Page 95 - How to write effective business English your guide to excellent professional communication by Fiona Talbot

84 How to Write Effective Business English

French, Celtic, Dutch and a colonial past. The list goes on – and
has furnished a fantastically rich English vocabulary.
One interesting language consideration you may notice when
using English in business is an ongoing debate where on one side are
those who believe in prescribing rules of traditional grammar, etc. On
the other are those who believe it’s more about examining how lan-
guage evolves, describing new practices and adopting current usage.
Let’s look at one example. Traditionalist, prescriptive English
teachers might discourage writing, say, ‘to boldly go’, as this splits
the infinitive form of the verb ‘to go’. They would argue you must
write ‘to go boldly’. Don’t be puzzled if you encounter such pre-
scriptivism in other cases too, maybe in some ‘traditional’, maybe
older-generation workplaces. If managers require you to write like
that, you’ll have to listen. But in time, they are quite likely to accept
that upcoming generations’ rather more conversational style of
writing, with ‘new rules’ of grammar, is the one to follow.
Once again, tune in to what’s expected by your target readership.
Sometimes you’ll find a middle course works best and longest –
neither overly traditional nor restricted to, say, the latest expres-
sions, which may not pass the test of time.

Non-native English writers can have
an advantage!

Forward-thinking, successful companies often actively encourage
and train non-NE employees to perfect the English writing skills
they need. A positive learning culture such as this can foster atten-
tion to quality and professionalism. It can even result in non-NE
staff making more effort than native speakers in avoiding confu-
sion and misunderstandings.

Native English writers: beware of complacency!

Native speakers of any language can assume they are proficient in
their own language, so ‘of course people understand what we say and