MODULO DE FORMACIÓN

COMUNICACIÓN EN EL ESCENARIO INTERNACIONAL

KAREN ULLOA FIGUEREDO

2012
 TABLA DE CONTENIDO

Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04

Marketing mix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04

Price. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07

Place. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08

Promotion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Advertising. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Personal selling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Sales promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Public relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 14

Comunicación internacional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . . 15

Proceso comunicativo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 16

Idioma . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. 19

Reading. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 22

Reading strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Comprehension levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Nominal group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Verbal group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 28

Coherence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Cohesion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Text types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Writing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Prewriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 37

Drafting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Revising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Editing and proofreading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Bibliografía. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
 MARKETING

This term has multiple definitions. It can be focused on customers, companies, prices,

products etc. Christ (2008) states that marketing “consists of strategies and tactics used

to identify, create and maintain satisfying relationships with customers resulting in value

for both the customer and the marketer”.

Marketing is composed by different aspects. However, authors have summarized them

in four elements that every marketer needs to take into account. They are called “the

marketing mix”:

1. PRODUCT: according to Ehmke, Fulton & Lusk (2005), product refers to the

goods and services a marketer offers to the customers. But what is the difference

between these two kinds of products? Boone et al (2009) clarify that goods are

tangible products as a car, a television etc, that is, things that you can see, listen,
 smell, taste or touch. On the other hand, services are intangible products that

satisfy the needs of consumers. They are different from goods in different ways:

 They are intangible.

 They are inseparable from the service providers.

 They are perishable.

 They are not easily standardized.

 Buyers play an important role in their creation and distribution.

 They are varied.

Boone et al (2009) also classify the consumer products in four categories:

Taken from: Boone et al (2009). Contemporary marketing. Pg 329

 a. Convenience products: they are goods and services that consumers buy

frequently. They are classified in impulse, staples or emergency products.

Impulse is related to purchases at the moment without planning. Staples refer to

products that maintain an inventory: toothpaste, soaps etc and emergency

products are bought in response to unexpected and urgent needs.

b. Shopping products: they refer to products that the consumers have compared in

terms of price, quality, color etc. They can be homogeneous (televisions,

computer, fridges etc) or heterogeneous (clothes, furniture, vacations etc.

c. Specialty products: products that offer unique characteristics that cause buyers

to prize those particular brands. For example, clothes from famous designers,

expensive jewellery etc.

d. Unsought products: goods and services related to health care, funeral plans,

insurance etc.

Burrow (2008) establishes three steps marketers need to take into account to start with

the product development process:

 a. Gather information: through different sources of information, marketers collect

information about different aspects of a product. Then, they analyze it in order to

characterize what the customers need and what other products they prefer.

b. Design strategies: marketers can develop products or create new ones. This

step is related with the creation of an appealing marketing mix, based on the

strength and weak points of the company, the target market and the competitors.

Multiple mixes must be created to make the product successful.

c. Conduct market tests: with different kind of tests, marketers determine if the

product will be accepted by the customers. This is necessary to decide if the

product is launched or not in order to avoid unnecessary costs.

Based on the previous ideas, marketers create or maintain products in order to satisfy

customers.

2. PRICE: it is related to whatever must be exchanged in return for receiving a good

or service (Pezzullo, 2008). Drummond & Ensor (2005) state that pricing follow

an established pattern that joins pricing objectives with pricing strategies. When

the marketers know what they want to achieve (objectives), they are able to

define how they are going to do it (strategy). Gitman & McDaniel (2008) clarify

that for new products two pricing strategies are used:

  Skimming: this strategy is related with the introduction of a product with a high

initial price and then, lower it over time as the product moves through its life

cycle.

 Penetration: it is applied for selling new products at low prices to achieve large

sales volume.

For established products, marketers choose the following strategies:

 Leader pricing: products that are offered below the normal markup or even

below cost to attract customers to a store.

 Bundling: when two or more related products are grouped and priced together

as a single product.

3. PLACE: this part of the marketing mix refers to the possibility the customers

have to reach the products where and when they need them. To achieve this

objective, marketers use different distribution channels which help them to

transfer goods or services from the initial producer to final domestic consumer or

business user (Drummond & Ensor, 2005). The channels are composed by two
 marketing intermediaries, also called middlemen: wholesalers and retailers.

Wholesalers are the ones who sell the products to retailers, other wholesalers or

industrial users while retailers offer goods and services to people who want to

use them in an individual way.

The National Institute of Open Schooling distinguishes between these two middlemen

based on their characteristics:

WHOLESALERS RETAILERS

 Buys goods in large quantities.  Buys goods in small quantities.

 Buys goods directly from  Generally buys goods from the

producers. wholesalers.

 Deals with limited variety of  Deals with wide range of products.

goods.  Requires less capital to start and

 Requires more capital to start run the business.

and run the business.  Sell goods for consumption.

 Sell goods for resale purpose.  Direct contact with consumer.

 No direct contact with  In order to attract the attention of

consumers. customers retailers give more

 No special attention is given to attention to decoration of shop.

decoration of shop
.

Young & Pagoso (2008) describe two types of distribution channels: the direct

marketing channel and the retailer marketing channel.

The direct marketing channel does not have middlemen or intermediaries levels. The

products are given directly to the consumers.

The retailer marketing channel has a middleman (the retailer) and an intermediary

level. The products are sold indirectly to the consumers through retailers.

4. PROMOTION: this term is related with the methods the marketer uses to

communicate with the target group of customers (Brady, 2010); the marketer tells
 and convinces the buyers the positive aspects of the product, the price, the

location. For doing this, marketers design a promotional mix, which combines

advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations in order to

promote a product.

 ADVERTISING: according to Young & Pagoso (2008) this term refers to:

“…a powerful communication force and an important marketing tool that helps sell

goods, services, images and ideas through channels of information and persuasion…”

(pg. 291)

There is a very important concept in advertising called the AIDA, which is composed by

four elements:
All the four steps have a clear objective: to sell the goods or services the companies

offer to the customers.

Advertising can be personal or institutional. The first one refers to the selling of a

particular good or service while the second is related to the promotion of a philosophy,

concept, idea or goodwill of a company.

There are different channels through advertising is carried out: Newspapers, radio,

television, internet and some other ways to send the message to customers in order to

know and buy the products.

  PERSONAL SELLING: is a face-to-face sales presentation to a prospective

consumer (Gitman & McDaniel, 2008). It has five stages:

1. Prospecting: the salespeople look for different companies and industries which are

able to buy the product they are offering. For finding out if the goods and services

are relevant for the possible customers, salespeople must apply different selling

strategies to see if those clients have the potential to buy.

2. Approaching customers: it is the first contact the salespeople make with the

customers. It can be through a personal meeting, a telephone call or an e-mail

message.

3. Sales presentation: the salespeople choose the way they are going to present the

product. Power point slides, movies or a simple conversation about the goods and

services can be used by the marketers to show them.

4. Handling objections: in this step the customers ask questions about the

presentation and the product. The salespeople must try to answer them in a clear

way to maintain the product interest.

5. Closing the sale: it is the step where the salespeople identify if the business is

made or not. Words and expressions from the customers can help them to realize

how effective was the personal selling and if it is necessary, readjust their strategies

to make the dealing.

 SALES PROMOTION: they are the strategies that marketers use to sells their

goods and services. They are combined with advertising and personal selling to

reach more customers and sell more products. There are numerous ways of

sales promotion, for example, consumer-oriented activities such as vouchers

coupons, free gifts and samples etc and trade-oriented promotions as POPs

(Point-of-purchase) which show the goods and services to the potential

customers through visual displays.

  PUBLIC RELATIONS: it is an activity which main objective is to win goodwill for

a company, an institution, a product or a brand. Generally, publicity is the best

way to establish it since the information is transmitted in the news media and it is

not directly paid by the company or the institution. The following scheme shows

how a company needs to manage public relations in different ways:

Taken from:
th
www.marketingteacher.com on January 12 , 2010.
 COMUNICACIÓN INTERNACIONAL

La comunicación es el proceso más importante del marketing mix a través de todos sus

pasos, ya que a través de ella se informa a los clientes todo lo relacionado con el

producto. Lopez-Pinto y otros (2008) afirman que el objetivo principal del proceso

comunicativo es transmitir la información del vendedor al cliente. Este a su vez lo

interpreta y como respuesta, compra o no el producto. Estos autores describen este

proceso de la siguiente manera:

Canal

Ruido
 Emisor: es quien inicia el proceso y transmite la información del producto.

 Codificación: es la expresión de los conceptos en forma de símbolos.

 Mensaje: es el conjunto de ideas que el emisor desea transmitir.

 Canal: es el medio para que el mensaje llegue al destinatario. Existen dos tipos

de canales, el personal y el impersonal. El primero es la comunicación directa

entre el emisor y el receptor; además, hay posibilidad de retroalimentación. El

impersonal se relaciona con la comunicación indirecta, donde no hay ningún tipo

de contacto ni retroalimentación.

 Decodificación: es donde el emisor le da significado a los símbolos transmitidos

por el emisor.

 Receptor: es el destinatario del mensaje, que debe decodificar el mensaje para

comprender su significado. No en todos los casos el receptor interpreta de

manera correcta lo que el emisor ha transmitido y esto puede generar la no

adquisición del producto ofrecido.

 Respuesta: es la manera en que el receptor reacciona cuando recibe el

mensaje. Si es efectiva, el vendedor ha cumplido su objetivo comercial, si no,

 debe buscar estrategias pertinentes a la audiencia, el producto y su

comercialización.

 Ruido: es la información que distrae al consumidor cuando recibe el mensaje.

Puede generarse en el ambiente, en el canal del mensaje o en algún elemento

que haga difícil recibirlo.

Las compañías poseen diversas estrategias de comunicación según el contexto en el

que se encuentren. Inician por los mercados locales y luego, se mueven en mercados

internacionales que les hacen pensar que tipo de comunicación deben usar. Según

Wood (2006) existen 5 fases que del desarrollo del marketing profesional:

1. Mercado local

2. Marketing extranjero poco frecuente

3. Marketing extranjero regular

4. Marketing internacional

5. Marketing global

Cuando se llega a las dos últimas fases, las compañías deben adaptar sus estrategias

de promoción a los nuevos mercados, ya que, aunque tengan una imagen global,

deben reconocer la diferencia entre un mercado y otro para hacer efectiva la venta de

sus bienes y servicios.

De acuerdo con Brady (2010), en mercados internacionales las empresas necesitan

tomar decisiones sobre siete aspectos:

Otros autores coinciden con Brady en algunos aspectos y añaden otros. Wood (2006)

propone que los siguientes elementos afectan la comunicación en el ámbito

internacional:

Cultura y tradición: el contenido de la promoción debe estar acorde con las creencias

de los clientes a los que va dirigida la publicidad. Es necesario conocer que es

recomendable o no escribir, dibujar o hacer en diferentes culturas. No puede ser usado

el mismo tipo de promoción en Estados Unidos que en Arabia Saudita o en la India, ya

que las tradiciones son diferentes y los mensajes pueden ser malinterpretados.

Habitos de compra: dependiendo del país, es necesario identificar que tan frecuente

compran los clientes. En algunas ciudades pueden hacerlo una vez a la semana,

mientras otros pueden realizarlo una vez por mes.

Niveles de vida: de acuerdo con los niveles de riqueza de un país, la adquisición y

consumo de los producto puede ser bajo o alto.

Disponibilidad de los medios de comunicación: es posible que los clientes no

tengan acceso a la televisió o el internet o que sean analfabetas.

Idioma: este ultimo aspecto es considerado uno de los más importantes en la

comunicación internacional, ya que diversos elementos afectan su uso. Por ejemplo,

las variaciones de una sola lengua pueden hace que el mensaje no sea interpretado de

manera correcta; en diversas regiones de un mismo país, pueden existir diferentes

formas de llamarle a un solo producto y esto debe ser tenido en cuenta por las

compañias.
 Lenguaje corporal y no verbal: en diferentes países, los símbolos y los gestos

pueden ser interpretados de diferentes maneras. La forma de vestir, los colores y otros

elementos culturales deben ser analizados para el diseño de la promoción de los

bienes y servicios ofrecidos por la empresa.

Traducción: lenguaje oral y escrito. Cuando se necesita traducir un mensaje

pueden existir varias dificultades. Una de ellas es no encontrar la traducción exacta de

las palabras o que sus significados sean diferentes de un idioma a otro. Cuando esto

ocurre, el mensaje traducido no cumple con los objetivos comerciales de la compañía.

Sternkopf (2005) indica tres condiciones para lograr una buena traducción:

1. Una traducción debe transmitir de manera completa y correcta el mensaje

original.

2. Una traducción debe tener el mismo efecto sobre los lectores que el mensaje

original.

3. Una traducción no debe ser identificada como tal.

El idioma inglés ha sido posicionado como lingua franca para los negocios. Según un

estudio de Sternkopf (2005), el inglés es considerado como el lenguaje internacional

usado por las empresas para comercializar sus productos. Su uso en slogans o en

material de ventas lo hacen el idioma más usado para compra, vender y hacer tratos
comerciales entre diferentes países. Esta autora también afirma que en las siguientes

situaciones empresariales, el inglés es la lengua por excelencia:

 Comunicación oral personal: llamadas telefónicas, recibimiento de invitados,

presentaciones de productos etc.

 Comunicación escrita personal: correspondencia de negocios, e-mails,

reportes, cartas personales etc.

 Comunicación escrita en masa: lectura de artículos relacionados con los

negocios, creación y promoción de catalogos y folletos etc.

En el siguiente capítulo se tratarán dos aspectos importantes con relación al uso del

idioma inglés: la lectura y la escritura.

 READING & WRITING

When we learn English, we focus our attention in the different skills we need to practice:

Reading, writing, speaking & listening; in this text our interest is to know more

information about the first two processes.

READING

When we talk about this skill we generally think about different definitions. Some people

consider reading as the simple recognition of words. However, authors as Paris & Stahl

(2005) state that in the reading process we as readers bring meaning to a text in order

to get meaning from it; it means that we need to find and use different strategies to

understand what the reading is about, this is called COMPREHENSION. Pearson et al

(1992) define the following comprehension strategies:

a. Activate prior knowledge: this strategy is related to the integration of new

knowledge from the reading with schemas in long-term memory (Clark, 2008),

that is, information that we already know about the themes of the text we read.

b. Monitor comprehension: it is focused on the rate or speed when reading. This

strategy deals with the importance of reflecting if we understand what we are

reading. We can stop, pause or continue when we monitor the comprehension.

c. Repair comprehension: we apply this strategy when we lose the main ideas of

the text, so we change our reading techniques to get the meaning of the reading

again.

d. Determine important ideas: in this strategy we identify the main idea and the

ones that support it.

e. Synthesize: with this strategy we make relations with our previous and new

knowledge in order to create new concepts and views of the world.

f. Draw inferences: according to Booth (2008), “we make inferences when we go

beyond the literal meaning of the text and begin to examine the implied

meanings, reading between the lines” (pg. 33).

 g. Ask questions: this strategy is used for readers to clarify information,

understand. Raphael, Highfield & Au (2006) describe four types of question-

answer relationship we can use when reading a text:

Barret (1981) defines three-level taxonomy of comprehension:

 Literal comprehension: in this level, the readers retell or recall the information

from the reading. The questions are taken from the text and the readers need to

come back to it to answer them.

 Inferential comprehension: it this level, the readers infer information from the

text and use their background knowledge to answer questions.

  Critical comprehension: in this level, the readers are able to make critical

judgments about the text. The readers can use information from the text, the

context, other people etc.

There are also techniques that help the reader to understand and get the meaning from

a reading. They are:

 Skimming refers to the search of main ideas without focusing on details. The

reader uses visual aids as the headings, the pictures, dates, names etc to get an

overall meaning of the text.

 Scanning deals with particular information of the reading. The reader looks for

specific data such as numbers, dates or other details needed.

WRITING

Writing is an activity that we practice every day. When we write an e-mail, a bill or a

short note for someone we are putting our ideas in an organized way to transmit them.

In this respect, White & Arndt (1991) state that writing is the way through we share our

experiences, express our feelings, persuade and convince other people.

Writing, as well as reading, has lots of perspectives. One of the most important

definitions is writing as a process, which implies different steps for the writer. But

before describing those writing phases, we have to know what we need for writing. The

first element is language that deals with different aspects:

Sentence: this aspect is defined as a group of words or a single word that

expresses a complete thought, feeling or idea1. It usually has a nominal and a

verbal group.

NOMINAL GROUP

It is related with the part of a sentence where the main word is a noun or subject. This

group includes four elements:

The head: it is the key element, it means, a noun or a pronoun. For example, nouns

as computer, house, Michelle, dog etc and pronouns as I, you, we, he, they etc.

The determiners: they introduce the nouns or pronouns. They are classified as:

 Demonstratives: this, that, these, those.

1
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. Reservados todos los derechos
  Articles: a, an, the.

 Possessives: my, your, our, their, his, hers, whose.

 Numbers: one, twelve, twenty, one hundred etc.

 Ordinals: first, second, third etc

 Quantifiers: many, much, a little, a few, some, any etc.

Pre-modifiers: adjectives or adverbs that comes before the noun or pronoun.

 Adjectives: high, small, large, slow, pretty etc

 Adverbs: carefully, happily, very etc

Post-modifiers: prepositional phrases (at, from, with, to etc), relative clauses (who,

which, whose, that) or participle clauses (-ing, past participle) which comes after the

noun or pronoun.

Let’s look at this sample:

These small grapes from Chile

A nice place to know

VERBAL GROUP

It is the part of a sentence which the major word is a verb. You can find:

Lexical verbs: write, watch, swim etc.

Primary verbs: am, is, are, was, were etc

Modal auxiliaries: must, should, might, may, can, could etc.

We can classify sentences in three structures:

1. Simple sentence: it contains a main clause, it means, an only noun and a unique

verb.

2. Compound sentence: it encloses at least two main clauses. You can use a

coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet), a conjunctive adverb

(also, however, for instance, now, so etc) or a mark of punctuation (colon or

semicolon).

People like Colombian food and they also enjoy its typical drinks.

1st main clause Coordinating 2nd main clause

Conjunction
 1st main clause conjunctive adverb 2nd main clause

Marcus said : “I was sick yesterday”

1st main clause 2nd main clause

colon

3. Complex sentence: it has a main clause and a subordinate or dependent

sentence. They are linked with an adverb clause (because, after, where, while,

since etc) or an adjective clause (which, whose, that, why etc).

When you called me, I was taking a shower.

Adverb Subordinate Main clause

clause sentence
 My teacher, who worked here since 1998, moved to another school last Saturday

Subordinate sentence

(with the adjective clause WHO) Main clause

When you write sentences, you can join them in a single unit called paragraph. A

paragraph is a group of sentences closely related to one another (Newton & De Villiers,

2007), that develop a common idea or thought. In paragraphs we find a topic

sentence, which is the main idea of the paragraph and supporting sentences that

develop that key idea.

In the paragraphs it is necessary that you organize the topic and supporting ideas. For

doing this, you need to write in a coherent and cohesive way.

Text coherence deals with the link between the inside and outside different parts of the

text. Coherence can be local or global. The first aspect describes the relation between

words, sentences and paragraphs and the second, the connection that the text has with

the context where it is written.

Text cohesion refers to the grammatical and lexical way the different parts of the text

are connected. To guarantee cohesion, we can use the following elements:

a. Referencing: it is related with the relation between elements of the text to other

ones. It can be:

 Anaphoric: a reference to a previous word or idea.

 Cataphoric: References to a forward word or idea that it is going to be explain

later.

 Exophoric: references outside the text, for example, with the context.

In the following text we can find the three referencing types:

Colombian companies have high standards of quality. They can compete against
any other in the world because they use a strategy that helps them to improve
processes every day: marketing.

The anaphoric is related with the word THEY, since it refers to a previous idea

(Colombian companies).

The word STRATEGY refers to a later idea (MARKETING), so here we notice the

cataphoric referencing.
Finally, the exophoric referencing is shown in the words COLOMBIAN COMPANIES,

which make reference to an outside situation related to a country.

b. Ellipsis: this element allows the writer to miss out words, sentences or

information that the reader can find implicitly.

Colombian companies have high standards of quality. Colombian companies can

compete against any other (company) in the world…

In this sample, we do not need to write the word COMPANY in the second sentence,

since this word makes reference to a previous idea and it is not necessary to write it

again.

c. Substitution

Colombian companies have high standards of quality. Colombian companies

(THEY) can compete against any other in the world because Colombian
companies (THEY) use a strategy that helps them to improve processes every
day: marketing.

In the previous sample, the writer needs to use the substitution because the words

“Colombian companies” can be replaced by the personal pronoun THEY in the last two

sentences.
 d. Punctuation: this is an important element in writing. According with Diamond &

Diamond & Dutwin (2009), punctuation is a simple way to keep our ideas

straight. There are various forms of using it. They are:

Capital letters:

Period (.): it is used at the end of a complete sentence.

Comma (,): it has multiple uses. For example commas separate items in a list or divide

adjectives in a description.

Colon (:) it introduces a list and makes a relation between previous words with the ones

that follow.

Semi colon (;): it separates main sentences when their meaning is connected.

Exclamation marks (¡!): it ends an exclamatory sentence showing surprise, admiration,

anger etc.

e. Linking words or connectors:

To show time When, whenever, while, before, as soon as, now that etc

List points or sequence First, to start with, secondly, after that, finally, lastly etc

Add points What is more, furthermore, moreover, besides etc

Show cause, effect or Therefore, so, consequently, as a result, for this reason etc

result

Give examples For instance, for example, such as, in particular etc

Show contrast Yet, however, but, although, nevertheless etc

Introduce a conclusion In conclusion, to sum up, all in all, on the whole etc

In the following sample, designed by Parks, Levernier, and Hollowell (1996) we find

some blanks where we need a linking word. We have an extra-help, the authors give us

the category of the connector:

(a) Example: For instance, for example

(b) Effect: consequently, as a result

(c) Addition: Moreover, Furthermore, What is more

(d) Example: in particulaar

(e) Result: As a result, Consequently, Hence

(f) Example: In particular Indeed Significantly

 Genetic screening in business, or testing the genes of employees to see if they are

susceptible to workplace-related diseases, may present problems for the tested. (a)

__________, the genetic screening tests and technology in general are in their

infancy stages. (b) __________, many physicians and health professionals doubt

their reliability. (c) ___________, once genetic information is recorded on employees,

it cannot always be kept secret. Even though employers are assured that their

medical files are confidential, clerical staff have access to them. (d) __________, if

they are entered into a computer data base, they are available to anyone with

access. (e) __________, some argue that such screening procedures are violations

of personal rights. (f) __________, many cite similarities between genetic screening

and drug testing, noting that both involve a process of obtaining information from

unwilling individuals that might affect them adversely. Opponents of genetic

screening point out that some employees with the potential for workplace diseases

would rather run the risk than lose their jobs.

The tone: this element refers to the way you write. It depends on the purpose of the

text, the reader and the message you want to transmit. It could be formal, informal,

friendly, funny etc.

Now that you know the internal aspects of the text, you need to know what kind of text

you can write. The following are the most common for writers:

 Narrative: according to Barwick (1999) this type of text relates a realistic,

imagined or fictitious story. It can be traditional when a fairytale, myths or

legends are written; or modern, which includes fantasy and fiction.

 Descriptive: Murphy & Strickland (2009) state that this kind of text provides

information on a topic through facts, details and characteristics. It enumerates

important features or describes chronological events.

 Argumentative: this kind of texts has two main objectives: persuade and

convince the readers. Essays and research papers are samples of

argumentative texts.

After identifying the different elements to take into account for writing, we need to know

the five stages a writer follows when creating a text:

 1. PREWRITING

This is the first stage of writing. The writer makes some arrangements to start writing

the text. For example, the content, the audience and the purpose. Wingersky, Boener &

Holguin-Balogh (2008) propose six activities that help the reader to organize the

information in the prewriting:

a. Talking: in order to gain information, the writer can talk with teachers,

colleagues, friends or people who know the topic to increase the knowledge

about it.

b. Freewriting: in this activity, the author writes different ideas about the topic

without correcting spelling or other type of mistakes. This can help the writer to

generate sentences related to the theme.

c. Brainstorming: with this activity, the writer makes lists of words and phrases

spontaneously.

d. Journal writing: in a notebook, the author writes feelings, emotions, ideas and

anything he/she thinks about the topic in different moments of the day.

e. Reading: through reading, the writer can get more information about the topic

and supporting arguments to his/her own ideas.

f. Searching the internet: the writer can use different WebPages, e-books and

other digital materials to find information about the topic.

2. DRAFTING: in this step, the writer starts to organize the ideas from the previous

stage in sentences and paragraphs. Kirsner & Mandell (2009) state that drafting

can be done many times since it usually includes false starts, irrelevant
 information and unrelated details. Also, the authors suggest some drafting

strategies that help the writer to revise the drafts, for example:

 Prepare the work area, to have anything the writer needs near and available.

 Fight writer’s block, that is, not stop writing because the writer does not have

anything to say. It is better to take a short break if this situation occurs.

 Get ideas down on a paper, create an outline.

 Write notes, comments or suggestions to the written draft.

 Take regular breaks to clear your mind.

 Leave enough time to revise to consider if more drafts need to be done.

 Save the drafts in the computer or file them.

 Label the files with content and date.

 Don’t delete material because everything can be important to write the final

document.

3. REVISING: after creating the draft, the writer revises it to make decisions about

the content of the text. Kirsner & Mandell (2009) propose five revision strategies

to take into account:

a. Using word-processing tools, such as Microsoft word or open office writer.

b. Participating in peer review, since writer’s colleagues or friends can give him/her

feedback about the content of the document.

c. Instructor’s comments and suggestions.

d. Using a formal outline to see if the text is organized and coherent.

e. Using checklists to help the writer to focus on specific elements.

4. EDITING AND PROOFREADING: when the writer edits the text, he/she focuses

his/her attention on grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization and mechanics

to do the final version of the text. Proofreading is the final step before publishing

it since the writer re-reads the whole text to check content and grammar.

5. PUBLISHING: this is the final stage where the writer

chooses how he/she is going to present the text. It can be published in a school

magazine, in a web page etc.

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INTERNET REFERENCES

www.marketingteacher.com
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