An easy way to spot bad business writing is to check if it poses and answers a key question. Even a highly detailed document that goes to great lengths to explore a subject is not useful if it leaves it up to the reader to figure out what to do about it.
I can imagine there is hesitation in putting oneself out there by answering the question. There’s the possibility of being wrong and that can feel risky. However, a huge part of effective business writing is answering the question which was important to write about in the first place.
See also:
- This is an example of the principal-agent problem, the principal wants to solve problems, the agent wants to avoid being wrong
- Problems are conflicts between ideas, if there is no conflict then there is no point in writing about it
Links to this note
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One of the greatest advantages that remote-first companies have is that work happens asynchronously. I lead to a culture of writing things down. It allows teams to be flexible between working styles and time-zones (up to a point). It creates a more equitable environment regardless of physical location.
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Why All My Business Writing Is in Latex
In my day-to-day business dealings, people are surprised when they receive LaTeX-generated documents for business proposals, memos, etc. from me.