The importance of writing well in business
Write like a magazine author, a newspaper journalist, or an MBA?
According to billionaire hedge fund manager, Paul Tudor Jones, the answer is simple.
Jones founded asset management firm Tudor Investment, a hedge fund that manages $14 billion, in 1980. Jones is also known for having co-founded the Robin Hood Foundation, a philanthropic outfit that has raised more than $1 billion to fight poverty in New York.
Jones recently divulged to Bloomberg News that business writings have to be done in a certain logical way, and it is something not learned in business school or at a trading desk. In fact, he sometimes makes employees enroll in an online class.
He says that taking a class in newspaper writing is the best way to learn to write coherently, in what he calls a "hierarchical way".
But not all journalism is created equal, as according to Jones magazine articles whose climax comes at the end are a terrible model for business memos. "Today, in business, time is money," said Jones. "When you've got hundreds of decisions to make every week—dozens every day—being able to see, think and understand what the issue is in the first couple of paragraphs is actually paramount to being efficient at what you do."
What would you say? Does cross-discipline training improve your work?
Of course all of this reminds of that scene in Seinfeld , when Kramer is pretending to work at an office and everything is going along well until his "boss" tells him he has to let him go -- the reports he filed make no sense, it's "almost as if you've had no business training at all!" Maybe in a reboot that line will be "journalism training" if Tudor's ideas take hold.
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Comments
Feisty56 wrote on October 23, 2015, 12:07 PM
This type of writing in business seems like a no-brainer to me, so I'm very surprised to learn that this is considered new thinking.
Jeramey wrote on October 23, 2015, 12:15 PM
It seems that a lot of people only "write what they know" and in some cases they keep up their undergrad expository writing style through their professional career.
2Paulie wrote on October 24, 2015, 3:39 AM
This is a very well written article and I agree that business writing has to be concise and get to the point quickly. This formula also works for social media writing.
crowntower wrote on October 25, 2015, 10:42 PM
Even in writing a letter I always believe and keep in mind to go straight to the point because mist of the time people wants to know the reason of your article or its thoughts. Thank you for sharing and I think I add this to my learnings in writing. God bless.
cheri wrote on November 3, 2015, 10:26 PM
It always depends on the purpose of the writing and the reader consideration
vanGogh wrote on January 26, 2016, 12:33 AM
point well taken; doubly challenging for us with english as our second/third language; i keep reading as a first step; your posts are feisty. Thank you