Natalie Canavor - Business Writing For Dummies: 3rd Edition

Business Writing For Dummies, 3rd Edition

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Copyright 2021 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020952452

ISBN 978-1-119-69669-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-69670-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-69671-1 (ebk)

Delivering your message well and being heard. What could be more important in todays world, which demands that we connect and compete for what we want? When the second edition of this book was published just a few years ago, it didnt seem necessary to talk about who needs to practice business writing. Business writing was assumed to mean writing for work purposes, typically in an office setting, but also encompassing independent contractors and professional specialists.

Today, who needs to write? Who doesnt? We all stand on our own for everyday messaging to get the job done, build relationships and prevent and solve problems. We may need to create traditional materials like reports, proposals and marketing copy. And we typically aim to play a role in the online world and use websites, blogs, networking sites and/or social media to our advantage.

But we also need to write well for personal purposes. Do you want to be a good advocate for a cause you believe in or yourself? Have you needed to write an effective letter of complaint when you were dissatisfied with a purchase, or write a good message when you needed a favor from a friend or relative or stranger? Have you ever competed for something important like buying a home that other people wanted by writing a good letter that explained why you were a perfect match? Did you know you could do that?

Were all making our way today through a rapidly changing culture. This affects the role of writing, who uses it and how we apply those skills. For example, the line between work and life grows blurrier every year. Our friends become our business network; we look for work schedules that accommodate our personal lives; we like recreational opportunities at the office; we bring work home if it engages us.

Lets put that in a fuller perspective of what is changing, how that affects communication and how you can use what this book teaches for your own success.

Change #1 is how fluid our lives are becoming. Todays executive is tomorrows consultant, a scientist builds a business based on his discovery, a lawyer becomes a stay-at-home mom and influential blogger. An obscure person can create a startup or build a charitable cause. A freelancer can decide to take a full-time job or vice versa. Long-term employees may find their organizations restructured, requiring them to behave like entrepreneurs and create their own opportunities.

The future seems to offer little in the way of a straight-and-narrow career path nor do most of us want one. We expect to bounce back and forth among a myriad of options, watching for chances and re-ordering our priorities. Beyond enabling you to make the most of your immediate opportunities, good writing is your best springboard for navigating from one opportunity to the next more successfully. Its often the written messages, rsums and online profiles, social presence, emails and even old-fashioned letters that enable you to be seen as credible, credentialed and creative.

Change #2 is the growing predominance of remote work. This trend has been developing over the last decade, but was sped up unimaginably by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Organizations of all varieties discovered that expensive office space is a whole lot less necessary than they thought. Some studies showed that at-home workers in many spheres actually became more productive at home wherever that might be and that many workers decided they prefer it. A scattered workforce makes good communication especially writing pivotal to accomplishing everyday simple tasks and long-range goals.

An allied trend is the drift toward a gig economy. Many people, especially those new to the workforce, are piecing together short-term jobs to add up to a living sufficient for their needs. If this is where you are right now, you are forever pitching for those gigs. You need all the assets of the classic entrepreneur and must be able to carry on good written conversations by email or other channels.