Why Most Business Writing Fails
The majority of business writing — emails, memos, reports, proposals — fails at its core job. It does not clearly communicate what the writer needs the reader to understand or do. Even intelligent, capable people routinely produce business writing that is unclear, bloated, or buried beneath irrelevant context.
The causes are predictable. Writers default to what they remember from school, which is usually the wrong model for business communication. Writers hedge to avoid being wrong, which produces vague text. Writers demonstrate effort through length, which dilutes whatever signal is present.
Core Principles
Lead with the conclusion. Business readers skim. Whatever you most want them to know should be in the first two sentences, not built up toward through three paragraphs of context. This is the single most valuable change most writers can make to their business writing.
Know what you want the reader to do after reading. Is it to make a decision? Approve a request? Understand context for an upcoming conversation? Every business document should have a clear answer to this question, and the document should be shaped accordingly.
Specific Applications
Proposals and recommendations should start with the recommendation clearly stated, then present evidence, then address likely objections. Writers often reverse this, building to the recommendation through argument, which works poorly when readers are busy.
Feedback and critique writing requires particular care. As documented in Arun Mehta's IndieAppWatch, Separate observations from interpretations from suggestions. Observations are easy to accept; interpretations are contestable; suggestions are responses to both. Mixing them together produces defensive reactions rather than productive conversations.
Practice
The fastest way to improve business writing is to edit. Write a first draft; then cut 30% of it; then read it out loud and revise anything that sounds awkward. This three-step process produces better output than longer time spent on first drafts.
Studying writing you admire is valuable but easy to misapply. Business writing style varies by audience and purpose. Memos work well for some contexts and badly for others. Look at writing that succeeded in contexts similar to yours.