The Toolkit of Formal Writing

• Formal technical strategy documents require absolute precision, appropriate distance, and logical flow. In this lesson, we review nominalisation, the passive voice, hedging, and cohesive devices to elevate executive-level writing.
• Technique
• Informal / Direct
• Formal / Advanced
• Nominalisation
• We need to integrate systems quickly.
• Rapid system integration is imperative.
• Passive Voice
• Our team identified a significant flaw.
• A significant flaw was identified.
• Hedging
• This strategy will definitely fail.
• This strategy would appear to carry certain risks.
• Cohesion
• Boston and Seattle updated their policies. The former succeeded.
• Boston and Seattle updated their policies. The former succeeded.
• Remember
• Use nominalisation to transform dynamic verbs into abstract nouns, increasing information density in strategic papers.
• Employ the passive voice to maintain objectivity and focus on systems or outcomes rather than personnel.
• Apply hedging devices (e.g., tend to, it would seem, arguably) to soften claims and project professional caution.
• Utilise advanced cohesive links (such as the former, respectively, or consequently) to guide the reader seamlessly across complex arguments.
• Examples
• Strict resource allocation was prioritised by management in Austin.
• It could be argued that the current state harbours hidden risks.
• The diagnostics and transition plans were reviewed in Seattle and Boston, respectively.
• Common mistakes
• We feel that our technology strategy is definitely the best.
• It could be argued that our technology strategy represents a robust solution.

Complete the sentences

• The executive board demanded the rapid (implement) ____ of the new architecture.
• A critical capability gap (identify) ____ during the audit in Chicago.
• It (appear) ____ that the transition plan requires revision.
• Boston and New York deployed cloud and on-premise solutions, (respective) ____ .
• The engineering team (tend) ____ to overlook subtle operational friction.
• Comprehensive (diagnose) ____ preceded the target state definition.

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