Lead Buzz 03/05

Write On

Too many business documents are too long and written from the writer's perspective instead of the reader's perspective, says Deborah Dumaine, author of Write to the Top: Writing for Corporate Success and founder of Better Communications, a Lexington, Massachusetts, firm that helps employees improve their writing skills. "Grammar isn't the biggest problem in business writing; it's getting the message across," she says.

Well-written documents help firms seem larger and more established. Better writing also boosts employee productivity, Dumaine says: Her clients report a 73 percent increase in productivity after employees are trained to write more effectively, since employees aren't composing documents that require going "back and forth to clarify," she says.