Are you communicating with your clients and coworkers effectively? Are your messages short and polite? That balance is what we call conciseness.

Most people want to read short, clear messages that tell them exactly what you need or what they have to do without a lot of extra words.

Our professional writing has to be concise because, unfortunately, no one wants to read anything. Most of the people who are reading your messages or are writing to you are doing so because they need to get things done, or we need them to get things done.

They need to have information. Rather than reading to enjoy your emails, like they would a good book, they are reading the message trying to figure out: Why are you writing to me? And, what am I supposed to do with this?

Quick Tip: Make every word count (because no one wants to read anything).

Want to know why? Read our blog post.

See what other industry experts are saying about conciseness...

Concise Writing

"In writing, being concise means to use the least amount of words to express an idea clearly. Stripping out filler words and sentences can help strengthen your piece of writing for many reasons..."



Your Colleagues Don't Read Anything You Write: Here Are 8 Ways to Change That

"Long emails and dense, difficult to decipher memos mean modern office communication goes ignored more often than it’s understood... 'Nobody will ever want to read anything you write at work. Period'..."

Here's a concise video about conciseness!

Writing Concisely - UNC Writing Center

Want to know where we got this tip? A variety of resources. But the book Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: And Other Tough-Love Truths to Make You a Better Writer by Steven Pressfield gives some great information about writing for your readers.

Quote of the Month

“Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.”



―William Zinsser, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

We're so close to releasing our business writing guide, Bad Jokes and Lethal Business Writing; The Ultimate Guide to Effective Business Writing in 5 Easy Lessons

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Take your career to the next level. Whether you're working on a promotion, interview, big project, or just want to make a good impression, impeccable written communication skills are now more important than ever. Our next session of Better Business Writing Pro starts November 15th

Become a more efficient (fast!) and effective (clear! concise! nice!) writer in 6-weeks with expert coaching and feedback.

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Or check out our On Demand option, so you can become a better business writer at your own pace.

Email Excellence

This short, on-demand course will teach you all the email basics: formatting, subject lines, greetings, closings, and strategies for getting people to read and respond. You'll be an email expert and able to get the results you want!

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We love hearing what our participants have to say about our courses and trainings!

We always ask participants from our seminars: What are the most useful 2-3 things you learned? And why are those the most useful to you?

One participant said:

"1) How to better organize text so that an email recipient will read the entire message.

2) How to craft more concise and positive sounding messages

3) The appropriate tone to use when writing to decision-makers or those in power" 

Another said:

"I learned about how I need to write more for my audience than myself."

We're so glad our training helped these participant reframe their knowledge to best connect to their audiences in their messages. Find out how our online courses could help you improve!

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