What is "writing" in 21st-century American business? Formal reports, memos, letters and technical reports would top most lists. But in this technology driven world of ours, e-mail is the number-one form of American business writing, followed closely by visual presentations such as PowerPoint. One report states that most professionals spend up to 85 percent of their time writing. Your writing clearly affects you and your company's image.

One way you can improve your writing skills is by reading Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style," or perhaps the Chicago Manual of Style, which some consider more current. In either case, it's not exciting reading. Instead, here are some quick points to remember:

1. Anyone can learn to be a good business writer. In my prior life I practiced law-a profession that, for the most part, requires precise written communication. After having document after document being edited past the point of recognition, I eagerly accepted an offer of a business writing course when I exited law and entered the executive search field. Through practice and repetition, I have grown comfortable with and even enjoy writing.

2. Read what you have written out loud. Does it make sense? Is there a way to say it in fewer words? For example, "After graduating from college, Bill decided to move to Houston." A more concise option is, "After graduating from college, Bill moved to Houston."  See recommendations numbered 3 and 5 below.

3. Check your "fog" index. Many people think that being a good business writer involves the use of "big" words and long sentences. Unless you have no doubts about your writing abilities, keep it simple. The longer the sentence, the less likely your readers will understand your message.  Any sentence over 15 words is suspect and becomes "foggier" as it becomes longer. Keep your sentences short.

4. Learn the basic rules of grammar and punctuation. You don't have to be able to diagram a sentence and you don't have to learn about dangling participles, but you do need to know the basics such as what to capitalize and what to spell out. A pet peeve of mine is not spelling out numbers less than ten and capitalizing words that should not be capitalized. One of my colleagues bridles when people misuse pronouns. Do not email him saying "please give Bill or myself a call" and expect a response.

5. Write in the active voice not the passive voice. Sentences written in the active voice have more punch and force. How do you know active from passive? In active sentences, the subject does the acting. For example, "Betty Jones made the decision" is active, where "The decision was made by Betty Jones" is passive. Of course, there are exceptions to using passive, but you will be correct most of the time if you use active voice.

6. Pay attention to word choice. For example, the word "direct" is stronger than the word "supervise" or worse, "oversee." Use a number of different words to convey the same point. Resumes that use the word "achieve" repeatedly, when you could interchange it with "accomplish, effect, complete, solve, fulfill, produce, deliver . . ., well, you get the point. Another pet peeve of mine is the misuse of the word "feel." When I read "I feel that it is time to hire my replacement," I shout "NO!" You can only feel feelings. You can BELIEVE it is time to hire your replacement but you can only FEEL an emotion. I feel sad, happy, angry, etc.

"Please help us welcome Marsha Smith who has ten years of pubic accounting experience."                                                                           

7. Don't expect spell check to catch every error. Many years ago, before the advent of email, we sent a letter to all of our clients announcing the hiring of our new consultant, who hailed from Arthur Andersen. Yes, it was a long time ago. You can imagine our embarrassment when I received a call from a client saying "I don't know what 'pubic' accounting experience has to do with executive search but it sounds more interesting than what our accountants do." Lesson learned.