CHAPTER 5

INTRODUCTION TO MESSAGES
AND THE WRITING PROCESS
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
Probably this material is covered best by lecture and discussion. But some writing could be
assigned—especially of short, informal email messages. The longer messages are more
appropriately handled in the following chapters that review them.
TEXT SUMMARY, LECTURE OUTLINE
Slides 5-1, 5-2

You can point out that this chapter will cover advice that applies to writing all kinds of
documents, as well as specific advice on the shorter forms of business communication, or
“messages”: letters, memos, email, text messages, and instant messaging.
The Process of Writing

Slide 5-3

You might ask students, before discussing this section, to reflect on (write about) their usual
process of writing. (If they look stumped, ask them to think about/describe how they tackled
a recent writing task.) This exercise can help them see that this chapter probably contains
helpful advice for them—advice that will make their end result more effective and the process
itself less stressful.

The model on page 87 helps students see that the process of writing falls roughly into three
stages:

Planning,
Drafting, and
Revising.

But the arrows in the model also show that writers should allow themselves to revisit earlier
stages as necessary (that is, allow the process to be recursive). To try to make the process
rigidly linear is often counterproductive, especially for inexperienced writers.

As the text says, a good rule of thumb is to spend roughly a third of one’s writing time on
planning, a third on drafting, and a third on revising.

Slide 5-4

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You can point out that the planning stage corresponds to the first three questions in the
problem-solving approach represented in Figure 1-3 (Chapter 1, page 15): What is the
situation? What are some possible communication strategies? Which is the best course of
action? To be able to answer these questions, the writer will perform these activities:

Gathering and collecting information,

Analyzing and organizing the information, and
Choosing a form, channel, and format.

Gathering and collecting information: Solving a communication problem can be viewed as

part of solving a larger business problem. In other words, figuring out what to say often
involves, as well, figuring out what to do. For example, in addition to going over the sample
scenario provided in the text, you can ask your students the following: if, as a manager, you
wanted to write an effective message to employees about leaving the parking spaces near the
company’s front door available for the customers, what kind of things would you have to
figure out before you could write this message? Students should come up with such topics as
why the employees should do this, when they should start doing it, where they should park,
any special incentive (or implied threat?!) that might encourage them to comply, and so forth.
The point is that communicators usually cannot simply go with the information at the tops of
their heads. They need to plan what goals they want to accomplish and then gather the ideas
and information they will need in order to write the messages that will help them accomplish
their goals.

Some activities that can help writers gather information are . . .

Formal research (surveys, library research, and the like—see Chapter 19)
Informal research (such as consulting with others, looking at previous messages for
similar circumstances, and so forth)
Listing pertinent ideas/information
Brainstorming
“Clustering” (drawing a diagram of your ideas)

Analyzing and organizing information: Once writers have collected what looks like sufficient
information (though they may find later in the process that they need more), they need to
analyze it and organize it.

Interpretation and logic help the writer determine what to say and in what order. Clearly, the
message’s main points need to be based upon the gathered information, and they need to be
arranged in a logical way.

But adaptation is critical as well. Which comments in which order will be likely to have the
best effect on the reader? The reader’s likely reaction will determine whether the message is
written in the direct or indirect order, and is also affect the order of the rest of the contents.

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Choosing a form, channel, and format: In many textbooks, discussions of form, channel, and
format are separate from the discussion about the writing process. But in reality, it is
virtually impossible to plan a message without giving at least some preliminary thought to
these elements. The medium is not just a container for the message; whether one anticipates
writing a letter, email, brochure, web page, or some combination of these, and how one
anticipates they should look, will significantly affect the planning of the message.

Slide 5-5

The drafting stage corresponds roughly to the fourth question in the analytical process
presented in Figure 1-3 (page 15): what is the best way to design the chosen message? As
they draft, writers work out the content, stylistic, organizational, and formatting details.

As the text says, writers should

Avoid perfectionism when drafting

Keep going (write things that suffice; come back later to improve them)
Use any other helpful strategies (write during your most productive time; write in
chunks, start with the part you most want to write, etc.)

If you have had students do the exercise described earlier, you can ask them to share any
strategies they use to help them with the drafting stage.

Slide 5-6

It is probably safe to say that the most common flaw in students’ writing processes is that
they do not revise enough. Impress upon them the critical importance of devoting time to this
stage. Even very experienced writers take a good bit of time to review and polish important
documents.

Taking a “levels of edit” approach can help students revise in a systematic way. With this
approach, one divides the revision stage into three activities:

Revising (making any necessary major changes in the document, such as adding more
contents, improving the organization, or changing the format)
Editing (perfecting the style and flow of the message)
Proofreading (catching any spelling/typing/grammatical errors)

Slide 5-7

Readable formatting is hugely important in business writing. Business readers are almost
always very busy and are therefore impatient. And modern media has trained us in general to
expect and prefer quick access to information. Any documents that come close to looking
like the bad example on page 91 will run a risk of being misunderstood or, more likely,
ignored.

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Use the good example on page 92 to help students see how white space, headings,
typographical emphasis (boldface and italics), and bulleted lists can enhance readability.

Letters

Slide 5-8
These are the oldest form dating from the earliest civilizations—Greek, Egyptian,
Chinese.
The genre implies a certain formality. Therefore, letters are usually written to external
audiences—but not always.
Probably you already know their formats. If not—see Appendix B.
Early emphasis was on a stilted word choice (the “old language of business”).
Now the emphasis is on selecting an effective structure and strategy, and on using
wording that will build rapport between the communicators.

Memorandums

Slide 5-9

Memorandums are internal letters.

Email has taken over much of their function.

Some are actually reports.

Typically they are arranged in this form:

Memorandum (Interoffice Memo, or such) at top.

Date, To, From, Subject

(Sometimes) Department, Territory, Store Number, Copies to

Slide 5-10

They vary widely in terms of formality, but because they are internal messages, they are
generally less formal than letters.

Slide 5-11

They are written much like short, simple email messages to internal audiences. But they can
also be used to tackle fairly complex problems and therefore will need to follow the advice in
Chapters 6-8.

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They are usually written in the direct order, because internal audiences tend to expect
directness, but if they are on sensitive topics, they may use the indirect order.

Email

Slide 5-12

Its growth has been phenomenal.

Slide 5-13

It has advantages:

 Eliminates telephone tag.

 Saves time.
 Speeds up decision making.
 Is cheap.
 Provides a written record.

Slide 5-14

But there are disadvantages:

 Not confidential.
 No authentic signature.
 Doesn’t show emotions.
 May be ignored.

Slides 5-15, 5-16

The prefatory elements and beginnings are somewhat standardized:

To, Cc, Bcc, Subject, Attachments, Message

Name of recipient, perhaps a greeting, statement of purpose

Identify yourself early when communicating with someone you don’t know well.

Slide 5-17

Content organization deserves care.

Short, simple messages usually are best in a top-down order (most important to least
important)

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 The longer, more complex messages use more strategic organization plans (subject of
following chapters).

Slides 5-18, 5-19, 5-20, 5-21

The formality of email language depends on the relationship between writer and reader.

Casual language is acceptable between friends. It uses contractions, slang, mechanical

emphasis devices, everyday conversational talk.

Informal language is right for most messages. It uses short sentences, some
contractions and personal pronouns, good conversational talk.

Formal language maintains a distance between writer and reader—no personal

references, contractions.

Slides 5-22, 5-23, 5-24, 5-25

The writing of email messages involves following the instructions given in Chapters 2, 3, and
4.

These can be summarized under five considerations.

Conciseness

Make the messages short, leaving out unnecessary information and writing
economically.

Clarity

Practice the techniques of readable writing—short and familiar words, concrete

language, word precisions, short sentences, etc.

Etiquette

Practice courtesy, Build goodwill (use the techniques in Chapter 4: you-viewpoint,

positive language, conversational tone, etc.)

Especially avoid “flaming.”

Correctness

How one communicates is a part of the message.

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 Errors reflect on the writer and the writer’s company.

It is just as easy to get it right the first time.

Slide 5-26

As for closing the message, most emails end with the writer’s name alone (if the
parties know each other). Many writers create an email signature that includes not
only of their name but also the company name and contact information. Such a
signature really is appropriate only for external audiences or unfamiliar internal
audiences.

You may find it appropriate to include a complimentary close (“Sincerely,”

“Thanks”).

Slide 5-27

Emphasis devices are used sometimes because of computer limitations.

The underscore, italics, bold, color, asterisks, dashes are some.

Probably these are most appropriate in casual writing.

Slide 5-28

Initialisms may be used to save time. But be certain that your reader understands the
ones you use.

Text Messaging

Slide 5-29

This is a relatively new, increasingly popular, form of business communication.

It began with users of mobile phones with messaging capability.

Slide 5-30

It is still used much more for non-business rather than business purposes.

But it is seeing growing use in business use—for quick “emails” to co-workers, promotions,
brand awareness, customer relations, and such. Clearly, as the so-called “millenials” join the
workforce, use of text messaging will increase.

Slide 5-31

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 Most phone carriers enable text messaging

But length limits are severe—160 characters.

The result is a heavy use of abbreviations (b4 for before, plz for please, gr8 for great)

Slide 5-32

In writing text messages, one must take care—cover all necessary information, be brief,
be clear.

Instant Messaging
Slide 5-33

Probably your students will be quite familiar with instant messaging (“IM-ing”). It is
essentially the use of a live chat program (as if one is typing a phone conversation).

The main advantages of instant messaging are that

one can use a relatively easy, conversational style and

one can give and get information almost instantly.

But the drawbacks are that

one may be tempted to be write incorrectly/too informally,

both parties have to be online at the same time to communicate, and

the conversation may be monitored.

ANSWERS TO THE CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. Identify and explain the steps in the writing process.

See pages 87-90.

2. Think about a writing project that you recently completed. Using the terminology
in this chapter, describe the process that you used. How might using different
strategies have made the project more pleasant and productive? What helpful
strategies did you use, if any, that were not mentioned in this chapter?

Evaluate each student’s answer in terms of its use of chapter terminology and its detail.

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3. Think about a letter that you received or wrote recently, and explain why it was
appropriate to use a letter in this situation.

Most students will think of a letter they received from or wrote to an external audience
(insurance company, sales letter, etc.), but some may cite formal letters from internal
parties (for example, a letter from the university president to the student body, or an
official letter of promotion, congratulations, dismissal, or reprimand inside an
organization).

4. Will hard-copy letters diminish in importance as email continues to grow? Become

obsolete? Vanish?

Of course, no one really knows the answer. We think letters will diminish in importance,
but they won’t vanish, because they meet a need for formal correspondence that email
seems too casual for. A trend some have noticed, though, is that the electronic delivery of
letters as email attachments has increased.

5. a. Discuss the reasons for email’s phenomenal growth.

b. Is this growth likely to continue?

This new technology has advantages over other forms of communication. It is fast,
convenient, time saving, efficient, and effective. Authorities project continued growth.
We agree.

6. Some authorities say that concerns about correctness inhibit a person’s

communication. Does this stand have merit? Discuss.

As stated in the book, we strongly disagree. There is no excuse for sloppiness. It is just as
easy to get it right the first time if one knows correctness. Such stands are merely defenses
for those who don’t know correctness. It is merely a means of excusing ignorance.

7. Some authorities say that shortcuts in text messaging will lead to users’ inability to
spell properly in more formal contexts. Discuss.

While there are credible arguments for both sides of this issue, most likely users will learn
to use shortcuts where appropriate. However, it is clear that some will need to be taught to
take the context of their messages into careful account before deciding to use shortcuts.

8. Memorandums and email messages differ more than letters in their physical
makeup. Explain and discuss.

As letters are the oldest message form, their formats have developed over centuries of use.
Thus they have become standardized. Memorandums also have a somewhat standardized
format, but it is often changed to fit the needs of the individual business (department
designations, store or plant locations, copies to, etc.) Email is in its infancy. Its format is
becoming standardized, but further change may yet come.

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9. Explain the logic of using negative words in email and memorandums to fellow
employees that you would not use in letters carrying similar messages.

When you communicate with fellow employees about work matters, you can talk directly
—sometimes even bluntly. You are both concerned about the work-related subject of the
communication. Neither of you expects beating around the bush. Thus you do not have
take as much care to soften negatives as you would in an external communication. But in
no way does this mean that courtesy and respect for the other person is not a concern.

10. Discuss and justify the wide range of formality used in memorandums and email
messages.

Both email messages and memorandums serve the communication needs of business, and
these needs exist at all levels of the organization. Internal messages are sent to the highest
levels of management and the lowest levels of employees. And these messages range from
the most formal documents to the informal notes exchanged between workers.

11. What factors might determine whether or not instant messaging would be an
appropriate medium to use in a given situation?

Your students might cite its appropriateness to the organization’s culture, the availability
of the technology, the likelihood of the intended IM-ing partners being online when you
are, the formality of the situation.

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