WorkKeys Business Writing cheat sheet

A complete sentence requires a subject, a predicate, and a complete thought; a word group missing any one of these is a fragment (e.g., "Because the report was late.").

A comma splice joins two independent clauses with only a comma; repair it with a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a coordinating conjunction.

FANBOYS = for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so; only these seven conjunctions may follow a comma that links two independent clauses.

A subordinating conjunction (because, although, when, if, since, while) makes the clause it introduces dependent, so it cannot stand alone as a sentence.

Parallel structure requires items in a list or pair to share grammatical form ("drafting, editing, and proofreading," not "drafting, editing, and to proofread").

An introductory modifier describes the subject of the main clause; if that subject cannot perform the modifier's action, the modifier dangles.

Place a modifier directly beside the word it limits; moving it changes meaning ("only she called" vs. "she called only yesterday").

A semicolon joins two closely related independent clauses; a colon follows an independent clause to introduce a list, explanation, or example.

Two independent clauses joined by a conjunctive adverb (however, therefore) take a semicolon before the adverb and a comma after it.

Use a colon only after a complete independent clause; a colon may not separate a verb from its object or a preposition from its object.

Form the possessive of a singular noun with 's; form the possessive of a plural noun ending in s with an apostrophe only (employees').

Its shows possession; it's is the contraction of "it is" or "it has" and never marks possession.

Capitalize proper nouns, days, months, and a title immediately preceding a name (President Ruiz); do not capitalize seasons or a title standing alone after a name.

A nonrestrictive (nonessential) clause is set off by commas; a restrictive clause that identifies the noun takes no commas.

Business style spells out one through nine and uses numerals for 10 and above; never begin a sentence with a numeral.

Hyphenate a compound modifier before a noun (a well-known author) but not when it follows the noun (the author is well known).

A semicolon, not a comma, separates two independent clauses when the second begins with however, therefore, or otherwise.

A verb agrees with its subject in number; prepositional phrases between subject and verb never change the agreement.

Indefinite pronouns each, either, everyone, everybody, anyone, somebody, and nobody are singular and take singular verbs.

Compound subjects joined by and take a plural verb; subjects joined by or or nor take a verb matching the nearer subject.

Collective nouns (team, committee, staff) take a singular verb when the group acts as one unit and a plural verb when members act separately.

In sentences beginning with there is or there are, the verb agrees with the noun that follows it.

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number and gender; "everyone" requires "his or her" or a plural recast.

Who is the subject form and whom is the object form; test by substituting he (who) or him (whom).

Pronouns after the preposition between take object case: "between you and me," never "between you and I."

Keep verb tense consistent within a sentence, and use past perfect for the earlier of two past actions.

Affect is normally a verb meaning to influence; effect is normally a noun meaning a result.

Use fewer for countable items (fewer errors) and less for uncountable quantities (less time, less money).

Use number for countable items and amount for uncountable quantities.

Then refers to time; than introduces a comparison.

Principal means main or the head of a school; principle means a rule or belief.

Compliment means praise; complement means to complete or go well with something.

Ensure means make certain, insure means provide insurance, and assure means reassure a person.

Advice is a noun and advise is a verb; accept means receive and except means exclude.

Lay takes a direct object (lay the file down); lie means to recline and takes no object.

Match register to audience: external customers need formal, jargon-free wording, while internal memos may use shared technical terms.

Active voice ("We approved the budget") is shorter and clearer than passive voice ("The budget was approved").

Passive voice is appropriate when the doer is unknown or unimportant, or when tact requires hiding the actor.

Use "you" to emphasize reader benefits in correspondence with customers and employees.

Prefer concrete, measurable wording ("12 complaints") over vague wording ("a lot of complaints").

Cut redundancy (advance planning, end result, null and void) and wordy phrases ("in order to" becomes "to").

State requests positively ("Please send payment by May 1") rather than as prohibitions.

Avoid slang, clichés, and blaming language such as "you failed to"; substitute neutral, factual phrasing.

Use the direct approach (main point first) for routine, good-news, and informational messages; use the indirect approach for bad news or persuasion.

A topic sentence states the paragraph's main idea and is usually placed first.

Paragraph unity requires every sentence to support the topic sentence; unrelated sentences are cut or moved.

Transitions (however, therefore, in addition, as a result) signal the relationship between paragraphs.

Common organizational patterns are chronological, order of importance, cause-effect, and comparison.

Develop one idea per paragraph; typical business paragraphs run three to six sentences.

Bulleted or numbered lists present parallel items and improve readability; list items must be grammatically parallel.

The closing should restate the key point or the requested action rather than introduce a new topic.

The subject line and first sentence carry the purpose, so front-load the key information.

Support a topic sentence with specific detail: examples, facts, statistics, or reasons rather than restatement.

Answer who, what, when, where, why, and how to make a message complete.

Replace generalities with measurable data ("response time fell from 48 to 12 hours").

Every claim requires evidence; an unsupported assertion reads as mere opinion.

Include the action step: what the reader should do, by when, and through which channel.

Anticipate the reader's follow-up questions and answer them within the message.

Cut sentences that repeat an earlier idea in different words; repetition adds length, not development.

Scale detail to the request: a routine confirmation needs less support than a proposal or a problem report.

State assumptions and conditions explicitly instead of leaving them for the reader to infer.