WRITING EFFECTIVE SENTENCES/EFFECTIVE BUSINESS WRITING

The sentence is the basic unit of writing. A sentence has a subject and predicate and

expresses at least one complete thought. Beyond these simple attributes, however,

sentences vary widely in style, length, and effect. They are also very flexible; writers can

move sentence parts around, add and delete information, and substitute words in order to

express different ideas and emphasize different points.

Effective Sentences

•    To build effective sentences, use a variety of sentence types, and use active and passive voice appropriately.

•   Use a Variety of Sentence Types: There are three basic sentence patterns – simple, compound, and complex – all of which are appropriate for business writing.

Sentence Types

•         A simple sentence contains one independent clause. (i.e. I quit.)

•         A compound sentence contains two or more independent clauses. (i.e. Stacey listened, but I nodded.)

•         A complex sentence contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. (i.e. I’ll be moving to Dhaka when I assume my new position.)

Using Active and Passive Voice

•         Use active sentences most of the time in business writing, just as you naturally use active sentences in most of your conversation.

•         Passive sentences are most appropriate when you want to emphasize the receiver of the action, when the person doing the action is either unknown or unimportant, or when you want to be tactful in conveying negative information.

Competent communicators achieve their objectives by writing with confidence, courtesy,

and sincerity. They recognize that not all ideas are equally important, and they use

techniques of emphasis and subordination to develop a common frame of reference

between writer and reader. They use nondiscriminatory language in their writing by

treating everyone equally and by not making unwarranted assumptions about any group

of people.

Effective writing keeps the emphasis on the reader – stressing what the reader needs to

know and how the reader will be affected by that message. Effective messages are also

written at an appropriate level of difficulty so that the reader can easily understand the

passage, based on its style of writing.