You can use commercial writing, or business writing, to write blogs, descriptions, and articles that promote companies, products, and services. Commercial writing requires a variety of skills, such as creativity, grammar understanding, and the ability to research effectively. If you’re interested in improving your commercial writing, learning more about the specific skills you can focus on can be beneficial. In this article, we explain what commercial writing skills are, list eight important skills, and provide helpful tips for becoming a better writer.
What are commercial writing skills?
Commercial writing skills are written communication abilities that allow you to create effective and persuasive business materials. Writing skills include an understanding of language and strategy that allow you to generate engaging content. They also include structural skills that help you use correct grammar, spelling, and formatting when writing. These are some types of commercial writing:
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Informational: Information commercial writing focuses on providing the reader with knowledge and facts regarding a subject. This may include information that helps a professional to make decisions about their career or an article that provides context about a specific product or service.
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Instructional: Writings that focus on instructional content aim to provide the reader with a set of steps they can follow to accomplish a goal. This may include instructions on a package or steps for earning a certification or degree.
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Persuasive: Persuasive commercial pieces help the reader learn more about a product or service and encourage them to invest or make a purchase. This kind of writing may occur in emails, sales pitches, and advertising materials.
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Transactional: The purpose of transactional writing is to communicate and interpret information. This type of commercial writing can occur in email conversations, invoices, and messages.
8 important commercial writing skills
You can focus on improving commercial writing skills to create better materials and more persuasive communication. These are eight important commercial writing skills:
1. Creativity
Creativity is the ability to generate new ideas and devise new methods for doing something. In commercial writing, creativity is important because it allows the writer to think of new methods for phrasing information and communicating ideas. A creative writer can adapt to their audience and appeal to their interests.
2. Editing
Editing is the process of assessing a piece of work, finding issues, and remedying them. Editing is also important for identifying the portions of a piece of writing that can be improved. Those who want to improve their commercial writing abilities can focus on editing skills to learn how to refine and improve their writing before submitting.
3. Collaboration
Collaboration is the ability to work with others when producing a piece of commercial writing. This may include working directly with other writers to produce different parts of the same project. It can also include the collaboration that occurs between the writer and client, or between the writer and the editors.
4. Time management
If you’re writing commercially, it often means you’re receiving payment for the content you’re creating. When this is true, you may manage many projects or clients at a time, and that can make time management important for success. The ability to determine how long to work on a project and when to submit it is important for maintaining good relationships with your team members or clients.
5. Grammar understanding
Grammar refers to the rules by which we write that allow us to communicate effectively. To be a successful commercial writer, it’s important to understand grammar so you can adjust to different styles and ensure your writing is readable. To improve your grammar skills, you can learn more about commas, periods, colons, and capitalization rules.
6. Patience
Patience is the ability to maintain composure even in stressful situations. This can be important for collaborating with specific clients or editors. Having patience is also important for ensuring each piece of writing is at the highest possible quality before submission.
7. Research skills
Many types of commercial writing include factual information, which can often require research. Finding information and learning about different subjects can help commercial writers find success. Research skills also require the writer to be able to determine which sources are credible and which information is best to include.
8. Planning skills
Planning a piece of writing can help with productivity and quality. For example, this may include the writer understanding their key points or making an outline before beginning the project. If the commercial writing project requires a certain word count, this can help the writer plan to include the proper amount of content.
Tips for improving your writing abilities
Depending on what you use commercial writing for, improving your skills may help you perform better in the workplace or find more clients. These are some helpful tips for improving your writing abilities:
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Use active voice. The active voice in writing can often be more engaging and direct than the passive voice. To identify when you’re using the passive voice and using the active instead, consider using a grammar-detecting program that shows the passive voice.
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Know your audience. It’s important to understand how to change your approach based on the audience so each reader understands the content and responds positively to the text. Be sure to understand the audience for your project before beginning so you can adjust your tone and voice correctly.
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Focus on conciseness. Commercial writing often focuses on communicating information efficiently, and by being concise you can avoid including details that don’t support the message or distract from the purpose. Consider reviewing your content and identifying areas where you can remove additional words.
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Become adaptable. You can strengthen your commercial writing skills by completing many projects with different audiences and clients. By doing this, you can learn to write in different styles and become more flexible in writing.
I hope you find this article helpful.
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