revising and proofreading business messages by: andrew herman

Revising and Proofreading

Business MessagesBy: Andrew Herman

Techniques of writing Techniques of reading Knowing where mistakes are Understanding punctuation marks

FLABBY CONCISE

At a later date At this point in time Afford an opportunity Are of the opinion The present time Due to the fact that During the time Feel free to For the period of

Later Now Allow Believe, think that Now, presently Because While Please for

Long lead-ins have to much information that is useless• Ex..

Wordy- this email message is being sent to all of you to let you know that new parking permits will be issued January 1.

Concise- new parking permits will be issued January 1.

OUTDATED EXPRESSION MODERN PHRASES

ARE IN RECEIPT OF AS PER YOUR REQUEST ATTACH HERETO ENCLOSED PLEASE FIND PURSUANT TO YOUR

REQUEST THANK YOU IN

ADVANCED I TRUST THAT UNDER SEPARATE COVER

HAVE RECEIVED AT YOUR REQUEST ATTACHED ENCLOSED IS/ARE AT YOUR REQUEST

THANK YOU I THINK, I BELIEVE SEPARATELY

If these adverbs are taken away you sound more business like and more credible.• Wordy- we actually didn’t give his proposal

a very fair trial.• Concise- we did not give his proposal a fair

trial.

Fatten sentence Begin an Idea with there is Take up space Fillers are some what unnecessary in

certain places

Words to avoid Shortens a message Improves readability Substituting pronouns Replace words used to much

More than is needed, desired, or required

Can be seen as professional Traced to be 14th century old French Meaning twittering An outlandish, technical language of

a particular profession, group, or trade

Slang is compsed of language that go out of style right away

No longer appealing Out of fashion

Clichés are the old coins of language: phrases that once made a striking impression but have since been rubbed smooth by repeated handling.

Gives a precise definition In stead of saying “contact you” you

say I will telephone, fax, e-mail, visit

Needlessly Converted to wordy nouns Check page 86

Highly descriptive Dynamic Don’t over use these More concrete Don’t use to many

what to what for proof reading• Spelling• Grammar• Punctuation• Names and numbers• Format

Read carefully Double words Spell checker Find errors and the tones Read every line twice standard proofreading marks

Print a copy double spaced Time to proofread adequately Be prepared to find more than usual

errors Read document at least 2 times Reduce your reading speed Have someone to read the document

outloud

writingforward.com english.udel.edu stf.lea.org iowapages.org……. Includes vivid verbs www.grammarly.com scottbush.net thesebastards.blogspot.com