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Business Writing:

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Business Writing: Content and Organization The Writing Process Analyze, anticipate, and adapt Research, organize, and compose Revise, proofread, and evaluate Analyze ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Business Writing:


1
Business Writing
  • Content and Organization

2
The Writing Process
  • Analyze, anticipate, and adapt
  • Research, organize, and compose
  • Revise, proofread, and evaluate

3
Analyze, Anticipate, and Adapt
  • Analyze
  • What is my purpose?
  • Do I really need to write? (Channel)
  • Anticipate
  • Who is the intended reader?
  • How will the reader react?
  • Adapt
  • Whats in it for the reader?
  • Did I use the best choice of words?

4
Choose Best Channel
  • Face-to-face
  • Telephone Call
  • Voice Mail
  • Fax
  • Email
  • To share personal message, be persuasive, or
    deliver bad news richest communication channel
  • For convenience when nonverbal cues are
    unimportant
  • To leave message for response when convenient
  • To cross time zones, to produce written record,
    for speedy delivery
  • To exchange information conveniently and quickly,
    but problematic for some messages (emoticons
    helpful)

5
Choose Best Channel
  • When group decisions and consensus are important
  • To disperse data or elicit consensus from
    geographically dispersed group
  • To produce formal, written record for insiders
  • To produce formal, written record for customers
    and other outsiders
  • To deliver complex data internally or externally
  • Face-to-face group meeting
  • Video or teleconference
  • Memo
  • Letter
  • Report

6
Adapt to your Reader
  • Spotlight receiver benefits
  • Cultivate the you view
  • Use sensitive language avoiding gender, race,
    age, and disability biases
  • Express thoughts positively
  • Use familiar words
  • Use precise, vigorous words

7
Beware of Hidden Negatives
  • You failed to . . . .
  • (You are careless.)
  • You claim that . . . .
  • (Its probably untrue.)
  • You are wrong . . . .
  • (I am right.)
  • You forgot to . . . .
  • (You are not only inefficient but also stupid and
    careless.)

8
Your Turn
  • TO All Employees using the HP 5000
  • We have a serious security problem involving your
    failure to take appropriate measures to safeguard
    your log-in ID. Per company policy, you are not
    allowed to give your password out to anybody
    else. In addition, many of you are saving your
    log-in access so that the computer automatically
    logs you in when you boot up your computer. Dont
    do that. You are exposing the entire organization
    to possible intrusion and malicious manipulation
    of company files. A violator wouldnt even have
    to know your password to gain entry to the entire
    system!!! Consequently, I have developed a new
    computer security policy. Sign it and return it
    to me ASAP to indicate your understanding of the
    above two very serious issues and your promise to
    never do them in the future.
  • Attachment

9
The Writing Process
  • Analyze, anticipate, and adapt
  • Research, organize, and compose
  • Revise, proofread, and evaluate

10
Research, Organize, and Compose
  • Research
  • Formal electronic, manual secondary, primary,
    tests
  • Informal visit, files, informal survey
  • Organize
  • Direct for receptive
  • Indirect for unreceptive
  • Compose
  • Complete sentences
  • Effective paragraphs

11
Direct for Receptive
If pleased
DIRECT PATTERN
Start with Good News or Main Idea
12
Indirect for Unreceptive
If unwilling or uninterested
If displeasedor disappointed
If hostile
INDIRECT PATTERN
Cushion the Bad News or Main Idea
13
Write Complete Sentences
  • Use short sentences
  • Emphasize important ideas
  • Use the active voice for most sentences
  • Use the passive voice to deemphasize the
    performer and/or to be tactful

14
Using Short Sentences
  • 8 words
  • 15 words
  • 19 words
  • 28 words
  • 100
  • 90
  • 80
  • 50

Source American Press Institute (API)
15
Write Effective Paragraphs
  • One topic per paragraph
  • Arrange sentences directly/indirectly
  • Use transitional expressions for coherence
  • Emphasize key idea via repeating and rephrasing
    it
  • Use pronouns to refer clearly to antecedents

16
The Writing Process
  • Analyze, anticipate, and adapt
  • Research, organize, and compose
  • Revise, proofread, and evaluate

17
Revise, Proofread, and Evaluate
  • Revise
  • For clarity
  • For conciseness (KISS)
  • For readability
  • Proofread
  • for correctness
  • Evaluate
  • for feedback

18
Revise for Conciseness
  • Fillers
  • There are three new styles of laptops we offer.
  • Empty words
  • Not all employees who are registered will attend.
  • Nouns
  • We must conduct an investigation of
    computer-security issues before consideration of
    your complaint
  • Trite Business Phrases
  • Thank you in advance
  • Enclosed please find

19
Revise for Readability
  • Develop parallelism
  • ltWe can collect information, store it, and later
    it can be updated.gt
  • We can collect, store and update information.
  • Use numbered and bulleted lists
  • Letters such as (a) and (b) within text
  • Numbers and bullets in vertical lists
  • Add headings and subheadings
  • Emphasize with bold, italics, underline
  • Indent content below

20
Proofread for Correctness
  • Spelling
  • Grammar
  • Punctuation
  • Names and numbers
  • Format

21
Why Accuracy in Proofreading is Important
  • If you believe that 99.9 percent accuracy is
    acceptable, then
  • Every hour
  • 18,322 pieces of mail would be mishandled
  • 22,000 checks would be deducted from the wrong
    bank account
  • Every day
  • 12 newborn babies would be given to wrong parents
  • 55 incorrect drug prescriptions would be written

22
Why Accuracy in Proofreading is Important
  • If you believe that 99.9 percent accuracy is
    acceptable, then
  • Every week
  • 500 incorrect surgical procedures would be
    performed
  • 48,000 books would be shipped with the wrong
    cover
  • Every year
  • 81,000 faulty rolls of 35mm film would be loaded
  • 2 million documents would be lost by the IRS

23
Why Accuracy in Proofreading is Important
  • If you believe that 99.9 percent accuracy is
    acceptable, then
  • In addition
  • 320 entries in Websters Third New International
    Dictionary of the English Language would be
    misspelled

24
Your Turn!
  • To Professor Smith
  • From Jane Student
  • Subject Nuclear Fission Credit Research Ive
    thought a lot about what I want to do for my
    research project in your CS 589 class and Ive
    decided that it might be kinda interesting to
    figure out who really deserves the credit for
    discovering nuclear fission Hahn or Meitner and
    Strassmanwho I think really should have won the
    Nobel Prize. But anyway, this topic should also
    meet a couple of your criteria..its interesting
    to me (after all, I am a woman studying nuclear
    research!) and I think I can find some research
    sources on it. You also said that you wanted our
    research topics to be technical and provide
    depth. It does.
  • Well, just let me know if this topic is okay so I
    can get started on it.

25
  • To Professor Smith
  • From Jane Student
  • Subject Request for Research Topic for CS 589
  • For my CS 589 project, please permit me to study
    the way in which credit has been awarded for the
    discovery of nuclear fission. Although Otto Hahn
    received the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for
    the discovery, several people assert that Lise
    Meitner and Fritz Strassman should have also
    received credit. In my research, I will attempt
    to discern if credit was given appropriately.
  • Research to determine the proper credit for the
    discovery of nuclear fission meets the following
    three CS 589 project criteria (a) the research
    topic is of interest, (b) the research topic can
    be researched quickly, and (c) the research topic
    is technical and provides depth.
  • Research Topic is of Interest
  • I am interested in the topic. As a nuclear
    engineering student, I realize that the discovery
    of nuclear fission was perhaps the single most
    important discovery this century in my field. As
    a woman scientist, I am also deeply interested in
    the successes and challenges faced by other women
    scientists.
  • Research Topic Can be Researched Quickly
  • The discovery of nuclear fission can be quickly
    researched. A computer search in the library has
    revealed many sources available on this topic.
    Attached to this memo is a summary of one such
    source, Lise Meitner A Life in Physics by Ruth
    Sime.
  • Research Topic is Technical and In-depth
  • The fission of a uranium nuclear is clearly
    technical in that it involves an understanding of
    both chemistry and physics principles.
    Additionally, by focusing on this single
    discovery, I believe that I can provide the
    required depth of subject.
  • If you have any suggestions for modifying this
    topic, please let me know. With your permission,
    I will continue researching.

26
Go Forth
  • and Communicate Clearly
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