Naturally as you’re professional you will be as objective as possible. But if you do feel strongly one way or another, ensure that your argument is put as reasonably as possible without going on for pages and pages.

Remember, brief is beautiful, although it’s harder to write briefly (and include all important points) than it is to produce words in abundance.

5. Don’t get carried away with illustrations

Graphs and charts are great to illustrate important issues and like man said, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” However ensure that those you use are of a level of complexity that will be understood by least topic-literate of your readers. There’s nothing more irritating than a graph that takes you 20 minutes to decipher.

It’s not so much a case that readers are too stupid to understand a complex graph, as it is that they don’t want to spend too much time working it out. The easier/quicker you make it for readers to understand and assimilate your information, more successful your report.

Try, also, to keep graphs and charts physically adjacent to text that talks about same thing. There’s nothing more irritating for reader if they have to keep flipping from front to back of a document. (When in doubt, think of someone reading your report on that crowded commuter train.)

6. Cut clutter

Still on that topic, try to avoid including too many diverse elements in your report, no matter how long and involved it is.

If you do need to include appendices and various bits of background material, research statistics, etc., make sure they’re neatly labeled and contained at back of your document.

As I suggested earlier, don’t ask readers to skip back and forth, directing them with asterisks and other reference directing symbols.

If you’re writing a medical report or paper then you’re obliged to include these when quoting references from other papers, but please keep even these to a minimum. They’re very distracting and can break your reader’s concentration.

7. Take some trouble to make it look nice

I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but people do. Like it or not. According to UK Image consultant Tessa S, when you walk into a meeting, 55% of your first impression of someone is reflected exclusively in way you’re dressed. Documents fall into same hole.

So how your document looks goes a long way to creating right impression of your work, and of you.

Obviously if a report is due to go outside your organization and particularly to clients or customers, you will be careful to ensure it’s polished and clearly branded with your corporate identity and all that.

However, how an internal report looks is important, too, although your Head of Finance might have apoplexy if you bind it in expensive glossy card. Be sensible with internal variety – neat, understated, groomed looks don’t have to cost much but they “say” a lot about value of your report (and you.)

8. A minute on minutes

I think minute-taking is a horrible job, having done so for 6 years while on a charity fundraising committee. And being useless at handwriting (thanks to decades of computers and typewriters) never mind shorthand (was thrown out of secretarial school after 3 weeks) I struggled for months to scribble everything down to précis later, until I realized that my brain was a far more efficient filter of information.

At end of each agenda item, I asked myself classic reporter questions of “who, what, where, when, why, how and how much.” All I had to do was jot down a few words and when I got home to my trusty PC, I could expand those into realistic summaries of what went on. As much of dialogue in meetings is either unnecessary, repetitive, or both, simply use your brain as a filter. That’s what it’s trained to do for you in your day-to-day life, so it works for meetings too.

One word of warning though; don’t wait too long before your work up your minutes. Another trick brain does is to forget after a few hours or a day or so at most...

If your letter goes on to a second page, where it breaks on page 1 create a space then to right key in “cont’d.” You can start page 2 just by keying in “page 2” and starting again two or three spaces below. Some people create a mini-heading for second page with addressee’s name on left, date in middle, and page number on right, followed by an underline that crosses whole page. This is useful if two pages become detached from one another. Okay. Now we’ve established ground rules, what do we say?

Keep style sharp and simple

Business letters are not literary works. They are verbal workhorses with a purpose only to convey information, and what you want reader to do with it, as quickly and clearly as possible.

Start by making notes as if to yourself. These notes will come out in a direct style naturally, because you’re not intimidated or disquieted when writing to yourself. Don’t restrict yourself to a structure at this stage. Just write out everything you can think of that should go into letter.

Now, match your notes to sequence in one of “skeletons” described below. Discard any notes that aren’t relevant.

If you build up your letter along these lines you’ll find that your style is clear and straightforward, with no unnecessary adjectives, adverbs, business phrases, “corporate speak” or other business BS that some people use in business letters.

All you need to do then is tidy up with a good edit and spelling and grammar check. (Although many people take a lenient view over spelling and grammatical mistakes in emails, they stick out like sore thumbs in printed letters and make you look very amateurish.)

Build your content on a “skeleton”

Normally you’ll identify topic of letter with “re: Your Outstanding Account” or less formally, “Your Outstanding Account” in bold and/or underlined. Then make notes or bullet points of main issues you need to include, on a skeleton like this:

Typically, these would be: 1. Background I see from our records that you were first invoiced for this amount four months ago and statements have been sent out to you each month since then

2. The sticky issue This can’t go on, especially as you haven’t contacted us to discuss extending your credit

3. What I want to happen now Pay up in next seven days

4. Or else We will be obliged to start legal proceedings against you

5. Sweetener If you do pay up by return, we won’t take any further action and will restart your 30 days’ credit as before

6. Next move Please contact me urgently and let me know what you intend to do

Same skeleton, different content

You could use this skeleton for a number of business letter purposes. Not all business letters have you sitting so comfortably in driving seat, however. Let’s say you were recipient of this letter and want to winkle out more time to pay. The elements remain same, but we approach from a different angle...

1. Background Thank you for bringing this to my attention – I had no idea we were so late paying

2. The sticky issue We’re experiencing serious cashflow problems at moment but we have taken steps to rectify this and anticipate problem will be solved in next 3 weeks

3. What I want to happen now Would you consider extending our credit for a while longer, perhaps with interest being chargeable at a rate we can agree?

4. Or else We really would like to continue buying our supplies from you but if we enter into a dispute goodwill will be lost and our business relationship will be over

5. Sweetener I can assure you our cashflow problem is temporary and we want to preserve our business relationship with you if possible

6. Next move I will phone you in next few days to discuss payment terms

Build your own skeleton

Obviously that 6-point skeleton isn’t going to work for every business letter, but a shortened version of it will be useful because you can build it back up so it’s tailored to any number of different needs. Here’s basic one that I use:

1. Background 2. The key issue 3. What will or should happen 4. What to do next

Any further tips? Only that business letters should always be as short as possible. That’s not as simple as it sounds. Somebody famous (can’t remember who) once apologized for writing someone a long letter, as he didn’t have time to write a short one. It’s hard to write concisely, but if you use style and skeleton tips above you’ll find it somewhat easier.

If you need to go into detail, separate that off into a different (but attached) document and use letter only as a summary of issue and a call to action.

I’m no social psychologist so I can’t quote you a scientific reason, but separating detail from key points usually means that both get read more thoroughly. It’s probably because by separating two elements you provide readers with more digestible looking chunks. Anyway, it works!