Is There A Place for Rhetoric in Business Communication?

No! No! A thousand times no! Business is too serious to take rhetoric seriously.

Business is all about producing maximum results with minimum input, and its lifeblood is effective and efficient communication. Business communication is plain, business communication is direct, and business communication is above all utilitarian.

If you’re cooking a meal, always remember that while people may want fancy flavors and exotic spices, what they need is healthy nutrition at a reasonable price. That’s why business communication is not about inspiration, it’s about information and illumination. It’s about profit, not poetry; efficiency not excitement.

If you try to get too cute, you’re liable to fall flat on your face. Anyone in business who enters the lion’s den of the C-suite and tries to sail against the current of logic and analysis will run aground on the shores of skepticism.

So, if you want to soar to the heights of business success, leave the airy abstractions and pious platitudes to the politicians; leave the flights of fancy to the fakers, and keep your feet firmly planted on the clearest and plainest path.[1]

[1] I hope I convinced you. If so, go back and count how many rhetorical devices you found in my 200 words.