Dr. Seuss wrote his famous children's book, The Cat in the Hat, with only 223 words. Green Eggs and Ham has only 50 words. Remember when you were writing papers in school that had to be 500 or 1000 words? Did you try to pad them with additional words to make the minimum length? Well in the business world, the opposite is true. Business people are too busy to spend extra time trying to decipher the main idea out of a wordy document. Professional writers actually work their writing over and over, cutting excessive words, weeding out repetitions and redundancies, and making their message clear and precise for their readers. You may not be a professional writer, but you can learn something from their writing processes.

When you write your business communications, train yourself to think about who your reader is. The following principles for writing concisely will help you to be more aware of your audience.

1. Always be as brief as possible. Practice writing the main idea of your document in one sentence. And keep most sentences under 14 words long.
2. Don't repeat words in a sentence unless they are absolutely needed for clarity.
3. Use familiar words. Be simple and be clear. Don't try to impress your reader with long phrases or erudite terms.
4. Write the way you talk. Use a conversational tone rather than a stuffy, artificial voice that is not sincere.
5. Use active verbs instead of passive ones. Be direct. Don't try to avoid telling who did what.
6. Grab your reader's attention at the beginning of your document with a significant statement telling why your subject is important for him or her to read.
7. Use specific details and examples rather than general ideas so that your reader forms a mental image quickly and easily.
8. Avoid clichés, phrases that you and your reader have heard too many times already. Be fresh in your word choice.
9. Avoid sexist language by becoming aware of particularly sexist terms and phrases. This principle is a mindset more than a writing rule. Do you really believe he means she, too?