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

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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

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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

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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