One of my favorite English teachers when I attended Samuel J. Tilden High School (class of 1967) in Brooklyn, NY, said something I will always remember (and often quote):
"The way a person writes and the way a person speaks are direct reflections of the way that person thinks."
Given this, unless one was required to publish their first draft or speak spontaneously, why would anyone want to be less than clear in their business communication? Unclear, vague or disjointed writing or speaking might cause the reader or listener to believe that someone suffered from faulty thought processes.
I have actually known playwrights and authors who seemed to agonize over every word, to ensure that each word "earned its place in the story," that it carried the story forward and created no confusion for the reader (except for one mystery writer for whom confusion and misdirection were part of his writing toolkit).
While working in my first marketing position in my first A/E/C industry firm, the Vice President in charge of contracts held a session for the firm's 11-person marketing/public relations support group. One of the things he told us was that more than half of the lawsuits in our business were the result of unfulfilled expectations.
He cautioned us to make sure that our submittals clearly defined the scope of work we were proposing to do, and to be just as clear in defining what was not part of that scope. He did, however, warn us never to say we would not be doing certain things, but to offer those services as out-of-scope items for which an additional fee could be negotiated.
He also reminded us that you can excercise a certain amount of control over how a client will feel about your work by giving them the right expectations from the start. Consider the phrase, "underpromise and overdeliver." Underpromising and overdelivering will always be better than the opposite!
In this morning's CPSM Digest email (a service for SMPS members who utilize the MySMPS community), there was a question about using the Item G of the SF330 forms to indicate a person's participation in a project(s) not shown among the five allowed on his or her Item E resume. Nancy Usrey, FSMPS, CPSM, a recognized expert on making the best use of the SF330 forms, offered a caution on doing so. She advised:
"Remember, once a reviewer questions one fact, s/he will begin to question every fact. You aren't there to defend the interpretation, so make sure your story is clear."
Again, it's about the clarity of your communication.
If the reader or listener is not clear about what you are communicating, or about how that communication answers their question or resolves their challenge, then you might as well not have written or said anything at all.
The fact is that a writer or speaker has 100% control over what he/she implies and 0% control over what the reader or listener infers. So it behooves any writer or speaker to be as clear as possible, to ensure that the message being received is as close as possible to the message that was sent.