Business Writing

Lesson 5: Extending your Writing Skills

Internal Communications

E-mail bulletins can be a useful way to keep colleagues and staff informed of what's happening in your business, from major decisions to minor changes in working practices. We'll discuss the formatting of email messages later in the section on external e-mail. Internal e-mail doesn't require much special attention, as you will usually be sending these messages to other people who are using the same system as you are. Internal e-mails can be somewhat informal, but you should still make sure they're spelled and punctuated correctly if you want to set a good example.

Electronic bulletin boards can also be used for internal communications. Such a board is essentially a web page which only people working for your company can access. Announcements and memos can be posted there. If you are using an electronic bulletin board, remember to check it regularly, and to remind your colleagues and/or staff to do likewise. The danger of using this system is that people will forget to pay attention to it.

Physical bulletin boards are more difficult to ignore, especially if you position them in a prominent area of the workplace, such as by the front door. The problem with this system is that it makes your internal communications visible to anyone who is visiting the workplace, reducing your company's privacy.

Some larger companies opt to distribute an internal newsletter to keep staff up to date on changes. Because it's impractical to produce a new newsletter every day, or more than once a day, you'll generally be unable to use this system to make urgent announcements. However, a newsletter is something which your staff are more likely to keep and remember, long after they have forgotten the contents of single posted notices. You can also use a newsletter to create a friendly team atmosphere in the workplace by including (with permission) some personal articles, such as notices of retirement or of awards received by staff members. Including photos can help staff in a larger workplace to become familiar with one another. Getting other staff members involved in producing the newsletter also encourages team spirit.

Newsletters can take quite a bit of time and effort to produce, though you'll find that this becomes less of a problem as the process of production becomes familiar. A team of two to four people working for an hour each is ideal for producing a weekly newsletter approximately four pages long. Unlike other business communications, newsletters should be printed using both sides of each sheet of paper, so that they look like ordinary magazines or newspapers. Big headlines and the use of columns (rather than writing right across the page) add to this impression. People are used to seeing this format in publications which they read for pleasure, so they are more likely to read the whole newsletter attentively than they would be to read four pages of ordinary text.

If you intend to photocopy your newsletter or other internal communications which include photos, pictures or graphs, bear in mind that the clarity of these illustrations is likely to be reduced by the photocopying process. In most cases, it is advisable to edit your pictures so that they look slightly too light on screen, so that they won't look too dark after they have been photocopied.

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