Natalie Canavor

Whether you’re a manager, an entrepreneur, or a recent graduate, the ability to write well is a skill you can’t afford to be without — particularly in the world of business. This handy Cheat Sheet helps ensure your business writing is fit for the right purpose, and gives you tips on effective resume writing, international communication, and online content creation for your business.

You may be under the impression that you don’t write business letters and never need to in today’s fast-paced world. Think again. You are probably writing letters without realizing it. Don’t be fooled by the fact that you’re using an electronic delivery system and don’t need a stamp. Acknowledge that your missive is a letter, and you do a much better job of achieving your goal.

Essentially, when you use the tools of persuasion, you are asking people to change in some way. The challenge is that human beings don’t like change. We may enjoy deciding whether to travel to Paris or Rome, but change a long-held conviction? Give up a skill we took years or decades to develop in favor of the new?

For everyday sharing, reports, project-hunting, client correspondence and more, you need email. For the ongoing back-and-forth between team members, you may depend on Slack or another instant messaging channel that is restricted to a group. The difference in how we use email and work chat today is that we need to help counter what is lost through the growing absence of in-person contact.

Want to know how to write a book? It's more complicated than just sitting at a computer and letting the words flow. For many people and for many reasons, writing a book feels like a paramount achievement. It’s an “end product” of our knowledge, experience, and professionalism. © Michail Petrov / Shutterstock.comThere’s something exciting about the idea of holding your book in your hands, giving it to people, even signing copies or seeing it in a bookstore—though this is no longer where most books are sold.

Writing well is always its own reward: Effective messages achieve what you want much more often. But writing also can be put to use in personal ways—to catalyze your thinking and problem-solving skills, understand important people in your work life and strategize how to advance toward where you want to be. This article gives you ten ways to build your personal power.

What follows are general guidelines for online business writing that apply to relatively traditional content: blogs, profiles, newsletters, websites. These are considered “long form” media, and long form is in! These techniques adapt to the various social platforms. Does good writing matter online? Absolutely.

Transitions, those low-key words and phrases, are like the connective tissue that holds your business writing skeleton together and empowers you to move where you want. Transitions tell readers how all the ideas, facts, and information in a piece of writing connect to each other. They grease your writing and pull people along in the direction you want to take them.