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Effective written communication is a vital means of getting business done. Effective writing is largely about simplicity of expression, accuracy of content and brevity of style. The importance of clear writing is that it reflects clear thinking. However, standard formats, often called ‘house style’, help to provide structure to a document and ensure that you do not leave out key elements of information.

However, before you write, consider what you want to achieve. Would a telephone call or a briefing be better? It is a good rule to talk first and write only if you need to. You need to write if:

a. A record has to be kept to account for expenditure or to record financial or other important decisions.

b. Information or a decision has to be passed to a wide audience.

c. Your message is too detailed or complex to deliver verbally or may need to be studied carefully.

Always aim to be accurate and brief and to make your message clear. Structure documents logically, and strive for effective, relevant and persuasive content.

Get your message across. Your purpose in writing is to pass on information, to achieve an objective or to get something done. If you are misunderstood, fail to convince, or do not get the desired result, you may hold up business, or cause people to reach the wrong conclusion. Ask yourself ‘Will the recipients be familiar with the subject?’, ‘Will they need a lot of explanation or take some convincing?’ Consider how you can help your readers: by simplifying the subject matter, by using an effective layout, by highlighting key points or by including a summary.

Get the facts right. Stating facts accurately may seem an obvious requirement, but it is very important. A particular fact may be crucial to your case. Even if it is not, the discovery of an error may lose your reader’s confidence. You can also cause serious embarrassment to Ministers or to the MOD if your factual errors mislead Parliament or the public. Never state as a fact something you are not certain about.

Distinguish between fact and opinion. Be helpful and fair to your reader, and distinguish clearly between fact and opinion. Muddling facts and opinions usually means you haven’t thought about a topic clearly and your reader may draw the wrong conclusions. If you need to provide an opinion, say whose opinion it is, so your reader knows what authority they should attach to that view. Avoid meaningless statements such as ‘It is considered that...’.

Unambiguous, concise writing saves time and effort for everyone. Follow these guidelines:

a. Be direct and be courteous. Stick to the subject in hand and don’t stray from it. The main points you want to make should stand out on first reading. Be tactful, discreet or diplomatic when necessary, but ensure your meaning is always clear. Refer to individual recipients or members of the public by using ‘you’ and ‘your’. Refer to yourself, and the actions you take on behalf of your department or unit by using ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my, ‘we’, ‘our’ and so on. This style helps make your written tone more personal and friendly.

b. Use plain, straightforward language. If what you have to say is convincing, it doesn't need to be dressed up in impressive-sounding words. If you are not convincing, convoluted language will not help. For example, write ‘use’ instead of ‘utilise’, or ‘help’ rather than ‘assistance’, or ‘show’ instead of ‘demonstrate’. And be sure you understand the meaning of the words you use.

c. Avoid acronyms and abbreviations. Avoid using acronyms or abbreviations unless you are sure that your readers will understand them. Always explain any technical terms. If you want to use acronyms or abbreviations, spell them out fully the first time with the acronym or abbreviation in brackets immediately afterwards: 'Ministry of Defence (MOD)'. In long documents you can help the reader by including a list of the abbreviations that you use.

d. Avoid jargon. Jargon is ‘unintelligible words or gibberish’. Words or phrases commonly used by you and your colleagues may not be understood by others. Jargon has no place in correspondence.

e. Avoid passive verbs. If you use too many passive verbs, you will be seen as pompous, impersonal, dull or unfeeling. You can use passive verbs to soften the sense, but use passives sparingly (less than 15% to 20%). Active verbs make your writing clear and direct. Compare 'I am sorry that I cannot meet your deadline’ (active) with 'It is regretted that your deadline cannot be met' (passive).

f. Avoid padding. Padding adds nothing to your writing and clouds what you have to say. Leave out unnecessary words and phrases, such as ‘clearly’, ‘obviously’, ‘it is true that’ or ‘there is no doubt that’. Replace ‘by means of’ with ‘by’ and ‘in view of the fact that’ with ‘because’.

g. Avoid foreign words. There is always an appropriate way of saying what you mean in English. Latin or other foreign words are likely only to confuse or irritate people.

h. Avoid fashionable words. Many words and technical terms become fashionable, such as ‘synergy’, ‘going forward’, ‘focus’, ‘critical mass’ or ‘quantum leap’. We then end up overusing or misusing them. If it is important to use such words or terms, make sure you know what they mean, and use them sparingly.

i. Use short, punctuated sentences. Sentences of more than 25 to 30 words, or sentences with many different points, can be hard to follow. Vary the length of your sentences, and aim for an average sentence length of 15 to 20 words. Help make your meaning clear, and have only one main point in a sentence, and perhaps one or 2 related points. Punctuation is also an important aid to clarity; but if you end up using too many commas, your sentences are probably too long. Keep sentences short!

j. Strive for brevity. Focus first on the main point to construct basic military correspondence. Use short words. Try not to use more than 15 percent over two syllables long. Write paragraphs that, with few exceptions, are no more than 10 lines. Write one-page letters and memorandums for most correspondence. Use enclosures for additional information.

k. Use standard English sentence. Standard English sentence order, subject-verb-object, works best. It speeds communication and helps the reader understand the main point. Active writing emphasizes the doer of the action and shows who or what does the action in the sentence.

l. Break up your writing. Use paragraphs and sub-paragraphs to produce a clear structure and to break up the text on a page. Each paragraph should deal with one topic, and deal with it fully.

m. Avoid sexist language. Do not use traditional single-sex terms. Try to use words such as ‘person’, ‘people’, ‘staff’, ‘officer’, or ‘colleague’; or use plurals such as ‘managers’, ‘commanders’ or ‘colleagues’. For example ‘Officers (instead of ‘An officer’) must communicate effectively and they (instead of ‘he’) must ensure no misunderstanding is possible.’

n. IT tools. Use any available IT tools to help you, such as a spellchecker (make sure you use the appropriate English version), a grammar checker or a thesaurus. If document templates are available, use them too. But remember that you are personally responsible for the quality of the finished product.

Excerpts from the Defence Writing Guide, UK Ministry of Defence and US Army Regulation 25-50 on Preparing and Managing Correspondence follow in order to illustrate the level of detail which can be found in these documents.

Orders, intentions and suggested action

In DW, some words and phrases have specific meanings and are used to express orders, intentions or suggested action:

a. ‘Is to’ and ‘are to’. The phrases ‘is to’ and ‘are to’ convey direct orders.

b. ‘Shall’ and ‘will’. Phrases with ‘shall’ or ‘will’ show that something will happen in the future, but without conveying an order. However, in legal contexts, there is a clear difference between ‘shall’ and ‘will’, so interpret the meaning in context.

c. ‘Should’. ‘Should’, in directives or instructions, expresses the requirement of a higher authority but leaves some discretion to the recipient.

d. ‘Intend’. ‘Intend’ identifies an action which will be carried out unless countermanded by a higher authority.

e. ‘Propose’. ‘Propose’ suggests a course of action which will not be carried out unless approved by higher authority.

f. ‘Request’. ‘Request’, when used by a senior to a junior (or by a higher to a lower formation), is a polite way of conveying an order and should be interpreted accordingly.

Style Practices Capitalization

Problems of capitalization that most often arise in Army correspondence are covered in this section. Commonly used principles are briefly stated and supported by examples.

Titles of publications, documents, acts, and so forth

a. Capitalize all words in titles of publications and documents, except a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, if, or, and nor.

District Code

American Journal of Science

Monograph 55, Research Paper 123

Senate Document 70, but Senate bill 416

b. Do not capitalize when used apart from titles or in a general sense.

the code of the District

history books

a journal of legislative action

any monograph, a research paper by Sales

a historical document from the Senate

Titles used with names or titles standing for persons

a. Titles preceding names.

(1) Capitalize titles preceding proper names.

President Roosevelt

King George

(2) Do not capitalize when used in a general sense.

a president of a club

a king of spades