Effective Workplace Writing

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Effective Workplace Writing
Professional Writing
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How do you feel about this sentence?
Professional Writing
After establishing the efficacy of leveraging the
capacities of the employee-management interface,
management opportunities will be promulgated
throughout the multilateral interface effected by
the relevant corporations.
Translation If you see this type of writing, run.
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Johnny has a 7-page paper to write.
Professional Writing
He only has 5 pages worth of things to say.
What does he do???
FLUFF
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Fluff the following
Professional Writing
Birds fly.
Heres a version Members of the bird family may
flap their wings to get into the air.
600
Lard factor
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Professional Writing
Worse yet Wings may be flapped by members of
the bird family to enable them to get into the
air.
700
Lard factor
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Sally forgot to study that section, and theres
an essay question on it.
Professional Writing

• What does she do?

BLUSTER
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Bluster the following Birds fly.
Professional Writing
(Okay, so it's not really transitive verb.)
Heres a version Members of the bird family may
perform certain actions whereby an effect is
achieved.
600
Lard factor
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Tony the Classics major wants to impress the new
boss with his intelligence and education.
Professional Writing
He forgets the boss is a CSC major.

• What does he do?

G(R)EEK
(and Latin)
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G(r)eek the following Birds fly.
Professional Writing
Heres a version It is a fact that members of
the avian species achieve an airborne condition
through the means of feathered appendages.
900
Lard factor
P. S. Trojans suck!
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Judas doesnt want the clients to know he is up
to no good.
Professional Writing
What does he do?
WEASEL
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Weasel the following
Professional Writing
The 200M prototype plane doesnt fly.
Heres a version It has come to our attention
that the aeronautical device in question has
experienced unforeseen challenges in the area of
meeting the expected parameters.
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Lard factor
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What is the official style?
Professional Writing
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The official style uses too many passives, often
imprecisely
Professional Writing
The report will be completed at the time when it
is required to be submitted.
The report will be completed at the time when it
is required to be submitted.
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The official style uses too many long, pompous
words, often imprecisely
Professional Writing
Pertinent missives are characterized by a
cacophonous plethora of obfuscation,
obsequiousness, obliquity, etc. contumaciously
obtruding on your time constraints.
Lousy writing wastes time.
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The official style uses too many long, pompous
words, often imprecisely
Professional Writing
(Russell Brand)
GO BRUINS!
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Pop Quiz!
Professional Writing
Who said this?
I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request.
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The official style uses extra words, often
confusing the reader
Professional Writing
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The official style uses long embedded sentences,
which both reader and writer can get lost in
Professional Writing
The CBC which discourages the use of unreinforced
masonry because of the risk of failure of a
structure due to seismic instabilities along the
identified and unidentified fault lines.
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The official style wastes ink, paper, bandwidth,
time, money and patience.
Professional Writing
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How do we get rid of official style?
Professional Writing
Delete expletives

• It is

• There is

• There are

(Not _at_!)
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Professional Writing
Practice getting rid of expletives

• There are too many textbooks that cost over 100.

• It is a fact that bears like pork.

• There is a bear prowling around at the bottom of
  this slide.

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How do we get rid of official style?
Professional Writing
Avoid using more than one or two prepositions in
a sentence
Prepositions aboard, about, above, across,
after, against, along, amid, among, anti, around,
as, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside,
besides, between, beyond, but, by, concerning,
considering, despite, down, during, except,
excepting, excluding, following, for, from, in,
inside, into, like, minus, near, of, off, on,
onto, opposite, outside, over, past, per, plus,
regarding, round, save, since, than, through, to,
toward, towards, under, underneath, unlike,
until, up, upon, versus, via, with, within,
without
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Limit prepositions.
Professional Writing

• The CEO of the corporation that is under the
  governance of the code that is used by every
  organization in a similar field as the one in
  question was asked by the employees of said
  corporation to assist in the achievement of
  higher rates of pay.

The CEO of the corporation that is under the
governance of the code that is used by every
organization in a similar field as the one in
question was asked by the employees of said
corporation to assist in the achievement of
higher rates of pay.
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Limit dependent clauses.
Professional Writing

• The CEO of the corporation that is under the
  governance of the code that is used by every
  organization in a similar field as the one in
  question was asked by the employees of said
  corporation to assist in the achievement of
  higher rates of pay.

The CEO of the corporation that is under the
governance of the code that is used by every
organization in a similar field as the one in
question was asked by the employees of said
corporation to assist in the achievement of
higher rates of pay.
The employees asked the CEO for a raise because
other workers in their position have better pay.
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How do we get rid of official style?
Professional Writing
Try to keep sentence length under 23 words.
Remove unneeded words.
Chop the sentence
into pieces.
into pieces.
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Chop us this sentence
Professional Writing

• The CEO, after talking to the undersecretary and
  the boss after they return from their holiday
  where they networked with several potential
  clients and discussed contract issues with labor,
  will announce the delivery of the new computer
  systems, which will cost approximately 10, 000
  due to inflation and special orders.

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And now we'll consider some other aspects of
professional writing.
Professional Writing
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Do these words mean the same thing?
Professional Writing
Connotations
descending
tumbling
going down
plummeting
dropping
plunging
falling
diving
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Which would you rather hear from the cockpit?
Professional Writing
Connotations
The airplane is
Pan Am Flight 6, October 16, 1956
descending
going down
dropping
beginning the descent for a water landing
diving
or the Pacific Ocean . . .
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Whats the problem with this sentence?
Professional Writing
The General You

• You can drink in public in Atascadero.

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Avoid vague words.
Professional Writing
Save Your Readers Time
6 feet tall?
5 feet 5 inches tall?
Tall
5 feet tall?
50?
Expensive
5,000
500?
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Avoid ambiguous statements.
Professional Writing
Save Your Readers Time

• Although native to Japan, Manila clams are
  becoming increasingly popular in the United
  States and can be found in the seafood section of
  most supermarkets. Bon Apétit, June 2010

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I will call contractors to take the stumps out. 
Some of them are really thick.
Professional Writing
Avoid ambiguous statements.
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Use jargon only for appropriate audiences
Professional Writing
Elastic perfectly plastic

• Special moment connection

Necking zone
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Always consider audience
Professional Writing
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Proofread.
Professional Writing
Twice.
Or More.

• By the standards of the West Coast, where
  earthquakes are much more common, the Virginia
  quake was mild. Since 1900, there have been 40
  quakes of magnitude 5.8 or greater in California
  alone. There have been 43 of magnitude 6 or
  greater.
• 8/23/11 Quake rocks Washington area, felt on
  East Coast
• By BOB LEWIS - Associated Press

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What is the most important element of a
communication?
Professional Writing
What is the second most important element of a
communication?
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The End
Professional Writing
Always put yourself in your readers place.

• for now

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