Introduction to MBA Writing Tips

I believe the ability to write well is perhaps second only to the ability to present well in maximizing one's career potential. This is a general statement, obviously - it may vary by industry - but this is what I believe.

Consistent with my interest in working on your writing skills, I have some comments based on previous student essays - not the substance, which generally is pretty good, but the writing quality, which generally is not as good.

1. Executive summary format means you state your conclusion/recommendation(s) in the first sentence. The first paragraph is the most important and has all the most relevant information. The rest of the one-page, 500-word essay supports the first paragraph.
2. Don't use "quotes" or italics or worst - ALL CAPS - to make your point or add emphasis; use better sentence structure or better words instead.
3. Learn when to use double quotes (the trend is to use them much less), single quotes (only inside double quote), italics (many things that used use be in quotes), underlining (never), hyphens, double hyphens, and an ellipsis ( ... ).
4. Maintain some sense of formality - don't write, you know, like, like you speak. Don't call someone you've never met by his first name. Try not to use "cool" more than three times in a 500-word essay.
5. Learn what needs to be Capitalized and what doesn't.
6. Learn the difference between "which" and "that".
7. "Cannot" is always one word; "a lot" is always two.
8. "i.e.," and "e.g.," are not the same and punctuation matters.
9. "Really" and "very" are often very much overused.
10. "US" is a pronoun; "U.S." is an adjective; only "United States" is the noun.