over the place. By making plans they were able to write a 'straight line' communication which is what I was aiming for.

She  then looked at some of the formats for organising writing, these are shown in the next slide.

All of these are logical for us but may not be in the culture which the learner comes from. Shanthi was also talking about culture when talking about sentence structure, the Spanish love to write long sentences with many clauses but this doesn't work in English. I tell my students that it sounds like they are running! Shorter sentences means there is less chance of making mistakes, they need not necessarily be simpler. They should use a mix of complex and compound sentences. Simple sentences are concise and straightforward whereas complex sentences are more professional and serious.

For my reference a compound sentence is two simpler sentences joined together with a conjunction like 'and' or 'but'. A complex sentence which is joined with a relative pronoun or contains a subordinating conjunction.

After that she looked at the effect of using different contrast words in the same context. Which words may throw a different light or emphasis on parts of the text. And then she looked at logical connectors and the reasons for choosing them, what their functions are. It is important for learners to know how to use linkers correctly, so don't just give them a list! We also looked at chronological connectors which are easier to understand.

Sometimes students like the layout of a letter, even though it may not contain such high level language. Clarity is king! Students also need to know the difference between formal writing, professional writing and informal writing.

Shanthi suggested that standard professional writing is probably a happy medium to achieve. There are also two different styles, push and pull, the  differences can be seen in the slide below.

Again, as she said, it is logical once you think about it , but very often we need to see it first in order to appreciate it. I had never heard about this before but it does make sense. Push is more likely to raise animosity by the recipient and may have the opposite effect to that desired.  We should also use more positive words and again she gave us a list of possible alternatives.

Shanthi gave us the 4 'C's of writing - be Clear, Concise, Complete and Correct. She then referred to the Clear English campaign, why use a long word if a shorter one will do! Some of the longer phrases some older people, like me, use automatically because it is the way we learned.

We should also make students aware of common abbreviations that may be used in business contexts to help them with understanding as well as using them.

Shanthi told us that if a student writes a letter which looks very complicated ask them to explain it in their own words verbally. Then tell them to write what they said as it is clearer as often when they write from a plan they lose the clarity.

She finished off with the does and don't of writing for students.

This was quite a long session but it didn't seem long and there was so much information which may be of use to me. Thank you very much Shanthi.