ABC Redundancy and Positioning

Business writing needs to be clear and concise. Redundancies, especially "fillers", waste time and obscure meaning. What are redundancies, where do they come from, what effects do they create?  From this understanding, we move on to the key concept of "Positioning."

I used to admire people who use opening fillers but now I know that they may be good in spoken English rather than in written.

John Wambura. World Food Programme, Tanzania

Positioning has been very important to me. I learnt that the most powerful position is the beginning. Hope I’ll take profit of this precious lesson.
Richard Muamba Kasenga. The World Bank, DR Congo

The exercise on removing redundancy was excellent. It’s amazing the amount of redundancies and opening fillers I use in my writing.  I totally agree with what you said.
Tanya Lyngdoh. Department for International Development, India.

ABC Controlling Sentence Length

The length of a sentence must be a strategic decision, not an accident. How long should sentences be? When and why would we use shorter and longer sentences? How do we achieve the ideal balance to maximise clarity and conciseness? Sentence length is a key element in your writing style, and a key business writing skill.

For me, sometimes it is difficult to write English in a concise manner. The decision on the length of sentences is a crucial one, and must be taken with discretion.

George Dawson. UNICEF Bolivia

I did not know how to shorten sentences. The AWPS was a useful approach. The exercises in the worksheet were very helpful to understand this approach.

Bakhtiyor Abdullaev. The World Bank. Uzbekistan.

Very interesting and very useful. I have a tendency to write long sentences. But with your deterrent examples I hope to be able to avoid this in future.
Dirk Schmalz. BASF Germany.

ABC Structure and Layout

The structure of our working correspondence affects its clarity and ease of understanding. Each part of your message (salutation, introduction, body, conclusion, and signoff) has a particular function.

This is a very helpful exercise. I knew about the structure of the text before, but I did not use it. Now I will try to use it in my correspondence.

Nodira Karimzoda. UNDP Tajikistan.

The introduction is “opening a door”, while the conclusion is “closing that door”. It taught me what each type of salutation and sign-off means, and the necessary parallelism between them.

Mamadou Thiam. The World Bank. Senegal.

Yes, it gave me a clear idea on how to organize my emails. I am now following the standard layout when I write an email.
Yoshiharu Kobayashi. Asian Development Bank. The Philippines.

ABC Direct and Indirect Approaches

Having understood the correct layout of written communications, we now come back to the key concept of positioning. In this lesson, I shall explain when and how to use the two major writing strategies: Direct and Indirect. These strategies apply to positioning words in sentences, sentences in paragraphs, and paragraphs in a message.

For me the Indirect Approach was very useful. As Budget Officer, I very often have to say “no” to staff - and my boss as well.
Alexandra Badeva. The World Bank, Bulgaria

I had never thought about positioning news somewhere other than the beginning. It might show my carelessness about others’ feelings and how they would react to such a message. I shall definitely use the “soft approach” in my future correspondence. Thanks!!!

Parviz Dinorshoev. UNDP Tajikistan.

Very interesting to know. This made me aware that approaches are important depending on the kind of news to share.

Hawa Diallo Mbakop. The World Bank, Senegal.

ABC Writing Coherent Paragraphs

Sentences within a paragraph perform one of only three functions. I will show you how to classify sentences according to their function. We shall then apply the essential concept of "positioning" to understand where best to situate each sentence-type within your paragraphs. Once you have mastered this essential technique, your writing will be more effective and powerful.

No wonder people didn’t read the most important part of my messages; I used to place the critical point in the wrong position!

Tariq Alkahily. Unilever Saudi Arabia.

Now I pay much more attention on how to start a paragraph, where to place the main and supporting sentences and the conclusion.

Viorica Revutchi. The World Bank, Moldova.

I really appreciated this section as it helped me analyse paragraphs according to sentence types. This kind of exercise is really useful to communicate more effectively.
Claudia Escutia. UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, Italy.