Business Writing

MARKETING 4820—BRAND MANAGEMENT

BUSINESS WRITING & FORMATTING, CONTENT

GUIDELINES FOR CASE ASSIGNMENTS

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Guidelines for writing and formatting case analyses (Adapted: McKinsey & Co)

BUSINESS WRITING PHILOSOPHY

• Business writing is not the same as essays, standard prose and how you probably write for most classes.

• Good business writing is concise, easy-to-follow, easy-to-comprehend and easy-to-review by “others in the firm” or, in your case, your clients. (Busy executives have a lot to read every day, so the more concise, clear, to-the-point a business document is, the better the opportunity to communicate and persuade.)

• Good business writing is effective, efficient and utilitarian. Its purpose is to engage and inform, not to entertain or amuse.

• No style points are awarded for beauty of prose; flowery adjectives and adverbs; long inverted sentences; blocky text-heavy paragraphs; intrigue or surprise endings. Forget about these! Substance trumps style in business writing.

• Still, don’t ever forget that business writing needs to connect with, engage and impress its audience, so good grammar, clarity of thought and expression, smooth transitions and flow, good syntax, accurate punctuation and correct spelling all are essential. Overall impressions are the result of multiple details, signals and clues.

• Spelling and grammar errors undermine the credibility of the author(s) and, by implication, the substance of the document: “If the format and grammar isn’t right, how accurate can the substance be?”

• In a word, business documents must be professional! They should look professional and read professionally. The content and how it is delivered reflect upon the professionalism and credibility of the author(s) and the subject matter.

• Business documents are nearly always written in the impersonal third person. They are almost never personal, in either the first person singular or plural. For example, “The...