Page 94 - How to write effective business English your guide to excellent professional communication by Fiona Talbot

Writing globally? Or in multinational teams? 83

● ● Or they might take the wrong action.
● ● Readers cannot understand and they need to ask for clarification.
● ● Readers might be offended and not tell you.

● ● Readers might complain to you.
Can you see the commercial implications involved in these sce-
narios? They are all negative, such as:

● ● Inaction from readers, or their failure to react the desired way.
● ● Lost custom and goodwill speak for themselves and affect your
profits.

● ● A bad reputation (spread by unhappy readers telling others –
especially detrimental when this goes viral as we saw in Chapter 5)
can undermine your success and damage your business.
● ● Being on the receiving end of wrong action is clearly appalling
for any business.
● ● Clarifying messages involves doing the same job twice or more.
● ● Upsetting readers is never going to be good for any business.

● ● Complaints may be good news in one sense (you get to hear
what your customer thinks, and you can change) but they are
also bad news – and they cost you.

Activity: What problems have you seen at work as a result of
distorted messages? Why was that? What ‘notes to self’ can you
jot down?

Tune in to how English continues

to evolve

We’re seeing how business writing is in a state of flux and the
English language also continues to change. Indeed, modern English
has evolved from so many influences: Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek,