Business Writing Tips from The Writing Center
Place key words in power positions (2)
June 28, 2007
Place your key idea in the subject
position at the beginning of the sentence.
Eliminate
weak openings such as "It is" and "There
are." Delete meaningless introductory phrases such as "It is
important to note that."
Look at
this example:
Indication
was given by the project manager that he expects a two-day delay.
 In this sentence "indication"
is the first subject; "was given" is the
verb. The doer of the action (the project manager)
is relegated to a lowly prepositional phrase (by
the project manager). The main action (expects)
is in a subordinate clause (that he expects).
If we put the key words where they belong,
we have a much stronger sentence:
The project manager expects a
two-day delay.
This edition was adapted from our Effective
Business Writing Program. Previous editions
may be read at
http://www.uliveandlearn.com/newsletters/index.cfm.
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