Business Communications

Lesson FourFJU/AIEDLDr. M. ConnorBased on Excellence in Business Communication,5/e Thill and Bovée

Organizing your message:

The definition of good organization varies from country to country. In the United States, Canada, England and

Australia, it generally means creating a linear message that proceeds point by point.

If you’ve ever received a disorganized message, you’re familiar with the frustration of trying to sort through the muddle of ideas.

Four common organization problems

Taking too long to get to the point.Including irrelevant material.Getting ideas mixed up.Leaving out necessary information.

A message is well organized when all the pieces fit together in a coherent pattern.

Why good organization is important

Misinterpreted messages lead to wasted time reading and rereading, poor decision making and shattered business relationships.

In business, the objective is to get the work done, not to produce messages.

Before you begin to write

Think about what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it.

Good organization will save you time. Your draft will go more quickly because

you won’t waste time putting ideas in the wrong place or composing material you don’t need.

Helps your audience

Good organization helps your audience understand your message.

By making your main point clear at the outset, and by stating your needs precisely, your well-organized message will satisfy your audience’s need for information

Helps them accept your message

Good organization helps your audience accept your message.

Even when your message is logical, you need to select and organize your points in a diplomatic way.

Softening refusals and leaving a good impression enhances your credibility and adds authority to your messages.

Saves time

Good organization saves your audience time.

Well-organized messages are efficient. They contain only relevant ideas, and

they are brief.

To organize a message:

Define your main ideaLimit the scopeGroup your pointsChoose the direct or indirect approach

Define your main idea

In a short message, this can be easy, but for longer messages, determining the main idea often requires creative thinking.

Brainstorming

One way to generate ideas is to brainstorm--letting your mind wander over the possibilities and testing various alternatives against your purpose, your audience and the facts you’ve gathered

Limit the scope

The scope of your message—its length and detail—must match your main idea.

How much can you communicate in a given number of words depends on the nature of the subject, your audience member’s familiarity with the topic, their receptivity to your conclusions and your credibility.

How much?

No matter how long your message is, deal with three or four major points.

According to communications researchers, that’s all your audience will remember.

Group your points

The best way to do this is to make an outline or a schematic design to help you visualize the relationship among parts of a message.

Start wit the main idea.That’s your starting point.

State the major points.They will clarify your main idea.

How to organize

The division of major points may be based on physical relationships, the description of a process, the components of an object, or a historical chronology.

Organizing a mesage

Main Idea

1. Main Point 2. Main Point 3. Main Point

A. Evidence B. EvidenceA. Evidence B. EvidenceA. Evidence B. Evidence

Specific evidence

Helps illustrate your points. You must use examples, and for each

major point give enough specific evidence to be convincing, but not so much that it’s boring.

Choose between direct and indirect approaches

Once you’ve defined and grouped your ideas, you’re ready to decide on their sequence.

When addressing an audience from an Anglophone country, you have two basic options:Direct approach (deductive) Indirect approach (inductive)

Direct approach

The main idea comes first, followed by the evidence.

Use this approach when your audience will be neutral about your message or pleased to hear from you.

Indirect approach

The evidence comes first, and the main idea comes later.

Use this approach when your audience will be displeased about what you have to say.

Which one?

To choose between the two alternatives, you must analyze your audience’s likely reaction to your purpose and message.

Audience reaction will fall somewhere between being eager to accept your message and being unwilling to accept your message.

Bear in mind, though, that each message is unique. No simple formula will solve all of your communication

problems. Sometimes, even if you’re giving bad news, the direct approach might work best depending on how well you know your audience

Types of messages

There are three basic types of business messagesRoutine, good news and goodwillBad newsPersuasive

Routine, good news and good will messages

These include things like placing an order, responding to order queries, announcing a price cut, granting an adjustment, accepting an invitation, or congratulating a colleague.

Not only are these messages easy to understand, they are easy to prepare.

In most cases, you can get right down to business.

Bad news messages

These include turning down a job applicant, refusing credit, denying a request for an adjustment, all the things that will disappoint your audience.

But you want people to go away with as good a feeling as possible, as you never know if you and your business will interact with these people again.

Bad news approaches

If you have bad news, try to put it somewhere in the middle of the message, cushioned by other, more positive ideas.

Be honest, but kind.You don’t want to sacrifice ethics and

mislead your audience, but neither do you want to be too blunt.

Persuasive messages

This might be something like a sales letter, a collection letter, an unsolicited job application or a request for a favor.

You might need to persuade people to come around to your view, and using the indirect approach gives you’re the opportunity to get your message across to an uninterested or skeptical audience.

Persuasive messages have their own indirect pattern, and we’ll discuss this further later in the term.

Composing your message

Composition is the process of drafting your message.

Polishing it is a later step.Remember, good business writing is

learned by imitation and practice.As you read business journals, newspapers,

even novels, make note of the words, phrases, or paragraphs you think are effective, and keep them in a file.

Control your style and tone

Style is the way you use words to achieve a certain tone, or overall impression.

You can vary your style—your sentence structure and vocabulary—to sound forceful or objective, personal or formal, colorful or dry.

The right choice depends on the nature of your message and your relationship with the reader

Your style = You?

Your composition style says a lot about you.

Some companies have a corporate style which you will be asked to follow.

In general, though, try to make your tone conversational and keep your message clear by using plain English.

Use a conversational tone

Instead of trying to impress your audience with an extensive vocabulary, good communicators focus on beingsensible logicalobjective

To achieve a warm but businesslike tone:

Don’t use obsolete languageDon’t use pompous phrasesDon’t be too familiar.

Don’t try to sound like an old friend if you’re not

Use humor only with great care.Don’t preachDon’t brag

Use plain English

In some ways this is easier for non-native speakers as you don’t spend a lot of time with older forms of English or with a lot of lawyer talk.

On the other hand, you might have trouble with straightforward grammar, which is a problem.

But plain English is the way people ordinarily speak, and it can be easily understood by anyone with an eighth or ninth grade education.

Select the best words

You must choose your words carefully, which can be a problem for non-native speakers.

The “rules” of grammar and usage are constantly changing to reflect the way people speak. So even some editors and grammarians

occasionally have questions about correct usage, and sometimes they even disagree.

But in most instances, the answers about correctness are pretty clear.

If you use poor grammar, you lose credibility with your audience this is a real problem for non-native writers.

Poor grammar implies that you are unaware or uninformed and audiences put little faith in uninformed sources. Even if your audience realizes that you’re writing in

a different language than your mother tongue, grammatical errors are distracting and sometimes confusing.

Correct grammar enhances your image

Word effectiveness

Effectiveness is the second consideration when choosing words.

The writer Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the right word and the wrong word is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

Different types of words

Functional words (conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns)

express relationships among Content words (nouns, verbs,

adjectives and adverbs)

Content words

Content words can be classified1) denotation and connotation2) abstraction and concreteness.

Denotation/Connotation

The denotation is the literal, or dictionary, meaning of a word.

The connotation includes all the associations and feelings evoked by the word.

Denotation = dictionaryConnotation = conversation

Be careful!

Some words, like fail, have negative connotations, and good business communicators avoid words with negative connotations.

So then the task for you is how to say negative things in a way that avoids negative words!

Abstraction and concreteness

An abstract word expresses a concept, quality or characteristic. Abstractions are usually broad, encompassing a category of ideas. They are often academic, intellectual or philosophical. Love, honor, progress, tradition and beauty are

abstractions. A concrete word stands for something you can

touch or see. Chair, table, horse, rose, kick, kiss, red, green, and

two are concrete words.

Concrete better?

You might assume that concrete words are better than abstract words, because they are more precise

But you would sometimes be wrong.

For example

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

We need abstractions

As you can see, the US Declaration of Independence needs abstractions and so do business messages.

They allow us to refer to morale, profits, productivity, quality, motivation and guarantees.

Abstractions can be troublesome

They tend to be fuzzy and subject to many interpretations.

They also tend to be boring. It isn’t always easy to get excited about ideas.

So in business communication, use concrete, specific terms whenever possible.

Use abstractions only when necessary. Instead of referring to a sizeable loss, talk about a

loss of $32 million.

Find words that communicate

People who live through their writing are called wordsmiths.

When composing business messages, do your best to think like a wordsmith.

Choose strong words

That express your thoughts most clearly.Nouns and verbs are the most concrete,

so use them as much as you can. Adjectives and adverbs have obvious

roles, but use them sparingly—they often evoke subjective judgments.

Verbs are especially powerful because they tell what’s happening in a sentence.So make them dynamic and specific.

More on word choice

Choose familiar wordsAvoid clichésUse jargon carefully.

Technical and professional terms can strengthen your presentations, but only if you audience knows what you mean by them

Create effective sentences

In English, word order is important when constructing sentences.The door shut.Shut the door.The shut door.

See how the same three words in a different order mean totally different things?

Sentence structure

Every sentence contains a subject (noun or noun equivalent) and a predicate (verb and related words).

A simple sentence has one main clause.Profits have increased in the past year.

Compound sentence

A compound sentence has two main clauses.Wage rates have declined by 5 percent, and

employee turnover has been high.

Complex sentence

A complex sentence has one main clause and one subordinate clause.Although you may question Gerald’s

conclusions, you must admit that his research is thorough.

Compound-complex sentence

A compound-complex sentence has two separate main clauses and at least one dependent clause.Profits have increased in the past year, and

although you may question Gerald’s motives, you must admit his research is thorough.

Choosing a construction

When constructing a sentence, choose the form that matches the relationship of the idea you want to express.

If you have two ideas of equal importance, express them as two simple sentences or as one compound sentence.

However, if one of the ideas is less important than the other, place it in a dependent clause to form a complex sentence.

Sentence style

Sentence style varies from culture to culture. German sentences are extremely complex, with lots

of modifiers and appositives. Japanese and Chinese languages don’t even have

sentences in the same sense that Western languages do.

However, in English, try to make your sentences grammatically correct, efficient, readable, interesting and appropriate for your audience.

Select Active or Passive voice

You’re using active voice when the subject (the actor) comes before the verb and the object of the sentence (the acted upon) follows the verb:John rented the office.

You’re using the passive voice when the subject follows the verb and the object precedes it;The office was rented by John.

Which?

Active sentences are stronger than passive ones.

Passive verbs make sentences longer and de-emphasize the subject.

Passive is sometimes better

But because we write with a “you” attitude, sometimes using the passive voice makes sense. 1. When you want to be diplomatic about pointing

out a problem or error. 2. When you want to point out what’s being done

without taking or attributing either credit or blame. 3. When you want to avoid personal pronouns in

order to create an objective tone

Other tips

Emphasize key thoughts Emphasize parts of a sentence by

Giving them more space Putting them at the beginning or at the end of a

sentence Making them the subject of the sentence.

To keep readers interest, use both long and short sentences.

Use bullets and lists where appropriate to make the information easier to digest.

Develop coherent paragraphs

Paragraphs are functional units that revolve around a single thought.

Each paragraph should have only one main idea in it.

Because each paragraph covers a single idea, use transitional words and phrases to show readers how paragraphs relate to each other.

Some transitional devises include

Connecting words (conjunctions)PronounsWords that are frequently paired.

There are five ways to develop paragraphs

IllustrationComparison and/or contrastCause and effectClassificationProblem and solution.

A final word on paragraphs

Short paragraphs are easier to read than long ones.

Also use headings to grab the reader’s attention and divide the material into short sections

Compose elegant e-mail messages

E-mail has a reputation for speed and informality. But you still want to take time to compose your e-mail messages carefully.

No matter how u rite 2 ur frnds, b sr u r str8 in ur e-mails

You want to look professional. Don’t forget this is a business setting.

Use the form provided

Make your e-mail interesting by making your subject line informative, personalizing your message, and making it easy to follow.

Revision

Now that you’ve gotten your first draft done, it’s time for some revision.

Evaluate content and organization

Compare the draft with your original plan. Have you gone astray? Have you covered all of your points in the most logical order? Is there a good balance between the general and specific? Do your most important ideas receive the most space? Have you provided enough support and double-checked? Do you need to add anything?

Spend a little extra time on the beginning and the end of your message as they have the greatest impact on readers.

Review style and readability

Make sure you achieve the right tone and interest level.

Look for opportunities to make the material more interesting

Revise for conciseness

Delete unnecessary words and phrasesShorten long words and phrasesEliminate redundanciesRecast “It is/there are” starters.

Odds are that you can improve that kind of sentence.

Revise for clarity

Clarity avoids confusion, and writing with clarity doesn’t come naturally.

Nine tips for improving clarity

Break up overly long sentence. Rewrite hedging sentences. Impose parallelism. Correct dangling modifiers. Reword long noun phrases. Replaced camouflaged verbs.

Watch for word endings such as –ion, -tion, -ing, -ment, -ant, -ent, -ance and –ency. Most of them change verbs into nouns. Use verbs instead of noun phrases

Clarify sentence structure. Clarify awkward references. Moderate your enthusiasm.

Give others specific, constructive criticism

Whether you’re writing in teams or reviewing a document prepared by someone else, you will sometimes need to critique the writing of others.

To help the writer make meaningful changes, you need to say more than simply, “This doesn’t work” or “I don’t see what you’re trying to say.”

Four elements for critique

Are the assignment instructions clear? Does the document accomplish the intended

purpose? Is the factual material correct? Does the document use unambiguous

language? If any of these elements needs attention, the

document needs to be rewritten or revised.

Further questions

But if these criteria are met, consider these additional points before requesting a major revision:

Can the document truly be improved?Can you justify the time needed for a

rewrite or revision?Will your request have a negative impact

on morale?

Producing your message

Design your message carefully.An attractive, contemporary appearance

can help you get your message across effectively.

Select the right design elements.

White space

Provides contrast and perhaps even more important, gives the readers a resting point.

White space includes the open area surrounding headings, the margin space, the vertical space between columns, the space created by ragged margins, the paragraph indents extra spacing.

You need to decide how much white space you are going to use

Margins frame your text

Three common types:

Justified typeFlush-left ragged right Centered

Justified type

“Darkens” your message’s appearance because the uniform line length lacks white space.

It also tends to make letters look like form letters instead of customized work.

I almost always recommend against using it.

Flush-left ragged right type

“Lightens” your message’s appearance. It gives an informal, contemporary

feeling of openness.

Centered type

Lends a formal tone to your textIt’s hard to read for long passages of

text, so use it sparingly.

Headings

Important as they help your readers quickly identify the content and organization of your message.

They also invite your readers to get involved in your messages.

Technology

Use technology to produce and distribute your messages.

There’s probably a lot you take for granted.

Word-processing software

Main tool for creating printed documents. And there’s more to creating a document than just typing it in.

Technology today offers way to get text, graphics, sound, and even hyperlinks into your documents.

Revision power

Don’t forget to use the power of your word processor when revising your text.

Spell checkers, grammar checkers, and computerized thesauruses can all help you, but they can’t take the place of good skills.

Graphics

The software for creating business visuals falls into two basic groups:Presentation software Graphics software

Presentation software

Helps you create overhead transparencies and computerized slide shows Power Point presentations, which I use in

this class We’ll cover them in more detail later in

the course, but I’m sure you know a lot about them.’

Graphics software

Ranges from products that can create simple diagrams and flow charts to comprehensive tools geared to artists and graphic designers.

You can create your pictures from scratch, use clip art (collections of uncopyrighted images included in programs like WORD and Powerpoint), or scan in photos and drawings.

Sound

You can also insert sound bites to add a little something extra to your documents, but then the recipients must load them into their computers and have a sound card.

This usually isn’t a problem for most people.

Click on the symbol to try!

Hyperlinks

You can also use HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to insert hyperlinks into your message.

Readers can easily jump from one document to another by clicking on such a links.

They can go directly to a Website, provided they are on-line, jump to another section of your document, or go to a different document altogether.

We’ll also discuss this later in the term.

Using desktop publishing

Word processing software can do a lot, but for a really first-class appearance, you might consider using desk top publishing software.

This includes additional tools for formatting, drawing, design, and layout.

Now it’s easier than ever to get great-looking documents.

Multiple copies

Technology can also help you distribute your message in the most appropriate fashion.

It seems obvious, but if you need multiple copies, you have the option of the photocopier,

or the print shop for large jobs.

Mail merge

If you need to send the same document to a number of people, you can use the mail merge feature on your word processing program.

This will produce one copy for each person on your mailing list, saving you the time of inserting the names and addresses.

Broadcast faxing

Allows you to enter mailing lists into your fax machine and transmit your document to all the people on your list.

CD-ROMS

Many companies now distribute information on CD-ROMs rather than on paper.

E-mail attachments

The most popular method for distributing documents is the Internet.

You can attach all sorts of documents to e-mail messages.

Proofread your message

The types of details to look for when proofreading include language errors, missing material, design errors, and typographical errors.

Be careful of things like font—sometimes you may have headings in different fonts or sizes. That’s something to watch out for.

Also, give some attention to your overall format.

Proofreading questions

Have you followed accepted conventions and company guidelines for laying out the document on the page (margin width, number of columns, running heads)?

Have you included all of the traditional elements that belong in documents of the type you’re creating?

Have you been consistent in handling page numbers, heading styles, exhibits titles, source notes, and other details?

Haste makes waste

Even when you’re pressed for time, try to maintain the schedule you laid out during the planning step of the writing process.