Improving your business writing skills involves going back to basics. Mastering the art of persuasive writing means being able to craft a strong sentence. Where you place words, as the natural building blocks of writing, determines the effectiveness of a sentence.

Direct or “active” speech is the most powerful way to write a sentence. Unfortunately many people fall into the trap of writing extremely passively which generally uses too many words and kills sentence flow.

The trick to improving your business writing skills boils down to a few fundamental writing rules.

Writing in a more direct fashion always tops the list. In writing parlance it is referred to as “active speech” and represents the cornerstone of persuasive writing. It’s poorer cousin is known as passive speech.

The terms simply refer to the logistical manner in which you position words in a sentence.

Simply put, active speech is the most powerful and effective way to deliver a message as it favours a direct approach. By contrast, passive speech is more descriptive and uses too many words.

Definitions

Active: The subject of the sentence takes direct action.
Passive: The subject of a sentence receives the action.

For example
Active voice: The client ordered the new equipment.
Passive voice: The new equipment was ordered by the client.

Basic sentence structure

The basic structure of a sentence contains a subject + verb + object.

Definitions

Subject: The subject identifies WHO or WHAT is doing the action.

Verb: Refers to the ACTION that links the subject to the object.

Object: The object is WHO or WHAT is feeling the effects of the action.

For example: At ________________, we (subject) offer (verb) high-quality professional service (object) at a competitive price.

It is important to remember the subject and objects can switch places from one clause or sentence to the next.

For example: At ________________, we (subject) offer (verb) high-quality professional service (object) at a competitive price. Our professional service (subject) is (verb) the envy of others (objects).