Pretty much everything has changed since the 1980s, right? And the style of business writing is no exception. So it’s really strange that some people still insist on writing the way they did in those days.

Business writing then was very formal, often very wordy and generally not that easy to read. Now, professional writers know that they need to be clear and concise to get through to today’s (very busy) readers. Companies need to understand that the way they write says a lot about them and – to borrow from Dr Ray Bailey – that clear writing is also efficient writing.

(By the way, over the years Dr Ray Bailey taught us a lot about good – or in fact, excellent – English. He is also the author of A Survival Kit for Writing English).