Communicating

1
Business Communication Principles
Principles I II
2
Principles I

• To compose effective messages, we need to
  apply certain principles. They provide guidelines
  for choice of content and style of presentation-
  adapted to the purpose and receiver of the
  message.
• Completeness.
• Conciseness
• Consideration
• Concreteness

3

• Completeness.

• Answer all questions asked.
• Give something extra, when desirable.
• Check for the five Ws questions- Who, What,
  When, Where, Why and any other essentials such
  as how.

4

Answer all questions asked.

• Whenever you reply to inquiry, try to answer all
  questions-stated and imply.
• The reaction of the recipient to incomplete reply
  is likely to be unfavorable.
• The recipient may think the respondent is
  careless or is purposely trying to conceal a weak
  spot.
• If you have no information on a particular
  question, say so clearly.
• If you have unfavorable information in answer to
  questions, handle your reply with tact and
  honesty.

5
Give something extra, when desirable.

• The word when desirable is essential.
• Sometimes you must do more than answer the
  senders specific questions.
• They may not know what they need, or their
  questions may be inadequate.
• For example, suppose you received the
  following inquiry letter from an out-of-town
  member. I think I would like to attend my first
  meeting of the league, even though, I am not
  acquainted in your city. Will you please tell me
  where the next meeting will be held.
• If you answered only this one question, your
  letter would be incomplete. Realizing that your
  reader is a newcomer to your city and to your
  meeting, you should include in your reply a
  welcome plus such needed details as directions
  for reaching the building parking facilities
  day, date, and time of the meeting and maybe the
  program for the next meeting.

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Check for the five Ws questions- Who,
What, When, Where, Why and any other
essentials such as how.

• Another way to help make your message complete is
  to answer, whenever desirable, the five Ws
  questions.
• This method is useful when you write requests,
  announcements, or other informative messages.
• For instance, to order merchandise, make
  clear what you want, when you need it, to whom
  and where it is to be sent, and how payment will
  be made.

7
Conciseness

• Eliminate wordy expressions.
• Include only relevant statements.
• Avoid unnecessary repetition.

8
Eliminate wordy expressions.

• use single-word substitutes instead of phrases
  whenever possible without changing meaning.
• For example,
• Wordy expression
  Concise
• at this time
  now
• due to the fact that
  because
• for the purpose that
  for to

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• in order to to
• from the point of view as
• in the most cases usually
• in spite of the fact that although
• during the time that while
• please do not hesitate to write please write
  

10
Include only relevant statements.

• Be sure to include relevant fact, stick to the
  purpose of the message, omit information obvious
  to the receiver, and avoid long introductions and
  unnecessary explanations.

11
Avoid unnecessary repetition.

• Sometimes repetition is necessary for emphasis.
  But when the same thing is said two or more
  without any reason, the message become wordy and
  boring.
• For instance, use a shorter name after you
  have mentioned the long one once. Use initials
  rather than repeat long name. King Saud
  University. KSU

12
Consideration

• Focus on You instead of I and We.
• Show reader benefit or interest in reader.
• Emphasize the positive, pleasant facts.
• Apply integrity and ethics.

13
Focus on You instead of I and We.

• Your receivers are usually more concern about
  themselves than about you or your company.
• They are more likely to read your message when
  they see their name and the pronoun you rather
  than I we or us.
• For example, we will ship soon the goods in
  your May 4 order.
• I, we attitude. It is better to
  write. You should receive by may 8 the Apex
  screens you ordered may 4. you attitude.

14
Show reader benefit or interest in reader.

• Whenever possible and true, show how readers will
  benefit from whatever the message asks or
  announces.
• They will be more likely to react favorably and
  do what you suggest if you show that benefits are
  worth the effort and cost.
• For example, you will be glad to know
  that we now have a walk-up window open 8-12 a.m.
  and 4-8 p.m. every weekday.
• The following message shows the readers benefit.
  
• You can now take care of your banking
  needs also at our new walk-up window. It is open
  with a capable teller to serve you 8-12 a.m. and
  4-8 p.m. Saturday through Wednesday.

15
Emphasize the positive, pleasant facts.

• This means stressing what can be done instead of
  what cannot be done and focusing on words your
  recipient can consider favorably.
• For most people negative words like no, cannot,
  never, impossible trigger unpleasant emotional
  reactions.
• By making clear what you can or will do, you (by
  implication) often make clear what you cannot do,
  without using a single negative word.
• For example, it is impossible to open an
  account for you today. negative-unpleasant. As
  soon as your signature card reaches us, we will
  gladly open an account positive-pleasant.

16
Apply integrity and ethics.

• We also need to apply integrity-high moral
  standard, personal honor, truthfulness, sincerity
  to our written messages.
• without integrity, business communication would
  prove worthless, and our confidence in people
  would be shattered.
• Ethics is concerned with what is right human
  conduct.
• Codes of ethics provide standards enabling us to
  determine the fundamental distinction between
  right and wrong human behaviour.

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Concreteness

• Use specific facts and figures.
• put an action in your verbs.
• Choose vivid, image-building words.

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Use specific facts and figures.

• Whenever you can, substitute an exact statement
  or a figure for a general word to make your
  message more concrete and convincing.
• For example, this computer reproduces
  campaign letters fast.
• vague and general.
• this computer types 400 personalized
  150-word campaign letters in
• one hour. concrete and convincing.

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put an action in your verbs.

• Strong verbs can activate other words and help to
  make your sentences definite.
• To compose strong sentences, you should use
  active rather than passive verbs.
• For example, a full report will be sent to
  you by the supervisor. passive voice. The
  supervisor will send you a full report. active
  voice.
• Put an action in your verbs instead of in nouns.
• Seven verbs- be, give, have, hold, make,
  put, and take might be designated as deadly
  verbs.
• when the action they introduce is hidden in a
  quiet noun.
• For example, Mr. Omer will give
  consideration to the report. action hiding in a
  Quiet Noun. Mr. Omer will consider the report.
  action in the verb.

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Choose vivid, image-building words.

• Among the devices you can use to make your
  message forceful, vivid, and specific are
  comparison, figurative language, and concrete
  instead of abstract nouns, and well-chosen
  adjectives and adverbs. Comparisons . Help the
  recipient to build meaningful picture.
• For instance, this is pure clover honey,
  made by honeybees. Vague .
• Honeybees have gathered nectar from
  approximately 4½ million clusters of clover and
  traveled about 150,000 miles or equal to six
  times around the world to deliver this package of
  Bradshaw honey to you. Vivid

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• Figurative language. Figures of speech may
  express an idea more vividly than literal
  language.
• For example, X product helps you to lose
  your double chin in four weeks, if you use X as
  directed. literal.
• If two chins quarrel for a place on your
  collar, X product helps settle the argument. Only
  one chin remains after you use X just four weeks
  as directed. figurative.
• Concrete nouns instead of abstract nouns.
  Concrete nouns represent subjects your recipient
  can touch, see, smell, hear, or taste. Abstract
  nouns as subjects designate intangible concepts.
  They bring only vague pictures to the persons
  mind.
• for example, consideration was given to the
  fact thatabstract.
• The committee considered the fact that
  concrete.

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Business Communication Principles II

• To make our messages easily understood,
  friendly, and accurate we should also apply the
  remaining C principles.
• Clarity
• Courtesy
• Correctness

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Clarity

• Choose short, familiar, conversational words
• Construct effective sentences and paragraphs.
• Achieve appropriate readability
• Include example, illustrations, and visual aids,
  when desirable.

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Choose short, familiar, conversational words

• Use short word instead of long one, use familiar
  word that the reader can easily understand.
• For example, use the words after, not
  subsequent. Pay, not remuneration. announce or
  declare, not promulgateetc.
• Avoid technical and business jargon whenever
  possible. If you must use them, define them.
  

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Construct effective sentences and paragraphs.

• Important characteristics to consider are length,
  unity, coherence, and emphasis.
• For length, It is better to use short sentence.
  The suggested sentence length about 17-20 words.
  The general rule in business writing is to keep
  paragraphs as short as possible. The first and
  last paragraph of a letter and memo should
  preferably be kept to no more than four or five
  lines.
• For unity to express main idea, unity means that
  you have one main idea regardless of sentence
  structure (simple, compound, or complex).

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• Coherence, for clear meaning. In a coherent
  sentence, the words are correctly arranged so
  that the ideas clearly express the intended
  meaning.
• Place the correct modifier as close as possible
  to the word it is supposed to modify.
• For example, his report was about managers,
  broken down by age and sex. unclear.
• His report focused on age and sex of
  managers. clear.
• Ali could not drive to work in his car with
  a broken leg unclear.

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• Emphasis, for forceful, clear expression. The
  quality that gives force to important parts of
  sentences and paragraphs is emphasis. Writers
  must decide what needs emphasis, and then choose
  correct sentence structure. In a complex sentence
  the main idea should be placed in the main
  clause, and the less important points are in the
  dependent clause.
• For example, the airplane finally
  approached the speed of sound, and it became very
  difficult to control. In this sentence the two
  ideas have equal value. no emphasis.
• if the important idea is that the airplane was
  difficult to control. The sentence must be as
  the following. As it finally approached the speed
  of sound, the airplane became very difficult to
  control. emphasis the main idea is in the main
  clause.

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Achieve appropriate readability

• In this case, You should adapt your business
  letters so that their word-and-sentence level
  will be appropriate for your recipients general
  education level. From Fog Index Guide, two
  factors measure your letters readability
  sentence length and percentage of hard words.
  This index helps you to determine the educational
  level of your writer.
• For instance, if you have a letter, you
  can determine the educational level of the
  writer first find the average sentence length by
  dividing the number of words by the number of
  sentences. Secondly, find the percentage of hard
  words by dividing the number of hard words by the
  number of words. Finally, multiply the total of
  the two equations by 0.4. the result is the
  measuring of the educational level of the writer.
  

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Include example, illustrations, and visual aids,
when desirable

• When you have complicated or lengthy explanation
  in letter or report, you can improve the clarity
  by giving your recipients an example, analogy, or
  illustration.
• Furthermore, visual aids-such as headings,
  tabulations, itemizations, pictures, charts-are
  definite aids to clarity and easy understanding.
• Also, typographical aids can be useful. Some
  important statements may be underlined, numbered,
  colored, or typed in all CAPITALS or italics or
  on short lines with wider margins.

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Courtesy

• Be sincerely tactful, thoughtful, and
  appreciative.
• Omit expressions that irritate, hurt, or
  belittle.
• Grant and apologize good-naturedly.

31
Be sincerely tactful, thoughtful, and
appreciative.

• Tact instead of bluntness.
• For example, your letter is not clear at
  all I cannot understand it. Tactless, Blunt
• If I understand your letter
  correctly,... Tactful

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Omit expressions that irritate, hurt, or
belittle.

• Irritate expressions that should be avoided,
  particularly when used with you and your.
• Expressions such as I do not agree with
  you, irresponsible, we do not believe, we find it
  difficult to believe that, obviously you
  overlooked, you failed to, you leave us no
  choice, you should know...etc.
• Also you should avoid talking down to
  belittling to a person, it is considered to be
  a form of discourtesy.

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Grant and apologize good-naturedly.

• Whenever you grant a customers request, begin
  your letter with the best news first and inject a
  courteous, ungrudging tone. If a request has
  caused you extra work, you may tactfully tell the
  customer somewhere in the letter but not the
  first paragraph.
• Occasionally, you may get a nasty letter from a
  customer who is wrong in his or her accusation. A
  courteous reply can lead not only to an apology
  from the customer but also to future staunch
  loyalty as a booster for your company.

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Correctness

• Use the right level of language.
• Check accuracy of figures, facts, and words.
• Maintain acceptable writing mechanics.
• Choose nondiscriminatory expressions.
• Apply all other pertinent C qualities.

35
Use the right level of language.

• The three levels of language-formal, informal,
  and substandard- overlap because of our
  ever-changing language. The first two-formal and
  informal language are both correct, but they are
  different from one another, have different uses,
  and should not be interchange. The formal
  language is used for writing legal documents,
  academic researchesetc,. The expressions used
  are long, un-conversational, and impersonal.
• In contrast, the informal level refers to
  business language-for letters, reports, and
  newspapersetc,.
• The expressions used are short,
  well-known, and conversational. The following
  list is an example of formal and informal level
  formal informal
• anticipate
  expect
• endeavor
  try
• utilize
  use
• terminate
  end
• interrogate
  ask

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Check accuracy of figures, facts, and words.

• Absolute accuracy is essential for effective
  written messages. When figures, facts, and words
  are incorrectly used, they can cause serious
  problems.
• In English, some words are often confused.
• The following are a few of many words
  that are often confused in usage (a, an),
  (anxious, eager),
• (between, among), (biannually,
  biennially), (continual, continuous), (counsel,
  council), (effect, affect), (eminent, imminent),
  (imply, infer),
• (lay, laid, laid lie, lay, lain),
  (principal, principle), (which, that, who), (who,
  whom).

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Maintain acceptable writing mechanics.

• This includes correct punctuation,
  capitalization, syllabication, and spelling- plus
  correct sentence and paragraph structure. It also
  includes using correct format for letters, memos,
  reports, and envelopes.
• Two common weaknesses in writing mechanics
  deserve special mention incorrect spelling and
  careless omissions. The careless omission refers
  to omissions of punctuation marks or words needed
  for grammatical accuracy.

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Choose nondiscriminatory expressions.

• Another important requirement for correctness is
  equal treatment of the sexes and non-bias
  toward people of different races, ethnic origins,
  and physical features.
• Try to choose nondiscriminatory language when you
  refer to occupational roles and achievements,
  personal characteristics, physical and mental
  attributes, humanity at large, names, and various
  title designations

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Apply all other pertinent C qualities.

• The End