Clear communication and professionalism are a key to success in the business world. Business meetings, discussions, presentations, reports, each business process when done professionally brings fruits to the table. This clear and concise communication in a business is achieved with good business writing skills.
Business professionals use effective business writing techniques to communicate with potential customers and to present business ideas to investors. Business writing is not simple ghostwriting, and both these terms should not be intermixed. How do you define business writing? How can you master it through online resources? What are key principles and skills for successful business writing? Find out:
What is a Business Writing Class?
A business writing class is a course or short degree to learn business writing skills. These classes by business teachers and instructors teach the principles of business writing, and skills of technical writing. You can join a business writing class if you have good English grammar and great writing skills. This way, you can also learn to deploy simple tools used in business writing. Business writing principles are pre-defined and should be followed to do business writing.
From where can you learn business writing skills and principles? Here are some online resources that offer business writing classes that you can join:
What are the Best Online Business Writing Classes?
No one is born with perfect skills. Business writing is a type of technical writing that should be practiced more frequently to master it completely. Multiple online resources teach business writing skills. If you are a beginner, and new to the business writing career, then go through these mentioned resources and check a variety of online classes from experienced instructors:
1. Technical Writer HQ
Technical Writer HQ is a leading online platform that offers technical writing classes so you can become a certified business writer. You can master the required skills to become a technical writer through this class, and you can land your dream business writer’s job.
Technical Writer HQ provides you an opportunity to keep yourself updated with the business writing skills and technical documentation knowledge that every technical writer needs to be aware of.
Technical writers HQ teaches its users the in-demand business writing skills helpful for a business writer’s career. You can learn the strategies, technical and communication skills from Techni Writer HQ.
Technical writer HQ also gives you an option to divide your lessons into sections and segments as per your ease. The assessments after each section will help you assess your skills step by step in a better way.
Benefits
Here is the list of possible benefits you can gain from the training materials of this class from Technical Writer HQ:
- Skills to create high performing business documentation
- Method to draft a high-quality technical document
- Tips to ace a business/technical writer interview
- Tips to improve your business writer’s resume
- Method to analyze your diverse audiences
- Guide to tools required in business documentation
- Basic principles to develop your skillset in business writing
- Detailed instructions to write white papers, user manuals, and case studies
- Tips on designing the documentation layout
This list is just a brief view of the learning outcomes, but the actual class provides A-to-Z guidance to master business writing skills.
Pricing
You can enroll in the class for just $199.
Technical Writer HQ provides unlimited technical writing knowledge and blog articles for free on their website. Visit Technical Writer HQ for more information regarding the detailed class contents, fee structure, and enrolment.
2. Coursera
Coursera is the world’s leading online course platform for learners. The University of Colorado offers a detailed course on Coursera with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5. Does not matter if you belong to a native-English or a non-native English speakers community with English as a second language, Coursera offers its learners some of the best business writing classes that work well all over the globe. Coursera’s short videos clearly explain the skills, along with a transcription of the instructor’s lectures.
Benefits
Coursera offers the following benefits to its business writing learners from its class materials:
- Online opportunity
- Completion certificate
- Clear business writing skills
- Better presentation for business documents
- Flexible assessment period
- Business writing techniques for powerful writing
Pricing
Coursera offers a 7-days free trial to its classes. If you are a business writing student, you can enroll in this class for free for the first 7 days. After this 7-days trial, you need to pay $19 per month to continue using your subscription. Coursera also offers financial aid for deserving learners.
For more information regarding this business writing class and pricing schemes, visit Coursera.
3. Udemy
Udemy is a leading platform for on-demand online courses. Udemy offers a wide range of classes for learners. The business writing lectures on Udemy are designed by professionals so that you can learn the skills from an experienced instructor. You are also provided downloadable resources and keynotes after enrolment in an online business writing class.
Benefits
The business writing class from Udemy offers these skills:
- Effective learning
- Business correspondence skills
- Use of appropriate tone in business writing
- The appropriate vehicle for business: Hard copy or soft copy
- Enhanced business writing communication skills
Pricing
The pricing schemes of these courses range between $30-$150. Keep in mind that Udemy does not offer Accredited Certificates. You can enroll in the course that fits best according to your budget and experience. Visit Udemy and search for a business writing course and you will get a whole choice of classes from the list.
Head towards Udemy for more insights into a class.
4. LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning is a well-known online platform that offers valuable classes to its users and learners all over the globe. The business writing class offered by LinkedIn is designed by business professionals and experts.
Benefits
These classes from LinkedIn Learning help to improve your writing skills to maintain a professional image in business. Here are the features of a business writing class from LinkedIn Learning:
- Learn effective business communication writing
- Get to know 10 Cs of strong business writing skills
- Downloadable writing samples for a better comprehension
- Develop good communication skills
- Develop better formatting skills for emails and reports
- An accredited certificate after the completion
Pricing
LinkedIn Learning offers a free trial for one complete month. You can purchase the complete course for less than $30 USD. LinkedIn also provides a 30-day money-back guarantee to its learners.
The course contents are available for both online and offline usage, and you can access them anywhere regardless of the location.
Head towards LinkedIn Learning for more information regarding the business writing class.
5. EdX
EdX offers its users some of the best free online classes and courses. The business writing class offered from this source is 6 weeks long and takes about 3-5 hours of class students each week. The course is prepared by a well-known instructor from the University of California. You can also adjust the lecture progress as per your own schedule.
Benefits and features
This class aids you to develop:
- Persuasive writing techniques
- Business essay development skills
- Better proofreading, editing, and revision skills
- Strong English and communication skills
- Methods to achieve writing success
Pricing
EdX offers you a free slot on the Audit track, but you can purchase the verified track for $199 USD.
Head towards EdX for more information.
6. Alison
Alison is an online platform that offers business lectures that teach the fundamentals of business writing. NPTEL is the publisher of this business writing class.
Benefits and skills
This course provides:
- Fundamentals of business writing
- Principles of business communication
- Clear and efficient writing
- Audience analysis
- Distinctive business writing skills
Pricing
This class is completely free, and you can gain access through a single free sign-up.
For more information regarding this course, visit Alison.
7. Business Writing
The Business Writing Center is a platform for online classes. There are multiple writing classes offered by The Business Writing Center.
Benefits and Skills
A business writing class from this source provides:
- Clear and concise business writing skills
- Evaluation based learning
- Skills to write with impact
- Flexible deadlines for assessments
- Correct business vocabulary
- Best business writing practices
Pricing
The pricing schemes for the learning classes offered by this platform range between $60 to $600. You can choose any class based on your skills and budget.
To access the outline of these various business classes, visit The Business Writing Center.
8. Appendance
Appendance is an online platform that provides valuable information and knowledge regarding business writing. Appendance also offers a detailed business writing class that you can enroll in. Appendance instructors guide their learners in real-time and provide valuable feedback to the assessments. The business writing instructor for this class holds a Ph.D. degree.
Benefits
Appendance provides you below listed benefits:
- Flexible learning
- Independent learning
- Interactive lessons
- Online recorded lectures
- Individual detailed feedback from professional
- Key habits of effective business communication
- Techniques for clear writing
- Strategies to revise your content
Pricing
The Business professional writing course costs $750.
You can visit the Appendance website to analyze the course contents. You can also assess whether the course can be the right choice for you or not.
Head towards Appendance for more formation.
Our Recommendation
Although, all of the mentioned broad range of classes can help you nourish your business writing skills. But we recommend you to choose Technical Writer HQ’s class as it provides innumerable benefits and teaches some new skills like resume building, improving your online presence and many more as well. You are also provided with a valuable accredited certificate if you join Technical Writer HQ’s business writing class.
FAQs
Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked queries regarding business writing:
What is Business Writing?
Business writing is a form of writing that helps transmit information to the recipients in a concise, purposeful, and professional way. Business writing is a key factor for effective communication in a business. Writing in a business involves the drafting of reports, emails, newsletters, proposals, and memorandums.
Business writing is a type of writing that provides clear instructions to the reader in a persuasive, informational, and instructional tone. It helps communicate and present business ideas effectively to investors. Hence, business documents are written to convince the target audience for proposes terms and strategies in the document.
What are the Advantages of Business Writing?
We can summarize the definition with the saying that business writing helps to:
- Direct action to guide others the method about a certain task
- Convey useful information and distribute organizational knowledge for awareness
- Convince/influence a buyer/investor for some service/business idea
- Provide explanation and justification of an intended complex action
- Deliver news of a special event to the workers and audience
- Communicate internally and externally in a business organization
If you wish to learn business writing, you can master it from online resources that offer effective business writing classes. The details of registering in online business writing courses to learn business writing are shared above in this article.
What are Great Business Writing Principles?
Major principles and writing tips to become a great business writer are mentioned below:
1. Transparency of Purpose
It is necessary to know the goals before you start the writing process. You must have the answers to these questions before writing a business document:
- What to convey?
- Who to convey?
You can have the clarity of your purpose with the answers to these questions. Answers to these questions also direct you about the required writing tone to write a specific business document.
2. Avoid Jargons
Jargons are those tough words that are hard to understand and are not commonly used in day-to-day business communications. The use of jargon in the business documents makes it difficult to comprehend for the readers. Also, jargons result in the loss of interest for the readers.
The use of clear and uncluttered words will result in a readable business writing document. A clear business writing document with simple words leads to effective communication.
3. Avoid Verbosity
Verbosity means to unnecessarily lengthen a sentence. Verbosity negatively affects the engagement of a reader. So, if an article carries more words than it requires, this means that the article is verbose. So, make sure your business writing is straightforward, simple, and not verbose.
4. Deliver Accurate Information
The main goal while writing a business document is to convey information to the recipient. It is recommended to check whether the shared information is valuable or not.
Business writing is value-additive for the reader, so make sure that shared contents are not unnecessary, and that it should add more vision and value to its original purpose.
5. Be Direct
Business documents can be lengthy, but to save the time of the reader, a short and precise description of intended information should be written at the start of the document. This practice also gives the readers an insight into the whole document and they can scan it more easily.
6. Practice
A key principle to master business writing is practice. The more you practice, the better you will become at business writing. Practice helps you improve your vocabulary, writing style, and sentence structures. Hence you can achieve work proficiency through practice in writing.
7. Proofread and Revise
You can extract more efficiency out of a business document by proofreading and revising it. Reading the written content loud in revision allows you to catch flaws and grammatical errors.
Constructive feedback from a colleague also improves the writing structure and overall score. Revising the document enhances its meaning and engagement from a reader’s perspective. Good grammar skills always result in better revision, hence a more accurate document.
8. Easy to Scan
Business documents should be easily scannable for the readers. Pay attention to the structure of a document from the reader’s perspective, and see if it is readable and easy to scan or not. You can achieve the document goal through the use of proper headings and sub-headings in business writing.
A short introductory description also builds a vision in the reader’s mind about the subject, and thus it helps the reader scan the document more quickly.
9. Correct Grammar Rules and Punctuation
The use of punctuation marks and correct grammar rule is a basic writing principle. As business writing should be professional and effective, this principle cannot be ignored. Make sure your documents convey the correct meaning and let not a punctuation mark distract the attention of the reader from the business writing goal.
We have provided above some major principles of business writing. Writing is a vast space, and there are unbound principles for each of its categories. Follow these principles to improve your business writing style and document tone.
What are the Main Business Writing Skills?
Business writing skills can help you communicate more effectively. Here are listed some important skills for business writing:
- English communication skills
- Confident writing tone
- Professionalism
- Use of active voice
- Arrangement and organization skills
- Technical communication skills
- Error-free writing
- Concise language with precise wording
- Know-how of the formatting tools
- Skillful with writing software
- Creativity
- Planning
- Goal focused and detailed oriented
- Better convincing power
One can level up his business writing by mastering these skills.
Summary
Effective business communication requires great business writing skills. Business writing is a method to convey written information to the audience in a professional way. Numerous online resources offer some of the best business writing classes that are prepared by professional writers. You can enroll in a business writing class if you are willing to master business writing skills. Business writing follows some basic principles. Good English skills are a prerequisite for business writing. If you are willing to opt for some business writing classes, check the mentioned resources.
If you are new to business writing and are looking to break in, we recommend taking one of our Technical Writing Certification Courses, where you will learn the fundamentals and advanced skills of business writing.