Reader-Friendly Reports: A No-nonsense Guide to Effective Writing for MBAs, Consultants, and Other Professionals

If we have to choose between candidates who can write well and candidates who know accounting well, we choose the ones who can write. We can teach accounting principles in a few weeks, but bad writing creates such a drag on performance we just prefer not to get involved.

—the Senior Vice President of a major bank in New York

Never, for even a moment, let out of your sight the single purpose of business writing: to persuade your reader, as efficiently as possible, of the validity of your thesis.

We are aiming here at two things: instant accessibility and absolute unmisunderstandability.

Keep in mind Daniel’s First Law:

Organize around conclusions.

And Daniel’s Second Law:

Tell people what you’re going to say before you say it.