Bus Comm Writing Good

0
CHAPTER 2
ne w
or
ho l
r f
de C 8e
B
Planning
ace , E
Pl er art Business
cov
Messages
Multimedia Instructor Version

© 2010 Thomson South-Western
0
Basics of business writing
 Business messages are different from

college essays, term papers, and
messages to friends.
 Conciseness and clarity count.
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/ZSOLT NUYLASZI
Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 2

0
The best business writing is
 Purposeful
 Persuasive
 Economical
 Audience oriented
Following a process can make you

a better writer or speaker.
0
The Writing Process

Approximately how much time
should be spent at each stage?

Guffey’s 3-x-3 Writing Process
Develops Fluent Workplace Skills
The video emphasizes that writing is a
process and shows step by step how the
3-x-3 writing process applies to typical
business situations.
Click to play
Analyzing Your Purpose 0
and Channel
Identify your purpose.
 Why are you writing?
 What do you hope to achieve?
JON FEINGERSH / ICONICA / GETTY IMAGES

0
Select the best channel.
E-mail Telephone
Fax Voice mail
Letter Meeting
Memo Conversation
Report Web site

0
Select the best channel.
 How important is the message?

 How fast do you need feedback?
 Is a permanent record essential?
 What is the cost of the channel?
 How much formality do you desire?
 How confidential or sensitive is the
message?
0
Profiling the Audience
Primary Audience
 Who is the primary reader?
 What are my personal and professional
relationships with that person?
 What does the person know about the
subject?
 What kind of response should I expect?

0
Profiling the Audience
Secondary Audience
 Who else might see or hear this
message?
 Are they different from the primary
audience?
 How must I reshape the message for
the secondary audience?

0
Spotlight
Audience
Benefits
Create a
Message That
Suits Your
Audience
Adapting to Task and Audience

0
Spotlight Audience Benefits
Focus your statements on the audience,

not the sender.
Instead of this: Try this:

We are promoting a You will enjoy total peace
new hospitalization of mind with our
plan that we believe affordable hospitalization
has many outstanding plan that meets all your
benefits. needs.

0
Adapting Spotlight
Audience
to Task Benefits
and
Audience Create a
Message That
Suits Your
Audience
Cultivate
A “You”
View

0
Develop a “You” View
Emphasize second-person pronouns

(you/your) instead of first-person pronouns
(I/we, us, our)
Before we can allow you to You may begin
purchase items on this new making purchases
account, we must wait two on your new account
weeks to verify your credit. in two weeks.

0
Develop a “You” View
Revise these sentences: These are better:
We are now offering Quick

You can now purchase
HP computers at HP computers at
discounted prices. Check
discounted prices.
We are pleased to Congratulations! You
announce that you have have been selected to
been approved to enroll enter our leadership
in our leadership training program!
training program.

0
Spotlight
Audience
Benefits
Create a
Message That
Suits Your
Audience
Cultivate
Sound
A “You”
Conversational
View
Adapting to Task and Audience

0
Conversational Language

The undersigned takes I’m happy to . . .
pleasure in . . .
It may be of some concern We’ve credited your
to you to learn that your account for $250.
check has been received
and your account has been
credited for $250.

0
Spotlight
Audience
Benefits
Create a
Employ Cultivate
Message That
Positive A “You”
Suits Your
Language View
Audience
Sound
Conversational

0
Positive Language

Employees may not use Employees may use the
the First Street entrance Market Street entrance
during remodeling. during remodeling.
We cannot fill your order We can fill your order

until we receive an exact once we receive an
model number. exact model number.

0
State Ideas Positively

We must withhold Quick
You will be paid
payment until you promptly once the job is
complete the job Check
completed satisfactorily.
satisfactorily.
If you fail to follow each By following each
requirement, you will not requirement, you will
receive your $50 rebate. receive your $50 rebate.

0
Levels of Language Use
Unprofessional Conversational Formal

Found in
Some comic strips Business Scientific writing,
and songs, some messages, novels, legal documents,
commercials, some most newspapers, scholarly books,
conversations, and most formal essays,
some IM and e-mail magazines proclamations
messages

0

Characterized by
Incorrect grammar, Correct grammar Correct grammar,
unpredictable and punctuation, serious tone,
sentence structure, conversational complex sentence
inappropriate tone, simple structure,
punctuation, slang, sentence structure, polysyllabic words
vulgarisms familiar words

0

Examples
wasted ruined annihilated
nab catch apprehend
bad-mouth criticize disparage
dough, bread money currency
stewed, plastered intoxicated, drunk inebriated
I ain’t I’m not I am not
humongous enormous prodigious
tight frugal penurious

0
Revise to create reader benefits.
I have 15 different You have 15 financial

financial plans to offer my plans from which to
investors.
Quickchoose.
We want all newly hiredCheck

As a newly hired
employees to use our employee, you won’t
carpooling program for at have to drive to work for
least three months. the first three months
because you can
carpool.
Revise the following to sound 0
conversational.
The undersigned takes I’m happy to welcome

great pleasure in
welcoming you to our
Quick you to our staff.
staff. Check
Per your request, we are As you requested, we
sending under separate are sending your May
cover your May invoice. invoice separately.

0
Hidden Messages
Some words and phrases convey a

negative and unpleasant tone. They
may imply a hidden message that the
writer does not intend. Think twice
before using the following negative
expressions.

Negative Language Hidden Meaning
You overlooked You are careless
You state that But I don’t believe you
You failed to You are careless
You claim that It’s probably untrue
You are wrong I am right
You do not understand You are not smart
Your delay You are at fault
You forgot to You are inefficient, stupid
and careless

0
Spotlight
Audience
Benefits
Use Cultivate
Inclusive A “You”
Create a
Language View
Message That
Suits Your
Audience
Employ
Sound
Positive
Conversational
Language

0
Inclusive Language

Have you called a Have you called a
salesman? salesperson?
Every executive  All executives have their own
has his own office. offices.
 Every executive has an office.
This alternative is
 All executives have offices.
wordy and calls  Every executive has his or
attention to itself
her own office.

0
Positive and Inclusive Language

No tenant may move in Tenants may move in
until May 1. Quick
on May 1.
Because you failed to Check
As soon as we receive
include your credit your credit information,
information, we cannot we can ship your order.
ship your order.
Marcello Luna is the new Marcello Luna is the
Mexican accountant. new accountant.

0
Spotlight
Audience
Draw on Benefits Cultivate
Familiar A “You”
Words View
Create a
Message That
Adopt Suits Your Sound
Plain Audience Conversational
Language
Use
Use Positive
Inclusive
Language
Language

0
Plain Language
Avoid federalese, bureaucratese, and inflated

language.
Federalese: Each person to whom the request is herein
addressed is henceforth solicited to submit, or to have his or
her department representative submit, to the Department of
Labor official described above, a comment on whether the
proposed plan, in his or her considered view, meets the
requirements of the 2003 law.
Simple Translation: You may wish to comment on whether
the proposed plan meets the requirements of the 2003 law.

0
Familiar Words
Avoid long, difficult, and unfamiliar

words. Use short, simple, and common
words whenever possible.
Less familiar words Simple alternatives
encounter meet
extrapolate project
obligatory required
terminate end

0
Using plain English
Plain English is a term used to describe clear

and concise use of the English language that
avoids unnecessary jargon or complication.
To make your English clearer, aim to

 use shorter words
 use fewer words
 use ‘pictures’ if possible
 ensure grammatical accuracy

0
Spotlight
Choose Audience
Courteous Benefits
Cultivate
Language
A “You”
View
Draw on Create a
Familiar Message That
Words Suits Your Sound
Audience Conversational
Adopt
Plain
Language Use Use Positive
Inclusive Language
Language

0
Courteous Language
Avoid sounding demanding, preachy, or rude.
You must complete this Will you please complete
research by June 1. this research by June 1.
I am sick and tired of Let me show you how to

being the only one who remove jammed paper
removes jammed paper so that you can
from the copier! complete your copying.

Revise the following using 0
simple language
You may encounter You may have difficulty
contract.
Quick
difficulty in terminating the ending the contract.
OR: It may be difficult
Check
to end the contract.
As stipulated, we As required, we
extrapolated the budget projected the budget
figures for two years. figures for two years.

Revise the following using 0
simple language
Will you utilize workbooks Will you use workbooks

during the obligatory during the required
training period? training period?
We anticipate that a We expect that most of

majority of the alternative the choices will be
will be sufficiently sufficiently basic to
fundamental to meet our meet our needs.
requirements.

0
Chapter 3 Using Words:

Verbal Communication
 Plain English
 Active voice vs. Passive
voice
 Metaphors
 Idioms
 Cliches & empty language
 Euphemism
 Jargon & specialist
0
Using the Right Voice
Active Voice Passive Voice
Subject + Verb + Object Object + Verb + Subject

Jane wrote the letter. The letter was written by Jane.
Which one is preferable in business writing,

active voice or passive voice?

Active voice vs. Passive 0
voice (1)
Avoid passive voice in order to make your
writing lively and direct
The new procedure was developed
by the operations team.
The operations team developed the
new procedure.
Legal problems are created by this

contract.
This contract creates legal problems.

0
Active voice vs. Passive voice (2)
However, use passive voice when you need to
be diplomatic or want to avoid personal
pronouns to create an objective tone.
You lost the shipment.
The shipment was lost.
I recruited seven programmers last month.
Seven programmers were recruited

last month.

0
Words that challenge

communication
 Metaphors
 Idioms
 Cliches & empty language
 Euphemism
 Jargon & specialist terminology

0
Metaphor
a word or phrase used to describe sb/sth else, in a
way that is different from its normal use, in order to
show that the two things have the same qualities
and to make the description more powerful
Feeling Happy Feeling Sad

I’m feeling up Her spirits sank
That boosted my spirits The depths of misery
The height of ecstasy He fell into a depression

0
Idiom
A group of words whose meaning is different from
the meanings of the individual words.
Let the cat out of the bag
To tell a secret by mistake

A high flyer
A person who is very ambitious
A cold fish
A person who seems unfriendly and
without strong emotions

0
Cliches & empty language

Words and expressions that have become so over-used
that they lose their original meaning.
Empower
1. to give official authority or legal power to
2. to promote the self-actualization or to strengthen
Hot spot
1. A place of political danger.
2. A lively nightclub.
3. An area on the screen which can be clicked on to start
an operation such as loading a file.
4. An area where you can get connected to the Internet
through a wireless network.
0
Euphemism
 innocuous word(s) used to disguise or reduce the
impact of an unpleasant reality, e.g. ‘passed away’
rather than ‘died’.
Instead of This Write This
o Used cars  Pre-owned vehicles

o Cheap merchandise  Economy merchandise
o Elderly person  Senior citizen
o Pimples and zits  Complexion problems

0
Jargon & specialist terminology
Distinctive vocabulary or specialist terminology that is used by
specialist groups, but which may be unfamiliar to wider audiences.
Bond
1. Strong connection between people or groups
2. The ropes or chains keeping prisoner; anything that stops you from
being free to do what you want
3. (Finance) an agreement by a government or a company to pay you
interest on the money you have lent; a document containing this
agreement
4. (Chemistry) the way in which atoms are held together in a
chemical compound
5. (Law) a legal written agreement or promise
6. (Law) (especially NAmE) a sum of money that is paid as bail
7. (SAfrE) a legal agreement by which a bank lends you money to
buy a house, etc. which you pay back over many years

0
Chapter 8 Letters, e-mails and

text messages
1. Types of business
letters
2. Style and content of a
letter
3. Format of an internal
memo
4. Format of an email
5. Text messaging and
0
Some examples of widely used business letters
Type of Typical communication

Sender Receiver
letter objectives
Marketing Prospective Increase brand awareness,
Promotional
department customer stimulate sales
Credit Accounts
Customer Speed up customer payments
control department
Supplier Accounts Avoid conflict over firm's late
Supplier
payments department payment
Customer Keep customer loyalty by
Complaints Customer
services prompt action
Employment Human Provide accurate information on
Employee
contract resources pay and conditions
Human Inform, meet legal obligations
Redundancy Employee
resources and provide appropriate support
0
Structure of a business letter
Figure
Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials 8.2 Structure
of Business of a7ebusiness
Communication, letter Chapter 2, Slide 52
0
A letter in fully blocked layout with ‘open’
punctuation
Figure
Mary Ellen Guffey, 8.1 A letter
Essentials in fully
of Business blocked layout
Communication, 7e with ‘open’ punctuation
Chapter 2, Slide 53
0
Prompt questions when deciding on the
style and content of a letter
 What is your relationship to this person or organisation?

 Are there related factors you should take into account?
 Does it include everything that is essential?
 Are the sentences clear and concise?
 Does the tone of the letter appear appropriate?
 What is the letter trying to achieve?
 Could the wording of the letter be misinterpreted?
 If the roles were reversed, how would you react to the
letter?

0
Typical format for an internal memorandum
Figure 8.4 Typical format for an internal memorandum

0
E-mail: channel characteristics, formats
and applications
 Non-interruptible (i.e. the receiver cannot ask for
clarification mid-way through the message, as in
a conversation).
 Leaves a permanent record of what has been
said.
 Almost synchronous (i.e. happens in real time,
without any time delay, so that the sender sends
the message and the receiver instantaneously
receives it).

0
Format of a typical e-mail
Figure 8.5 Format of a typical e-mail

0
Text messaging and instant messaging
 Advantage? – synchronous communication, happens

in real time, without any time delay, without the kind
of time delay that occurs with an exchange of letters.
 The future – the Gartner Group predicts that ‘by 2011,
instant messaging will be the de facto tool for voice,
video and text communications in business’ replacing
the relatively inaccessible e-mail (Cane 2007).
 Misuse? – e.g. staff at Accident Group, a personal
injury specialist, informed by text message that they
had lost their jobs.

0
Summary of Chapter 3
 In general, organisational communication is

improved through the consistent use of plain
and unambiguous language.
 The basic principles of plain English are: use
fewer words, use shorter words and use
pictures in place of words, where appropriate.
(the use of pictures will be discussed further in
Week 39).

0
Summary of Chapter 3 (continued)

 Careful consideration should be given in using
metaphors, idioms, clichés, euphemisms and
jargons.
 Correct use of grammar, spelling and
punctuation is also an important discipline that
can reduce the scope for misunderstanding and
increase the speed of communication (to be
discussed further in Week 41).

0
Summary of Chapter 8
 Letters remain an important communication

channel for a variety of organisational purposes.
 Today, letters are normally prepared in a ‘fully
blocked’ page layout with ‘open’ punctuation.
 Style and content of letters should reflect the
receiver and the purpose of the message.

0
Summary of Chapter 8 (continued)

 The internal memorandum (or ‘memo’) has been
largely superseded by e-mail, which has adopted
aspects of its original format.
 Text messaging and instant messaging are the new
hybrids which combine characteristics of text-based
and conversational communication. However, a lack
of consensus over communication practices remain
problematic.

0
ne w
for
END
r
de C 8e
ho l
ce , E B
a
Pl er art
cov
Multimedia Instructor Version

© 2010 Thomson South-Western

Bus Comm Writing Good

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Bus Comm Writing Good

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

0

Multimedia Instructor Version

Basics of business writing

 Business messages are different from

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 2

The best business writing is

Following a process can make you

The Writing Process

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 4

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 5

JON FEINGERSH / ICONICA / GETTY IMAGES

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 7

Select the best channel.

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 8

Select the best channel.

 How important is the message?

Profiling the Audience

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 10

Profiling the Audience

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 11

Adapting to Task and Audience

Spotlight Audience Benefits

Focus your statements on the audience,

Instead of this: Try this:

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 13

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 14

Develop a “You” View

Emphasize second-person pronouns

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 15

Develop a “You” View

Revise these sentences: These are better:

We are now offering Quick

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 16

Adapting to Task and Audience

Instead of this: Try this:

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 18

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 19

Instead of this: Try this:

We cannot fill your order We can fill your order

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 20

State Ideas Positively

Revise these sentences: These are better:

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 21

Levels of Language Use

Unprofessional Conversational Formal

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 22

Levels of Language Use

Unprofessional Conversational Formal

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 23

Levels of Language Use

Unprofessional Conversational Formal

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 24

Revise to create reader benefits.

I have 15 different You have 15 financial

We want all newly hiredCheck

The undersigned takes I’m happy to welcome

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 26

Some words and phrases convey a

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 27

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 28

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 29

Instead of this: Try this:

Mary Ellen Guffey, Essentials of Business Communication, 8e Chapter 2, Slide 30

Positive and Inclusive Language