The Business Writer's Companion
According to The Business Writer's Companion (2014), professional writing must have coherence, conciseness, and unity. To illustrate its claims, The Business Writer's Companion (BWC) defines these concepts and emphasizes aspects of them as summarized in the following list:
1. Coherence: The BWC argues that coherence is the ability to “ {hold} to one point of view, one attitude, one tense; and it is the joining of sentences into a logical pattern ” (Alred, Brusaw, & Oliu, 2014, p. 27). In other words, it is the process of making words, phrases and sentences move smoothly and logically within a paragraph. One of the most common methods of establishing coherence is the use of transitional words ( first, second , then , next and so on). Coherence
helps aid the reader move easily and clearly from one idea to the next as the author intended.
2. Conciseness: According to the BWC “concise writing is free of unnecessary words, phrases, clauses and sentences without sacrificing clarity or appropriate detail” (Alred et al., 2014, p. 297). The purpose of writing concisely is to not overwhelm the reader with too much information. However, the author must keep a balance because too much conciseness may produce a document that is choppy and ambiguous. To help writers achieve conciseness, the BWC features a list of guidelines which include avoiding affectation, eliminating redundancy, and using the active and indicative moods.
3. Unity: The BWC states that “unity is singleness of purpose and focus; a unified paragraph or document has a central idea and does not digress into unrelated topics” Alred et al., 2014, p. 321). In other words, it means that one paragraph is about only one main topic. Unity is essential in good paragraph writing. To help writers achieve unity the BWC suggest writing an outline. An outline aids the author from the introduction to conclusions, and it assists the author to construct a paragraph around a single idea.
By using these concepts in the ways that the BWC has presented, writers can produce professional writing that effectively and efficiently communicates with its audiences.
1. Coherence: The BWC argues that coherence is the ability to “ {hold} to one point of view, one attitude, one tense; and it is the joining of sentences into a logical pattern ” (Alred, Brusaw, & Oliu, 2014, p. 27). In other words, it is the process of making words, phrases and sentences move smoothly and logically within a paragraph. One of the most common methods of establishing coherence is the use of transitional words ( first, second , then , next and so on). Coherence
helps aid the reader move easily and clearly from one idea to the next as the author intended.
2. Conciseness: According to the BWC “concise writing is free of unnecessary words, phrases, clauses and sentences without sacrificing clarity or appropriate detail” (Alred et al., 2014, p. 297). The purpose of writing concisely is to not overwhelm the reader with too much information. However, the author must keep a balance because too much conciseness may produce a document that is choppy and ambiguous. To help writers achieve conciseness, the BWC features a list of guidelines which include avoiding affectation, eliminating redundancy, and using the active and indicative moods.
3. Unity: The BWC states that “unity is singleness of purpose and focus; a unified paragraph or document has a central idea and does not digress into unrelated topics” Alred et al., 2014, p. 321). In other words, it means that one paragraph is about only one main topic. Unity is essential in good paragraph writing. To help writers achieve unity the BWC suggest writing an outline. An outline aids the author from the introduction to conclusions, and it assists the author to construct a paragraph around a single idea.
By using these concepts in the ways that the BWC has presented, writers can produce professional writing that effectively and efficiently communicates with its audiences.