What is business writing style?
The communication style of any country is influenced by culture, history and societal standards. If we untangle some of the weaknesses of business writing style in Malaysia we can spot the influencing factors. Lets see where these come from. First, we have the archaic leftovers from colonial times: your good self, perusal, below mentioned. These expressions from the distant past remind us how formal and stiff writing style tended to be in the late 19th and early 20th century. Then, we have the legalese such as herewith, forthwith and other incomprehensible gems. What do they mean? Mix in some business clichs from the late 20th century such as value added and state of the art. Add a bit of jargon and some SMS abbreviations (btw, tkx). Finally, there is an interesting collection of closing lines. These consist of fragments: For your information, For your necessary action, with a please tagged on just in case they do not sound polite enough! The result? A hotchpotch of old and new terms,
