How formal should your business writing be?
by Tim North
Published on this site: November 23rd, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
Do you write business letters or other business correspondence?
If so, think about how these questions apply to your situation:
- When is it appropriate to use first-person pronouns like
I, we, me, us, my and our?
- When is it appropriate to use contractions like it's,
isn't, we'll and let's?
If we were e-mailing a personal note to a friend, most of
us would use both first-person pronouns and contractions.
If we were writing a report to be sent to a senior executive,
we might use neither. So the question arises: How do we decide
when to use them and when not to?
First-person pronouns and contractions can affect the tone
of our writing in various ways (both good and bad) as shown
in the following table:
Contractions and Pronouns
- informal
- disrespectful
- natural sounding stiff
- inviting, warm
No Contractions or Pronouns
- formal
- respectful
- stiff, wooden, pompous
- distant, cold, official
One common practice in business writing is to always avoid
first-person pronouns and contractions because it's believed
that they're too informal or too isrespectful. For example,
many business writers will always write "the department"
instead of "I", or "it is" instead of "it's".
While there are, in some situations, good legal reasons for
writing "the department" instead of "I",
do you do it too often?
Similarly, is it always necessary to avoid contractions in
your writing?
My own feeling is that always avoiding first-person pronouns
and contractions can result in unnecessarily formal writing
that may sound unnatural or wooden. People don't usually speak
this way. They speak using both first-person pronouns and
contractions, so I offer the advice that in many (but not
all) situations it's appropriate to write it the way you'd
say it.
Business writing is often highly stylised and rather pompous.
For example: "Pursuant to our recent communication the
department writes to inform you that...". This can leave
your readers feeling alienated or annoyed. This is particularly
true if you're writing for the general public.
A useful strategy is to try reading your document out loud.
If you find yourself saying things that are different from
what you've written (e.g. you ay "let's" but you
wrote "let us"), that's a clue that your writing
may be a bit too formal.
Of course, there can be good reasons to avoid first-person
pronouns and contractions. For example:
- You're deliberately trying to be highly formal such as
when you reprimand someone.
- You're writing to someone more senior and wish to show
clear respect and deference.
- Your manager just insists on it.
On balance, though, in most writing, I think that first-person
pronouns and contractions are quite acceptable. If you write
in a natural-sounding fashion, you'll be more easily understood,
more personal and will seem less contrived.
You'll find many more helpful tips like these in Tim
North's much applauded range of e-books. More information
is available on his web site, and all books come with a money-back
guarantee. http://www.BetterWritingSkills.com
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