Business Writing

Editing your message--Some points to consider:

a) Check for Plain English

• Make your average sentence 15 - 20 words in length.
  
• Use only words that your reader is likely to understand.
  
• Use only as many words as you need.
  

b) How long should a paragraph be?

There is no iron rule--but as a rough guide:

• Have at least 3 paragraphs per each page of text.
  
• Vary the length of paragraphs on a page as much as possible.
  
• Aim for paragraphs of between 3 - 6 sentences.
  
• Use a short paragraph at the beginning of the document as a summary or introduction.

c) Use a Topic Sentence in every paragraph

This is the first sentence and should summarize the information in the paragraph. Thinking about your topic sentence will help you decide what to include in the paragraph. All the material in the topic sentence should support the topic sentence. A topic sentence should:

• be a fully grammatical sentence
  
• make a single point
  
• be no longer than 15 - 20 words
  
• say something new

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Creating a Message
Editing your message (2)
Editing your Message (3)
Confusion Zones