When I teach business writing, I often tell students that their writing will go further in the organization than they will. The email you write will be read by the CEO before you ever meet. More people will see your slide deck than will ever sit in an audience at your presentation. Writing matters more than ever now in business, and yet it's one of the hardest things to get people to focus on. Why is that? In a world of quick communication, we often forget that one of the most powerful tools for scaling our leadership is the written word. And for many of us, the stakes feel higher when we're writing—not only because our words often enter the room before we do and stay after we've left—but because writing commits our thoughts to paper in a way that feels definite. Well, writing is high-stakes. But that doesn't mean it has to be confining, difficult, or isolating. The best writing represents you in a way that feels as authentic as a conversation and connects you to an audience beyond your immediate circle.

I like to start with the building blocks of business writing: the ABCs. All business writing should be Active, Brief, and Clear.

Active

I urge my students to adjust their writing to the active voice whenever and wherever possible. This usually requires two steps: First, we have to be able to identify the passive voice in our writing. Second, we have to replace the passive voice with something more energetic and engaging. The distinction between these two sentences easily illustrates the distinction between passive (1) and active (2) voice:

1. The ball was kicked by Tim.
2. Tim kicked the ball.

The active sentence puts the protagonist at the beginning of the sentence. It more immediately answers the question, “Who did what?” Not only is that sentence more concise and engaging, but it gives credit to Tim. Consider how easily the first sentence might be shortened to “The ball was kicked,” completely eliminating Tim from the equation. (And after all the hard work he put in!) There are plenty of examples of the passive voice as weak communication through history and pop culture. Think of Reagan's notorious “Mistakes were made,” or “Recommendations were offered,” or “Opinions were expressed.”

It's not that we should never use the passive voice, but we should limit its use to keep our writing active and engaging. In high school I had a remarkable instructor, Mr. Dave Wessling, who drilled into us the ironic phrase, “The passive voice is that which is to be avoided.” When we write using the passive voice, we can come across as pompous, arrogant, or at the very least, out of touch with the situation we're trying to describe. We downgrade the human element of our communication—and it's the human element to which our audiences most strongly connect.

Committing to the active voice enables us to be distinct from other writers in the organization and is the first step toward stronger business writing.

The closest my classes ever come to resembling high-school grammar classes is when I teach the concept of eliminating concealed verbs. Here, I illustrate the process by which we take a lovely active verb and tack on an ending like -ion or -tion to turn it into a noun. “We decided” becomes “We made a decision.” “We informed the stakeholders” becomes “We gave the stakeholders some information.” When we can eliminate these camouflaged verbs and use the verbs themselves, our writing becomes more active and more interesting—not to mention that we naturally position ourselves to be more concise.

Another way to amplify your active writing is to avoid the faulty subject structures “it is” and “there are.” When we see those phrases, we don't know what “it” or “there” refers to. As I was creating my own doctorate dissertation at Penn, my advisor went through one entire chapter, circling each time I used one of these constructions. At times the subject was clear, but most of the time the subject was not identifiable. (I was so focused on my research that my active writing voice slipped into unconscious incompetence mode!) These constructions are so easy to identify in a draft. If you are able to transform even half of them into more active, clear, and interesting sentences, you will improve your document immensely.

Brief

The attention spans of our readers are likely not what we would hope them to be. At best, they are unpredictable. Again I rely on Mr. Wessling, who famously told our class, “Make your answers long enough to finish.” As a leader, each of us wants to be known as someone whose message is clear, concise, and unambiguous, and it takes time to write that way. But if we invest the time, our readers won't have to. And it's far more likely that they will make it through our document, grasp our message, and remember it.

Try eliminating weak verbs like is, was, were, has, have, and had. Using a more powerful verb (see our list in Appendix A) creates a more engaging sentence that requires fewer words. You might also try reducing a phrase to a single word. “Made a decision” could become “decided.” “Came into the room” could be “arrived.”

And in the interest of our own brevity … we'll leave it at that.

Clear

If you've succeeded in writing actively and briefly, your writing should now be clear. To make sure, think back to the AIM framework. Ask yourself: After reading this document, will the audience take the action I want them to take? Is it clear what I'm asking them to do? Is there any thought, phrase, or sentence that will cause the reader to stumble? If there's a point in an email where a reader has to re-read a paragraph for clarity, it's not the reader's failing—it's the writer's.

At the end of this section, we'll offer you some ways to edit others’ writing as well as your own. There you'll find a number of other strategies to determine whether your writing is active, brief, and clear enough to make the impact you want.

Synthesis > Summary

When I teach writing, I begin by adapting a technique I first learned in Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick. They relate a story from the legendary screenwriter Nora Ephron (famous for the films Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally, and Julie & Julia, to name just a few). When Ephron was a student in high school, her journalism instructor gave the class the facts below and asked them to write the headline:

Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California governor Edmond ‘Pat’ Brown.

(Made to Stick, p. 75)

I put that same task in front of my MBA students, asking them to come up with a headline for a high school newspaper based on these facts. Much like Ephron's peers decades ago, my students end up summarizing the facts, without much style. In fact, many times their headline is simply a repetition of the facts I gave them.

The job of a headline writer is not to summarize, but rather to synthesize: capture the essence of the information for the audience at hand. In this case, as Ephron's wise journalism instructor told them, the headline should be “No School Next Thursday.” That's the core message for the audience reading the paper.

Any manager can summarize, but it's the task of a leader to synthesize. That's why I tell them the one (and only) formula they will ever need to know is Syn>Sum. Synthesis is greater than summary. It's a crucial skill to learn.

Our colleague Matt Abrahams gets at the same point with this structural tip: When you're delivering a message, think, “What, so what, now what.” Share the information (what), tell us why it's relevant (so what), and articulate what action is needed (now what). It's another pithy way to emphasize that leadership communication delivers information that allows the audience to quickly grasp the action that's required. Synthesis is a crucial, and often ignored, leadership skill. Any manager can synthesize (what), but it's the task of a leader to synthesize (so what, now what).

Another way we get to the difference between synthesis and summary is this technique we use in the LOWKeynotes program, where GSB students deliver a “half TED talk” of nine minutes to a large audience. During the iteration period for these talks, students deliver rehearsals to a small group of peers, guest coaches, and faculty like myself. As the students deliver their talks, I type furiously on my iPad. I write down every thought I have: what's working, what isn't, questions that could be answered, visuals that could be included. But to bombard the speaker with this summary of every thought I have would be overwhelming … and difficult to prioritize. So rather than offering a summary—a comprehensive brain dump of every suggestion—I distill my summary down to a synthesis. I offer the top points for the speaker to take away: a few things that worked, and a few places to focus for the next iteration. Think of your summary as the full overview and your synthesis as the highlights—and aim to offer the latter.

The Yin and Yang of Writing: Style and Content

Whenever I teach business writing, I show students a picture of a yin-and-yang symbol. I encourage them to think of the yin as the style and format, and the yang as the substance and content. Each is of equal weight. If your report is informative and substantive, but written in an unengaging style, no one will read it and it won't have impact. If your email is beautifully formatted and styled but lacks substance, it won't persuade your reader. To be a successful writer, you can't have one without the other. There has to be a there there.

When your writing is active, brief, and clear and you're offering syntheses rather than summaries, you're well on your way to persuasive, meaningful substance and content. Turning your attention to style and format requires you to focus on making your document user-friendly. The easier it is for your readers to navigate and digest your words, the more they'll appreciate your message. In the words of the SEC's Plain English Handbook, “A plain English document is easy to read and looks like it's meant to be read” (5).

A good place to start is at the very beginning of your document. From the title of your report or the subject line of your email, your reader should already know your main point, ask, or argument. Consider your title as a TL;DR. How many of us have skipped over an email with the uninformative subject line, “Checking in,” “Following up,” or, even less informative, “No subject”? Your readers are more likely to read on (or open the attachment) if they know why they are doing it. Some better versions of the subject lines above might be “Rescheduling August 22 meeting” or “Follow-up chat about design on Friday 11 a.m.?” These subject lines cut right to the chase. They're descriptive, precise, and they let the reader know why you've composed the document.

Once you've opened with an informative title, continue the theme by using actionable headings. Each section of your document should begin with a bold, specific, and actionable heading with your key takeaway. If busy readers were to skip all of the body paragraphs of your document and read only title and headings, they should be able to understand your main arguments and asks. To decide on your heading, identify the main thing a reader should know about that section of your email or report. Then format it as a bolded phrase at the top of that section.

Now you might think about how your document looks. Is it a sea of words without much white space? How often are you giving your reader the respite of a paragraph break? Adding ample white space to your document allows your reader a rest to digest your message. It can make your document feel more approachable. Try looking at your document as though it were a piece of art. What's the ratio of white space to words? See whether you can increase that ratio to improve the readability of your document.

One way to improve that ratio is by using bullet points. Bullet points increase your use of white space, highlight important terms, and can clearly visualize lists. We urge our students to look for lists or itemized points in their documents, and where appropriate, experiment with using bullet points to express those lists. The easier it is to scan your email or report, the better.

The Power of Editing (Others’ Work and Your Own)

This section of our book isn't about the rules of grammar. It's about leadership writing, which focuses on results and intent. And the best chance you can give yourself to write for impact (in a way that's active, brief, and clear!) is to invest in your skills as an editor. Taking a second or third look not only at your own work, but at the work of others, can improve your ability to spot opportunities for concision and clarity. With enough practice, good editors will be able to spot the patterns of bad habits in their own work, and over time, they'll be able to eliminate more of these habits on the first pass.

But as you start writing, our hope is that you'll relieve yourself of the burden of editing. Per Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird, we hope that your first attempt at writing your email, report, or presentation will truly be a “shitty first draft.” Think of your drafting period as a time to get out all your thoughts with your audience, intent, and message in mind. Most of us are much more effective editors with the benefit of distance from the document. When you're finished writing your shitty first draft, get up, stretch your legs, have some coffee. You've earned it. Then, in an hour—or even better, in a day—return to your document with fresh eyes, armed with the following set of recommendations for evaluating your work.

Through her extensive experience as a coach at the GSB and beyond, my coauthor Kara Levy has developed a specific approach to coaching editing that I want to share here for you. Kara says:

First, I urge my students to read their work back to themselves aloud. The ear will often catch errors or habits that the eye can't. While reading, our eyes do us the magical service of filling in blanks where words are missing, interpreting awkward constructions for us, and traversing long blocks of text that could (and should!) be much shorter. But our ears are not so talented. When we read our work aloud, we find out how long it takes us to read a lengthy sentence or how many times we've repeated a word. So find a place where you won't disturb your neighbors or garner odd looks from your colleagues, and start by reading your work aloud.

For your own work and for others’ work, pay close attention to where you want to know more. When questions come up, mark them. What kind of information would satisfy your curiosity? Would a reason make the point stronger? Would an example illustrate the reason more fully?

Where do you get confused, bored, or otherwise thrown off track? Likewise, it can be helpful to mark where you find the prose especially energetic, the points well made, or the conversation interesting. Reinforcing what's working is a useful way to create habits around writing tendencies that contribute to our success.

Return to the suggestions we've made about being active, brief, and clear; and about considering structure. Have you done so effectively?

Next, you may want to listen—remember, we're still reading aloud here—for a few specific opportunities to tighten and strengthen your prose. Here are some places to begin:

• Avoid conditionals. Where you hear “I would suggest,” change the phrase to “I suggest.”
• Remember the active part of “active, brief, and clear.” Where you hear the passive voice, convert it to active voice.
• Where you see a long phrase communicating an action, reduce it to a single verb. For example, “makes you feel motivated to” could simply be “inspires.”
• Remove information that the audience already knows. This could be something as factual as data with which the audience is already familiar, or as sneaky as the phrase “I think.” (Your readers already assume that you hold these opinions, since you are their author!)
• Break a long sentence into two or more. You'll know if the sentence is long if you had to take a big breath in the middle, if it took effort to parse, or if you got confused midway.
• Remember the power of informative titles and headings. Try the scan test: If you read only the title and your headings of your document and skipped the body paragraphs, would you understand the general message, ask, or argument? If not, it might be a good time to add some specific and informative language to your title and headings.

Trading work with a colleague or friend can help you to familiarize yourself with applying these tools to others’ writing styles as well as your own. And those extra minutes you spend ensuring that your writing is as active, brief, and clear as it needs to be can improve your impact and increase your credibility in ways that may make the difference between a convincing document and a forgettable one. Think of editing as a gift you give yourself twice: the freedom to write a first draft unburdened by correctness, and the opportunity to use perspective to craft your best work.