Professional and Academic Writing: Home

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1 - Use active voice. 

To sound more professional, be concise and to the point. Short and uncomplicated sentence structure that uses active verb phrases and minimizes passive voice will express your point more quickly and clearly, avoiding potential miscommunication and confusion.

• Example: Instead of “Your efforts to expedite the process are appreciated,” write “I appreciate your efforts to expedite the process.”

2 - Focus on formal language. 

Engage the reader with a professional tone that’s free from unprofessional, informal language. Stay away from figures of speech, slang or jargon, colloquialisms, and redundant expressions that can add take away from the intended message you’re trying to convey.

• Example: Instead of “Our teams need to focus on creating efficiencies rather than continuing to use old-school processes that boil the ocean,” try “Our teams need to focus on creating efficiencies rather than utilizing outdated processes that use up a significant amount of our valuable time.”

3 - Incorporate statistics and facts.

Concrete examples, statistics, and facts create a more powerful message for readers, while generalizations can tend to have less of an impact when written.

• Example: Instead of “Many companies consider us a leader in our field,” try “Forbes and Bloomberg ranked us as number one of the top 100 cloud companies for the third year in a row.” 

4 - Revise for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. 

No one is immune to mistakes—no matter how good of a writer they are. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar should be carefully reviewed before content is submitted or sent off to its intended audience. Simple mistakes create a poor impression that can be difficult to shake off.

• Example: When time is of the essence, you can run your content through a virtual writing assistant like Grammarly, which quickly detects mistakes and provides suggestions for improvement in a matter of seconds.

5 - Eliminate excessive words and awkward phrasing. 

Deliver concise writing that avoids redundant phrasing—it can cause your message to land awkwardly.

• Example: Instead of “In my personal opinion, a rough estimate should suffice,” try “In my opinion, an estimate should suffice.”

6 - Ensure content strikes the intended tone. 

Just as people sometimes say things they don’t mean, people can also write things that don’t necessarily reflect what they want to convey. While in spoken conversation this can easily be rectified, the stakes are a bit higher in professional writing. It’s critical for employees to ensure their writing strikes the intended tone to eliminate any chance for misinterpretation or confusion—especially since they can’t quickly justify or clarify the meaning in real-time. Content needs to be carefully written in a way that is clear, concise, and contributes to creating the right tone.

• Example: Instead of “Why did you do that!?” try “Can you please elaborate on the thought process behind your actions?”

While these tips may be quick to implement on an individual basis, following up to check for compliance presents a greater challenge. How can you make sure everyone on your team is producing consistently professional writing?

Source Grammarly