State of Business Writing 2016 Final 2
State of Business Writing 2016 Final 2
State of Business Writing 2016 Final 2
Business Writing
The challenge of writing for a read-on-screen world
by Josh Bernoff
Summary
In early 2016 I conducted the WOBS Writing Survey, analyzing the
experiences and attitudes of 547 business people who write at least two
hours per week for work, excluding email. Only one-sixth of them
identify themselves as writers or editors; the rest are business owners,
executives, managers, analysts, and other professionals. They write
everything from reports and marketing materials to web copy and
blog posts. For these professionals, reading and writing is a full-time
job; they average 25.5 hours reading and 20.4 hours writing per week.
The poor quality of what they read frustrates them. They rate the over-
all effectiveness of what they read at a pathetic 5.4 out of 10, and 81%
report that poorly written material wastes their time. They complain
that what they read is too long, poorly organized, unclear, and full
of jargon.
These results confirm how poorly business writing has kept up with
the needs of on-screen readers. Business writers waste too much of
their readers’ time. To maximize clarity and impact, they must learn to
write shorter, ruthlessly purge meaningless words, and take control of
their review processes.
Most are between 35 and 65. They come from organizations of all sizes.
Age Number of employees
30%
24% 24%
22% 22%
20%
17%
12% 13%
5% 6%
2% 2%
18 to 25 to 35 to 45 to 55 to 65+ NA 0 to 1 2 to 10 11 to 101 to 1,000+ NA
24 34 44 54 64 100 1,000
41%
51% 44% BS or BA
Male Female 41%
Masters/PhD
Email swallows up managers’ reading time. Writers and editors write the most, 28.5 hours
per week.
Hours spent per week reading Hours spent per week writing
Email Other reading Email Other writing
All 9.3 16.2 25.5 All 6.4 14.0 20.4
Writer, editor 8.4 18.5 26.9 Writer, editor 5.3 23.2 28.5
Manager, director, Manager, director,
11.1 15.3 26.4 7.7 12.3 20.0
supervisor supervisor
Owner, executive, 8.6 16.7 25.4 Owner, executive, 5.9 12.0 17.9
corporate officer corporate officer
Analyst, consultant 8.8 15.4 24.2 Analyst, consultant 6.2 13.1 19.3
Shading indicates job description most likely to create each type of content
The State of Business Writing 2016 4
Writers see many problems in what they read, fewer in what they write.
Business writers judge what they read as ineffective, rating it only 5.4 on a 10-point scale. They complain
that writing is too long, poorly organized, unclear, and full of jargon. Like the children in Lake Wobegon,
they‘re apparently all above average, seeing fewer flaws in their own work.
5.4
Material Average
you read Analyst/consultant 5.2 5.7 Writer/editor
4 5 6 7
“In the material you read/write, which of the problems listed here occur frequently enough
to make the material significantly less effective?”
65%
Too long
45%
65%
Poorly organized
16%
61%
Unclear
19%
54%
Too much jargon
24%
Repetitive 34%
16%
Too informal 8%
11%
None of these 2%
9%
5 The State of Business Writing 2016
71% 72%
65%
63%
“I make a strong, positive impression
on others with my writing.”
33%
26% 27%
18%
“I worry that taking a clear stand in my writing
would damage my career.”
81%
Poorly written material
wastes a lot of my time. 76%
84%
67%
I make a strong, positive impression
on others with my writing. 78%
61%
48%
Reading on a computer/tablet/phone
screen makes it harder to concentrate. 48%
49%
All
38% Writers, editors
My writing teachers in school/college
prepared me well for writing at work. 52%
Managers, directors,
36%
supervisors
25%
I worry that taking a clear stand in my
writing would damage my career. 31%
29%
Editorial processes are a problem. Writers spend only one-fifth of their time
on rewrites.
All Writers, editors Managers, directors,
supervisors Rewrites
19%
53%
49% Prep
& research
41%
37% 45%
32%
21%
First
draft
36%
I get the editing Our process for
feedback I need to collecting and
make my writing combining feedback
better. works well.
Results indicate top two boxes on a Based on responses about proportion
5-point Likert scale of agreement. of time spent on writing stages
Finding Recommendation
Professionals spend more than 45 hours Focus on better writing, from email to reports,
per week on reading and writing. to improve corporate productivity.
Among business writers, 65% say what they Make brevity in writing a key corporate value.
read is often too long, and 45% say the same
about what they write.
More than half of writers see poor organization, Train editors to spot and purge meaningless
lack of clarity, and jargon as significant problems. words and replace jargon with plain language.
Only 38% of writers say they got proper training Encourage experienced writers to train and
in school. But among writers over 55, 72% say build confidence in younger writers.
their writing makes a powerful impression.
Only 49% of writers working on projects get the To make writing processes more efficient,
editorial feedback they need, and only 32% say enforce discipline and deadlines on editors
their process for collecting and combining and reviewers.
feedback works well.
Methodology
The statistics in this document come from the WOBS Writing Survey, which I conducted from January through
March 2016. I recruited survey respondents from several sources. I emailed readers of my blog and people who
signed up for a webinar on clear writing. I also recruited respondents through posts and advertisements on my blog,
Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I used SurveyMonkey to conduct the survey online and analyze the results. To be
included in the sample set, respondents needed to answer all substantive questions, indicate with their answers that
they write for two or more hours per week at work (excluding email), and write primarily in English. Of the 793
people who responded, 547 fit these criteria. Where I cite a statistic that says that a specific percentage of respondents
believe a statement, that statistic indicates the number who checked the top two boxes on a 5-point Likert scale from
“completely disagree” to “completely agree.”
Where I cite statistics about subgroups, the subgroups have the following sample sizes: writers/editors, 85 respon-
dents; analysts/consultants, 90 respondents; owners/executives/corporate officers, 90 respondents; managers/direc-
tors/supervisors, 160 respondents; other professionals, 82 respondents. The statistics on page 6 come from the 416
respondents who reported working on a project that lasted more than two weeks within the last year.
Because of the way in which I recruited the respondents in this survey, they do not represent a random sample of
American business professionals—the sample is biased toward people who are more concerned about the quality
of writing at work. If this were a random sample, then statistics based on a sample this size would have a margin
of error of plus or minus 5% (at a 95% confidence level).
About Josh Bernoff
I’ve been a professional writer
for 34 years and have authored
or coauthored four books.
Groundswell: Winning in a World
Transformed by Social
Technologies (HBR Press, 2008)
was a bestseller.
Learn more
bernoff.com
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