Transcript Business Communications

Business Communications
Lesson Four
FJU/AIEDL
Dr. M. Connor
Based on Excellence in Business Communication,5/e
Thill and Bovée
Organizing your message:
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The definition of good organization
varies from country to country.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Saves time
Good organization saves your audience
time.
 Well-organized messages are efficient.
 They contain only relevant ideas, and
they are brief.
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To organize a message:
Define your main idea
 Limit the scope
 Group your points
 Choose the direct or indirect approach
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Define your main idea
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In a short message, this can be easy, but
for longer messages, determining the
main idea often requires creative
thinking.
Brainstorming
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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.
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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.
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That’s your starting point.
State the major points.
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They will clarify your main idea.
How to organize
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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
A. Evidence
B. Evidence
2. Main Point
A. Evidence
B. Evidence
3. Main Point
A. 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.
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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:
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Direct approach (deductive)
 Indirect approach (inductive)
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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.
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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.
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Which one?
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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
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There are three basic types of business
messages
Routine, good news and goodwill
 Bad news
 Persuasive
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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.
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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.
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Persuasive messages
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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.
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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
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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.
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Use a conversational tone
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Instead of trying to impress your
audience with an extensive vocabulary,
good communicators focus on being
sensible
 logical
 objective
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To achieve a warm but businesslike
tone:
Don’t use obsolete language
 Don’t use pompous phrases
 Don’t be too familiar.
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Don’t try to sound like an old friend if you’re
not
Use humor only with great care.
 Don’t preach
 Don’t brag
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Use plain English
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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
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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.
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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.
Correct grammar enhances your
image
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If you use poor grammar, you lose credibility
with your audience
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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.
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Even if your audience realizes that you’re writing in
a different language than your mother tongue,
grammatical errors are distracting and sometimes
confusing.
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.”
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Different types of words
Functional words (conjunctions,
prepositions, articles and pronouns)
express relationships among
 Content words (nouns, verbs,
adjectives and adverbs)
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Content words
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Content words can be classified
1) denotation and connotation
 2) abstraction and concreteness.
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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 = dictionary
 Connotation = conversation
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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!
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Abstraction and concreteness
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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.
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Love, honor, progress, tradition and beauty are
abstractions.
A concrete word stands for something you can
touch or see.
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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.
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For example
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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.
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Abstractions can be troublesome
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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.
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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.
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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.
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So make them dynamic and specific.
More on word choice
Choose familiar words
 Avoid clichés
 Use jargon carefully.
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Technical and professional terms can
strengthen your presentations, but only if
you audience knows what you mean by
them
Create effective sentences
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In English, word order is important when
constructing sentences.
The door shut.
 Shut the door.
 The shut door.
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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.
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Profits have increased in the past year.
Compound sentence
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A compound sentence has two main
clauses.
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Wage rates have declined by 5 percent, and
employee turnover has been high.
Complex sentence
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A complex sentence has one main
clause and one subordinate clause.
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Although you may question Gerald’s
conclusions, you must admit that his
research is thorough.
Compound-complex sentence
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A compound-complex sentence has two
separate main clauses and at least one
dependent clause.
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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
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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
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Sentence style varies from culture to culture.
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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
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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:
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John rented the office.
You’re using the passive voice when the
subject follows the verb and the object
precedes it;
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The office was rented by John.
Which?
Active sentences are stronger than
passive ones.
 Passive verbs make sentences longer
and de-emphasize the subject.
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Passive is sometimes better
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But because we write with a “you” attitude,
sometimes using the passive voice makes
sense.
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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
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Emphasize key thoughts
 Emphasize parts of a sentence by
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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.
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Some transitional devises include
Connecting words (conjunctions)
 Pronouns
 Words that are frequently paired.
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There are five ways to develop
paragraphs
Illustration
 Comparison and/or contrast
 Cause and effect
 Classification
 Problem and solution.
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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
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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.
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Use the form provided
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Make your e-mail interesting by making
your subject line informative,
personalizing your message, and making
it easy to follow.
Revision
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Now that you’ve gotten your first draft
done, it’s time for some revision.
Evaluate content and organization
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Compare the draft with your original plan. Have you
gone astray?
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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
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Revise for conciseness
Delete unnecessary words and phrases
 Shorten long words and phrases
 Eliminate redundancies
 Recast “It is/there are” starters.
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Odds are that you can improve that kind of
sentence.
Revise for clarity
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Clarity avoids confusion, and writing with
clarity doesn’t come naturally.
Nine tips for improving clarity
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Break up overly long sentence.
Rewrite hedging sentences.
 Impose parallelism.
 Correct dangling modifiers.
 Reword long noun phrases.
 Replaced camouflaged verbs.
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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.”
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Four elements for critique
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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?
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Producing your message
Design your message carefully.
 An attractive, contemporary appearance
can help you get your message across
effectively.
 Select the right design elements.
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White space
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Provides contrast and perhaps even more
important, gives the readers a resting point.
 White space includes
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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
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Three common types:
Justified type
 Flush-left ragged right
 Centered
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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.
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Flush-left ragged right type
“Lightens” your message’s appearance.
 It gives an informal, contemporary
feeling of openness.
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Centered type
Lends a formal tone to your text
 It’s hard to read for long passages of
text, so use it sparingly.
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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.
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Technology
Use technology to produce and distribute
your messages.
 There’s probably a lot you take for
granted.
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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.
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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.
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Graphics
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The software for creating business
visuals falls into two basic groups:
Presentation software
 Graphics software
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Presentation software
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Helps you create overhead
transparencies and computerized slide
shows
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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.
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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!
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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 greatlooking documents.
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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.
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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.
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Broadcast faxing
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Allows you to enter mailing lists into your
fax machine and transmit your document
to all the people on your list.
CD-ROMS
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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.
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Proofread your message
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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
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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
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Even when you’re pressed for time, try to
maintain the schedule you laid out during
the planning step of the writing process.