Your Guide to Business Writing

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—Bite-sized advice for better business writing—

Your Guide to
Business Writing

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

— Ernest Hemingway

Tim: Please float right the following image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cz7bwu7JBIyZk6T4zOsGbm4AFA1PiCR9/view?usp=sharing

We feel you, Ernest. And if writing can be a struggle for Hemingway, think about the average person who has to write emails and reports and proposals at work. If only there were a free online business writing resource.

There is! The Write for Business Guide provides answers to all of your business-writing questions.

Where can I get started?

You can start by checking out the Top 10 business-writing questions on the homepage, or you can enter a search term to jump directly to the information you seek.

You might want to check out one of these major sections:

How will the Guide help me write?

You’ll find guidelines for writing the most important business documents, as well as many models of each. And those models have templates that you can download and modify to create your own documents. You can use the checklist for each form to revise and edit your documents.

You’ll even find specific chapters for the three basic types of messages:

How will the Guide help me improve?

You’ll find practical strategies for solving business-writing problems.

What’s the "Proofreader’s Guide" for?

The "Proofreader’s Guide" explains the rules of writing, giving examples.

There are even chapters to help English Language Learners with the weirder rules of the language.

Is all of this stuff free online?

Absolutely! No login, no subscription, no nonsense.

Why? We want to be your writing resource!

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Scavenger Hunt!

Go to the homepage of the Write for Business Guide and use the search bar to find the following information:

  1. What five parts should you analyze in each communication situation?
  2. What’s the difference between “disburse” and “disperse”?
  3. What is the rule about using commas with nonrestrictive modifiers?
  4. What does the BEBE formula stand for, and what does it do?
  5. What can you do if your writing is wordy?
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Get More Support

Check out the Write for Business Guide, Courses, and eTips for more solutions to business-writing problem.

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Editor’s Recommendation

  1. What five parts should you analyze in each communication situation? (Sender, Message, Medium, Receiver, Context)
  2. What’s the difference between “disburse” and “disperse”? (“Disburse” means “to pay out funds.” “Disperse” means “to spread out or break up.”)
  3. What is the rule about using commas with nonrestrictive modifiers? (If a phrase or clause can be dropped from the sentence without changing its overall meaning, set the words off with commas.)
  4. What does the BEBE formula stand for, and what does it do? (Buffer, Explanation, Bad news, Exit—it’s a formula for organizing bad-news messages.)
  5. What can you do if your writing is wordy? (Remove “puffed up” language and use plain language instead.)