Communicado: Business Communications Blog

Keeping luvies away from business report writing

Posted by Andrew Jackson on Mar 12,2010 @ 03:30 PM

Well, you may have noticed we’ve been absent from publishing in the blogosphere for a couple of months; but not absent from monitoring its goings on.


In case you aren’t aware, my colleague Robert Good has been doing a grand job keeping our Business Communications Hub ticking over in recent weeks.

I was amused by a recent post he linked to commenting on the thoughts of Britain’s luvy-in-chief, Stephen Fry in one of his podcasts.

Apparently, business report writing certainly shouldn’t be focusing on grammar and punctuation; and business writers should be trying to embrace the richness of the English language because, in his view, business writing has squeezed all life out of the language.

Here’s the problem. Stephen is hugely talented, with an Oxbridge education. He’s a man who makes his living out of embracing the richness of the language. He loves the language, is totally confident in his command of it and makes it work beautifully to his advantage.

People with this kind of talent are first, fairly rare and second, prone to forget that not everyone shares their talent for linguistic playfulness and curiosity.


The reality is that many people don’t enjoy writing, but are forced to do it as part of their job. Encouraging anyone not particularly inclined to put pen to paper to embrace the richness of the language will almost certainly lead to one result: disaster.

Imagine the sales proposal writer who has been on the intensive “Embrace the Language” writing course at the Fry School of business writing:

"I’m so fantastically delighted to be able to take my pen in hand and write to you today about our truly magnificent, utterly delectable, completely irresistible new virtual widget from our prodigiously talented engineers at the Black Country Machine Tool Company".

Stephen, you’re a luvy and we know you mean well. But do you remember that little adage: “less is more”? It can apply to language as well as design, soft furnishings and Apple products.

For people in business who don’t relish the task of writing, accuracy, simplicity and lack of embellishment will always serve them best  and most likely help them win the deal.

Topics: Report Writing