Garner - HBR Guide to Better Business Writing

Garners Modern American Usage

Garners Dictionary of Legal Usage

Blacks Law Dictionary (all editions since 1996)

Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts, with Justice Antonin Scalia

Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges, with Justice Antonin Scalia

Garner on Language and Writing

The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style

The Elements of Legal Style

The Chicago Manual of Style, Ch. 5, Grammar and Usage (15th & 16th eds.)

The Winning Brief

Legal Writing in Plain English

Ethical Communications for Lawyers

Securities Disclosure in Plain English

Guidelines for Drafting and Editing Court Rules

The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style

A Handbook of Basic Legal Terms

A Handbook of Business Law Terms

A Handbook of Criminal Law Terms

A Handbook of Family Law Terms

Copyright 2012 Bryan A. Garner

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Garner, Bryan A.

HBR guide to better business writing / Bryan A. Garner.

p. cm. (Harvard business review guides)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4221-8403-5 (alk. paper)

1. Commercial correspondence. 2. Business writing.

I. Harvard business review. II. Title. III. Title: Guide to better business writing.

HF5718.3.G37 2013

808.06'665dc23

2012032809

eBook development by eBook Architects

To J.P. Allen,

my lifelong friend

Do you freeze up when writing memos to senior executives? Do your reports meander and raise more questions than they answer for key stakeholders? Do your e-mails to colleagues disappear into a void, never to be answered or acted on? Do your proposals fail to win clients?

Youll lose a lot of time, money, and influence if you struggle with business writing. And its a common problem. Many of us fumble for the right words and tone in our documents, even if were articulate when we speak. But it doesnt have to be that way. Writing clearly and persuasively requires neither magic nor luck. Its a skill and this guide will give you the confidence and the tools you need to cultivate it.

Youll get better at:

• Pushing past writers block.
• Motivating readers to act.
• Organizing your ideas.
• Expressing your main points clearly.
• Cutting to the chase.
• Holding readers attention.
• Writing concise, useful summaries.
• Trimming the fat from your documents.
• Striking the right tone.
• Avoiding grammar gaffes.

You may think you shouldnt fuss about your writing that good enough is good enough. But that mind-set is costly. Supervisors, colleagues, employees, clients, partners, and anyone else you communicate with will form an opinion of you from your writing. If its artless and sloppy, they may assume your thinking is the same. And if you fail to convince them that they should care about your message, they wont care. They may even decide youre not worth doing business with. The stakes are that high.

Some people say its not a big deal. They may feel complacent. Or they may think its ideas that matternot writing. But good writing gets ideas noticed. It gets them realized. So dont be misled: Writing well is a big deal.

Those who write poorly create barriers between themselves and their readers; those who write well connect with readers, open their minds, and achieve goals.

All it takes is a few words to make a strong impression, good or bad. Lets look at four brief passagestwo effective and two not. See whether you can tell which ones are which:

1. In the business climate as it exists at this point in time, one might be justified in having the expectation that the recruitment and retention of new employees would be facilitated by the economic woes of the current job market. However, a number of entrepreneurial business people have discovered that it is no small accomplishment to add to their staff people who will contribute to their bottom line in a positive, beneficial way.
2. In this job market, you might think that hiring productive new employees would be easy. But many entrepreneurs still struggle to find good people.
3. The idea of compensating a celebrity who routinely uses social media to the tune of thousands of dollars to promote ones company by tweeting about it may strike one as unorthodox, to say the least. But the number of businesses appropriating and expending funds for such activities year on year as a means of promotion is very much on the rise.
4. Paying a celebrity thousands of dollars to promote your company in 140-character tweets may seem crazy. But more and more businesses are doing just that.

Can you tell the difference? Of course you can. The first and third examples are verbose and redundant. The syntax is convoluted and occasionally derails. The second and fourth examples are easy to understand, economical, and straightforward. They dont waste the readers time.

You already recognize business writing that gets the job doneand trust me, you can learn to produce it. Maybe you think writing is a bother. Many people do. But there are time-tested methods for reducing the worry and labor. Thats what youll find in this book, along with lots of before and after examples that show these methods in action. (Theyre adapted from real documents, but disguised.)

Good writing isnt an inborn gift. Its a skill you cultivate, like so many others. Anyone of normal athletic ability can learn to shoot a basketball or hit a golf ball reasonably well. Anyone of normal intelligence and coordination can learn to play a musical instrument competently. And if youve read this far, you can learn to write wellprobably very wellwith the help of a few guiding principles.

If youre in business, and youre writing anything to get resultse-mails, proposals, reports, you name itthen youre a professional writer. Broadly speaking, you belong to the same club as journalists, ad agencies, and book authors: Your success may well depend on the writing you produce and its effect on readers. Thats why what you produce should be as polished as you can make it.