Business Writing:  Top 10 Biggest Business Writing Blunders That Make You Look Incompetent - Part 2
Channel: Dianna Booher - Communication Strategist & Author
Date: 2012-07-09

http://www.booherresearch.com  1-817-283-2333
Executive Communication Expert Dianna Booher

The Write-As-You-Think Approach:   Part of the message here. Part of the message there. An action here.  An action there.  Just as the brain waves flow in all directions, so do the sentences and paragraphs flow in all directions.  The document reflects totally disorganized thinking.

Wordiness:  If you mean, "Efficiency in using equipment influences productivity,"  don't write this:  "The efficiency with which an operation utilizes its available equipment is an influential factor in productivity."  Cut the clutter.

Passive Voice:  Some writers remove all the people from their writing in a mistaken attempt to sound objective.  Passive voice means the subject of the sentence receives the action of the verb:
Passive:  The document was signed.
Active:   The client signed the document.

In the marketplace, who does what is often key information.  Leave the doers intact in your sentences. Passive voice has a purpose. If you don't know why you're using it, don't.

Run-On Sentences:  "Carlos supports the idea he thinks the funding will be granted shortly" written as one sentence is WRONG. It's two ideas jammed together.

Danglers:  "While interviewing the applicant here in Detroit, the position was filled by headquarters."  In the previous sentence, who was interviewing the applicant in Detroit?  As written, the sentence says, "the position" was interviewing the applicant -- totally illogical idea.  

Your words are always clear to you, or you wouldn't have written them that way.  So beware others' blank stare.