Business documents say a lot about the abilities and professionalism of a particular business. Due to this reason, they are meant to be completely free from all kinds of mistakes. This will only become possible when the person who is writing the business document is completely aware of common mistakes.
However, just getting familiar with the most common mistakes while writing business documents will not be enough, you also have to understand how to rewrite them on the spot.
In this article, I am going to discuss the five most common mistakes in business documents, along with an explanation of how you can rewrite them. So, without discussing any other thing, let’s head towards the details.
Top 5 Common Mistakes in Business Documents & How to Write Them
1. Using Confusing Or Complex Words
Using confusing or complex words is a commonly found mistake in business documents or proposals. According to my personal experience, I have seen many companies using unique terminologies in business documents. I personally call these terminologies “Unique jargon”.
Although, using these kinds of terminologies can be useful in showing off the professionalism or writing abilities of a person. But can make it quite difficult for normal employees or other staff to efficiently understand your message.
Did you know one of the main purposes of a business document is to provide a snapshot of a company’s activities clearly? When you use confusing or complex words in it, this means you have shot down its main purpose.
How to rewrite it:
You can overcome this mistake through rewriting. All you have to do is just figure out complex words and then rewrite them by replacing those words with their simple yet relevant synonyms.
However, the replacement of words will definitely require a strong vocabulary, if you don’t have one, no need to worry because I have got the solution. You can get help from an article rewriter tool that quickly and efficiently rewrites the given text by replacing difficult words or phrases with their common synonyms.
2. Being Too Wordy (Using Repetitive Terms)
This is yet another commonly found mistake in business writing, business writers often make use of repetitive words and phrases (to leave a good impression), resulting in redundancy.
Redundancy is considered an evil twin in business documents. Let me explain why. When a business document contains too many repetitive terms, it will make it less clear and concise, and both of these are the main elements of business writing.
How to rewrite it:
To rewrite the document to make it less wordy, you first have to understand its meaning. After this, you can easily rewrite it by eliminating the repetitive or unnecessary words, below are some tips you can try:
- Try to rewrite by using short words instead of lengthy phrases
- Avoid using words like “absolutely important”, “very unique”, etc. during rewriting
3. Describing Information In Passive Voice
We all know that the use of passive voice in any type of writing is considered annoying and ineffective. This is so because passive voice makes the writing sound less direct or straightforward, or sometimes even less credible.
The passive voice sounds like the subject of a sentence is acted on by the verb, for instance, “the ball is thrown by the blower.” If you read this example, you will definitely get an unprofessional feel. When the business document sounds unprofessional, it will raise questions about the professionalism of the writing team.
To tackle this issue of passive voice sentences in business documents, you have to convert them into active voice. This can be done through rewriting.
How to rewrite it:
To rewrite passive voice into active, all you have to do is just bring the actor (that is performing action) from the end of the passive sentence to the beginning. For instance, “The blower thrown the ball” is a rewritten active voice version of the above example.
4. Using The Wrong Tone
Using the wrong is also a common mistake in business documents. Business documents require to be written in a specific tone. The tone can be confident, sincere, or courteous. The tone should give a professional to the readers.
Most of the time, business writers become successful in using the right tone, but in some sentences or paragraphs, they end up damaging it. This is mostly due to the complexity of the argument or the information they are explaining.
The change in tone will greatly affect the overall quality of the business paper. But don’t worry, you can resolve the tone issue by rewriting those sentences or paragraphs.
How to rewrite them:
First of all, efficiently understand the document and identify the sentences or paragraphs that became the cause of changed or damaged tone. After identifying them, you will have to rewrite them by following the sentence structure and word choice that you have used throughout the document.
5. Writing A Plagiarized Document
Although plagiarism is not a mistake, it is a digital crime, since it is too common in business documents, so I have decided to include it in the list of mistakes that you should avoid. Plagiarism is the act of using another person’s information or words without giving proper credit, it can occur both intentionally and unintentionally.
It is a common mistake or issue in business documents. Because there is a lot of content already available on the internet, which means no matter how you try to keep the document unique, there is still a chance that some sentences or parts of your document will match with someone else.
In such cases, you can rewrite the plagiarized pieces to make them unique.
How to rewrite:
To rewrite the plagiarized sentences or paragraphs of a business document, you have to replace most of the words and phrases with their relevant synonyms. Along with this, you also have to rearrange the words as well.
Doing such changes in the text will break down the pattern of plagiarism, resulting in 100% unique content.
So, these are some of the most common mistakes in business documents.
Final Words
Business documents provide a snapshot of a company’s internal and external activities. Having mistakes in it can greatly irritate colleagues, clients, or higher staff, resulting in a damaged reputation. In this article, I have explained some of the most common mistakes in business documents along with how you can rewrite them, hope you will find the information valuable.
