10 habits for better business writing

Noric Dilanchian, Managing Partner

noricd@dilanchian.com.au

You think it began when bad writing habits crept

into your company. Your staff started to use
inconsistent titles and no dates on documents. With
a lot of work on the focus was on sales and
maintaining cash flow. Paperwork came second.

As the months passed filed documents became

harder to find. The hindrance was that reports,
notes, and records lacked proper titles and dates.
They were harder to interpret, especially during
tough customer complaint or debt recovery calls.

Everyone’s stress levels are noticeably higher now.

Yesterday your company received a long fax from
lawyers for a much bigger competitor. They
demanded an answer within 48 hours.
Today you have two jobs, your usual job and your
assigned legal task - to find, print and put into
date order every document on the transaction the
lawyers have written about. Time is pressing.
In the afternoon, meeting with the barrister for your
company, he advises that the legal issues are very
real, specifically because of the poor documents.
Looking at him you say: “I had a team and division
to manage, their records were made for product
sales, not lawyers.” The barrister looks back at you
blankly, practising the blank “all irrelevant to the
legal issues” look expected from the judge
tomorrow. He gives you homework to prepare for
the other side’s injunction application tomorrow.
The first piece of paper you see when you get back
to the office is a fax from a government regulator.
“Blast” you say and then “Why me”, swinging from
panic to grief. The regulator is on your company’s
back seeking explanations on issues raised by the
very same lawyers in the other litigation matter.
That night you can’t sleep, juggling your week’s
diary in your mind. You sweat in bed. You sigh
repeatedly, knowing the litigation matter and the
regulator’s queries would never have arisen if good
business writing had been treated as priority.
You roll over, frustrated that poorly prepared
paperwork by your team will embarrass you for
hours or days in court. You visualise the court bar
table tomorrow - lined with barristers having a
legal picnic paid for by you company. You wonder
www.dilanchian.com.au
Reproduction permitted for non-commercial use, provided the author’s credit is preserved.
For other uses send an email to info@dilanchian.com.au. Copyright © Dilanchian 2006.
Judges: ultimate examiners of poor writing habits.
how it might impact your bonus, team morale,
relationships with the CEO, and the longer than
usual holiday you planned to take.
You shiver at the thought of the legal magnifying
glass examining each individual weak spot in
documents prepared under your supervision. Their
lack of titles or dates is the tip of an iceberg of
potential exposure for you at tomorrow’s hearing.
Trying to focus on the positive, you wonder what
bad writing habits you should fix immediately.
Spelling, grammar, and greater clarity are needed
but they are not our focus here.
Instead, in this article lets review 10 other habits
for better business writing. Our ultimate focus is
on developing a procedure for writing. Good
writing for correspondence, records and documents
involves an iterative procedure, making various
types of corrections and improvements on each
wave through the document. Check and re-check.
Good writing habits save time and money and
make it easier to prepare documents. They are
critical to success in business, legal compliance and
the licensing and commercialisation of intellectual
property. Email and IT seem to have increased the
necessity for better business writing habits.
Consider the following 10 good habits.
10 habits for better business writing DILANCHIAN

Following good habits makes preparing documents in business easier and faster. Here are some key
good habits for preparing correspondence, records and documents.

Habits Process hints

1. Title • Documents without titles are harder to interpret, file properly or retrieve.
• Put in a title when you begin writing, it will help you focus the body of the
document. Rework the title as better ideas arise.
• It’s better to have a meaningful but short title for documents, eg Cleaning
Contract Notes, instead of just Notes.
2. Author • If appropriate, add the name of the individual author. Also add any affiliated
company or organisation contact details. This all helps locate and file documents.
• You can often add author and company identifiers immediately. Better still
develop good template electronic stationery. Email us if you need samples.
• When adding identifiers consider any potential legal issues regarding legal
responsibility, copyright ownership and moral rights affecting the document.
3. Contact details • Use hardcopy or electronic stationery with contact details on them.
• Writing a business email to someone you hardly know with only “Regards, Joe
Blogs” is just dumb. Learn how to generate an automatic email footer using your
favoured email program. Try to write emails as if you are writing a formal letter.
4. File name • Settle the file name after the document is completed.
• If appropriate make the file name the same, similar to or an abbreviation of the
title of the document. Don’t make the file name “Report” and the document title
“Recent customer complaint types”.
• Instead of “letter.doc” as a file name, use something more useful such as “Letter
to Penny Jones 2006.09.25”. The key point is to adopt and follow a company
naming and dating system, eg use meaningful or coded file names.
5. Headings • Headings improve and speed up reading, understanding and communication.
They save time, use them frequently.
• Headings minimise misunderstandings that can lead to disputes and litigation.
• It is often easier to add better headings after you’ve finished writing.
6. IP notices and • Add intellectual property and other legal notices to the document as needed and
legal notices appropriate. Develop an intellectual property policy and be guided by it.
• IP notices include Trade Mark / ™; Registered Trade Mark / ®; Copyright / ©;
Patent Pending; Commercial-in-Confidence. Other types of legal notices include
disclaimers, warnings and disclosures. Contact us for advice. Inappropriate IP
notices can lead to your company having no basis for making any legal claim.
• Contact us for advice regarding the format for IP and legal notices.
7. Pagination • Put page numbers on the document. This is vital for long documents.
8. Editing • Editing is an advanced writing habit. It is perhaps the most time consuming after
writing the body. Go through several times, each time correcting or improving a
different element. The elements include - spelling, grammar, meaning, use of
headings, use of paragraph spaces, and item numbering and bullet points.
• Editing is a iterative process, ie it requires repeated reviews. Each wave through
focus on a different element requiring correction or improvement.
9. Write cautiously • Don’t write in haste, anger or revenge. You may regret it or even pay for it.
• Don’t write if it is safer or more appropriate to communicate orally.
10. Check metadata • Check there is no confidential or inappropriate content in the “Properties” of
electronic files, eg Word and PDF documents. In Word, select File > Properties.

Web www.dilanchian.com.au | Email info@dilanchian.com.au 2

10 habits for better business writing DILANCHIAN

Do you have a need to improve? Our documentation services and templates

Good writing habits are more critical to success in

everyday work than at any time in history.
Reflecting on the above first page scenario and
second page table of good habits, it’s clear writing
useful business correspondence, records and
documents involves hard work. Habits make writing
easier, faster and better. Learn to use a routine
procedure every time you prepare a document,
that’s what the above table of good habits is for.
Left uncorrected, poor writing hinders performance
of higher level tasks such as record management,
document management, knowledge management,
and contract management.
Part of the solution is to apply the 10 habits in the
table to prepare more useful documents which:
• save money and time,
• avoid embarrassment and legal exposure,
• help profit from opportunity;
• help save businesses in crisis, and
• reduce professional fees.
Finally, for implementation in your company,
consider the solutions and services overviewed in
the side bar and the framework illustrated below.
Proper record and document management
calls for a systematic approach as illustrated
We provide advice
For deal points and processes specific to
your industry, market and circumstances.
Some advice is pre-packaged - see our
Solutions (Deal Making & Contracting
Brochure and Solutions (Human
Resources) Brochure.
+ templates - Business Decision Support Tools
Checklists For you to quickly identify legal,
managerial and commercial considerations
Questionnaires For you to review your
circumstances and identify strategic gaps in
your own time
Instruction Sheets For you to save costs by
yourself collating information for us to
prepare documents
Guides & Frameworks For you to
understand and prepare informed proposals
to improve deal quality
+ website papers
For you to gain from existing knowledge.
Visit in particular the library section of
dilanchian.com.au or call (02) 9269 0229
for additional papers.
+ training services
For tailored and practical guidance. Review
services at www.sydneylaw.com.au

Education & Record Record Record Record

Training Drafting Retention Storage Destruction

1 2 4 5
3

Employees and This is the process Essential for the Records should At the time of
contractors should of drafting records efficient protection be kept record storage
be trained in record for the purpose of of copyright, permanently ensure that the
management and creating a patents, trade regarding IP destruction date
procedures document marks, confidential assets, or at the complies with
incorporated or that provides a information very least the organisational
referred to in policy formal account of a and other entire economic and legal
and procedures proceeding, event intellectual life cycle of the requirements
manuals or other particular property (IP) relevant product
assets or service

Web www.dilanchian.com.au | Email info@dilanchian.com.au 3