5 Mistakes of Business Correspondence

Communication by email has become an essential part of our work that is why emails should be written correctly. Business Insider told about employee’s mistakes in business correspondence.

Nothing could be more obvious. Yet people still make such a mistake. It is always possible to apologize to the person you sent a wrong email to, but he or she will be left with a bad feeling anyways.

So, before sending an email, please check the address and the name of the receiver: “Dear Debra Kelly,...”. Read the name aloud - it will help you to concentrate and not to make a mistake.

The well-known term among journalists “to bury the lead” means to hide the main point deep in the letter. So deep that it is hard to find. It is a mistake commonly seen in business correspondence. To avoid it, ask yourself: “What do I want to say?”. And answer it very quickly. Such a letter - clear, short and to the point - is expected from you by your colleagues.

“I am writing to discuss the cooperation between our companies before the beginning of the fourth quarter.”

If you don’t state the main point at the beginning of the letter, but come to the core long and floridly, the recipient will not understand what the purpose of the letter is. Write simply and avoid unnecessary rant in the texts.

This is a classic failure in business correspondence. Business slang, clear to you and your colleagues, may puzzle your partners and colleagues from other departments.

“Let’s meet at the CO in room 200 at 6:30 pm. Yes, and don’t forget to bring the task, we have the “green code” after 5 pm.”

What is the letter about? Look at the list of recipients of your letter and ask yourself: do they all know what the CO is? Are they all aware of the “green code”? If this is not so, clarify these terms.

“Let’s meet at the central office, in room 200 at 6:30 pm. Yes, and don’t forget the task, we have the “green code” after 5 pm. For those who may not know, the “green code” means that you have to be fully prepared at the meeting”.

See? The letter is much better now.

Very often in the daily rush, we read someone’s letter quickly, reply to it in our minds and forget to actually post the reply. This is unacceptable. You must reply to your colleagues’ letters. Your reply can influence the whole workflow.

Remember, in the age of Twitter and Facebook no one likes reading messages that are longer than two sentences. That is why long paragraphs in business correspondence are just looked through but not read carefully. Break long paragraphs and make them convenient to read.