The Hindu Business Line : Writing essentials

An e-mail we received recently at Global Adjustments went like this: “It was pleasure to meet with you and team at your office and we herewith confirm the meeting on xx Jan xx. a.m. at our office to discuss the below said agenda mentioned in your mail and move forward. Mr XYZ, Head xx Solutions - South and Mr ABC, Head of our marketing team shall represent our company.”

‘Below said agenda mentioned?’ ‘Herewith confirm?’ I felt lost and my mind was in a tizzy about what had been said ! Then there was the Eureka moment. “Definitely material for our next article for new managers,” I thought!

Can’t we simplify the language in the mail and use that wonderful invention called the full stop or period? “It was a pleasure to meet at your office. We are glad to confirm the next meeting at our office on xx. We look forward to discussing the agenda you proposed in your e-mail.”

A professor of Cambridge University recently remarked, “The world’s English will soon have Indian ways of speaking and writing and the use of American English will be overtaken by the ‘Inglish’ style.”

One example is the use of the present continuous tense that we in India are used to. No pressing need to change that.

The world is going to change to be on the same page as us as we edge up to become leaders in business, with the maximum number of English speakers, who are critical to the success of humanity as a whole.

Semantics doesn’t really matter. Partha, a senior corporate leader who has travelled close to a 100 times to the UK, recently shared this experience with me. He requested a “light tea” of a British flight attendant, who gently corrected him to ask if it was “weak tea” he wanted; there is no longer a need to get it so right!

However, the three simple steps below work both for Indians and foreigners, and are needed to help us communicate rather than confuse:

Brevity

Use fewer words when you write and speak, and chances are the message gets delivered quickly and effectively. Many times, two words meaning the same such as “attached herewith” or “herein below” can easily be trimmed down.

The other day, I said this to a Westerner who was asking his office boy, “Are you terribly busy or would you mind, if you have a moment, to please run down and get me a couple of copies of this document?” (27 words) Raghu, the office boy, was bewildered by the train of words.

“Try again, John,” I said. “Raghu, two copies please,” said John and Raghu shot off down the corridor with a beaming smile.

Drop the subservient style

There is no need to “request your kind self.” Let us “request ‘you’ or ‘Mr P’ or ‘Sir’” instead, using their name or title which is more personal anyway.

The days of “humbly plead” are definitely gone and just saying “please” works with a wonderful combination of clockwork efficiency and civility.

“We would introduce ourselves as leading suppliers” is not as effective as “We are leading suppliers.”

Claim assertively who you are and the world gives you its attention.

Westerners, au contraire, include words showing reverence for age, wisdom or stature, or simply show reverence for all other fellow human beings.

One of the best mentors I learnt from is Sue Fox, the author of Business Etiquette for Dummies.

She always signs off her e-mail or autographs her books with ‘respectfully’. Just one word, but a world of meaning and as a last word it makes a lasting impression.

Use proper grammar

Missing out articles like ‘a’ and ‘the’ in India, as seen in the sample e-mail I started this story with, clearly do not create a good impression of you and are easy to fix with practice and attention to detail.

Go back to the basics and learn. Apply it to an e-mail even when you are in a short communication mode. Use spell check and re-read before you hit send.

Writing properly shows you are a thorough professional. I personally spend time training people in my company in this area and it has paid rich dividends.

Here is a recent interaction between me and one of my most promising managers.

He wrote me a one-line e-mail: “We have a network problem, I am telling this because webmail seems to work well from outside the office, where the connectivity is good.”

“Dear ABC,” I wrote, “We tell someone, something. We say something to someone. ‘Tell’ is only used when there is ‘someone’ following immediately after. That is the rule to remember.(Don’t worry, I had to keep memorising this in my early years — tell someone, say something; tell someone, say something; tell someone, say something).

So in the above sentence: ‘I am telling YOU this because,’ would have been correct. ‘I am saying this because,’ would also have been correct.”

On the other hand, Westerners might use acronyms, turns of phrase or sports analogies which the reader may not necessarily know.

Reducing this shows the Westerner’s intention is to have the Indian person understand.

Do stop a moment, re-read and put yourself in her shoes.

(The writer is CEO of Global Adjustments, a relocation and cross-cultural services company, and is also the author of Doing Business in India for Dummies. She can be contacted at globalindian@globaladjustments.com)