That's because the writing we produce at work serves a definite goal, which isn't to make ourselves appear more educated or significant. It means communicating in a clear, concise, accurate, and occasionally convincing manner.

So, what distinguishes good business writing from bad? Good business writing, in my opinion, contains five traits that are required in the workplace. It's as follows:

• It's precise, so there's no opportunity for error or misinterpretation.
• Written, so that the message is clear and the reader knows what action if any, he or she should take.
• Structured logically, making the mental process or reasoning simple to follow.
• Free of grammatical, spelling, and poor punctuation
• Be succinct without being disrespectful, omitting needless facts.

I also believe that excellent business writing is reader-centric, which means that you write it for the person on the receiving end so that your message is understood on the first read. And that's exactly what you're doing if you have these five traits.

How would you rate your business writing right now? We all have room to develop, no matter how good, awful, or in the middle, our business writing skills are right now. Take heart if you're frustrated. You can only improve. If you're annoyed by a co-worker’s writing, share these five traits with them. Or perhaps you're satisfied with your current business writing abilities but wish to improve? If that's the case, pick one of these five attributes to focus on for the next week until you notice some progress. Me? I'll focus on being more concise! It's easy to be cynical when you've been writing professionally for as long as I have and can type as quickly as I can. In addition, if you are interested in knowing how to write a business plan, then you might find this helpful