Chapter 2: PLANNING BUSSINESS MESSAGES

Communication proccess

 The form of the idea may be influenced by complex factors surrounding the sender. These factors include
mood, frame of reference, background, culture, and physical makeup, as well as the context of the
situation and many other factors.
 The next step in the communication process involves encoding. This means converting the idea into words
or gestures that will convey meaning.
 The medium over which the message travels is the channel. Messages may be delivered by e-mail, SMS
text, instant message, social media post, letter, memorandum, report, announcement, picture, spoken
word, fax, Web page, or some other channel.
 Translating the message from its symbol form into meaning involves decoding. Only when the receiver
understands the meaning intended by the sender—that is, successfully decodes the message—does
communication take place.

THE 3X3 WRITING PROCCESS

Analyzing purpose and anticipate audience

- Messages may have: primary and secondary purpose

Writing techniques:

1. Focusing on the audience benefits

 Adapting your message to the receiver’s needs means putting yourself in that person’s shoes. This
ability to share someone else’s feelings is called empathy. Empathic senders think about how a
receiver will decode a message. They try to give something to the receiver, solve the receiver’s
problems, save the receiver’s money, or just understand the feelings and position of that person.

2. Cultivating the “you”view

 In focusing on audience benefits, skilled communicators naturally develop the “you” view. They
emphasize second-person pronouns (you, your) instead of firstperson pronouns (I/we, us, our).
Whether your goal is to inform, persuade, or promote goodwill, the catchiest words you can use are
you and your.
 Although you want to focus on the reader or listener, don’t overuse or misuse the second-person
pronoun you. Readers and listeners appreciate genuine interest; on the other hand, they resent
obvious attempts at manipulation.
 Another difficulty in emphasizing the “you” view and de-emphasizing we/I is that it may result in
overuse of the passive voice.

3. Conversational but Professional

 To project a professional image, you want to sound educated and mature. The overuse of
expressions such as super, totally awesome, insanely, you know, and like, as well as a reliance on
unnecessary abbreviations (BTW for by the way), may make a businessperson sound immature.
 Emojis are fun to pop into casual personal messages, but think twice before using them at work.
 Professional messages do not include texting-style abbreviations, slang, sentence fragments, and
chitchat.
 Stay away from expressions such as the undersigned, the writer, and the affected party. You will
sound friendlier with familiar pronouns such as I, we, and you.

4. Possitive
 Positive messages are uplifting and pleasant to read. Positive wording tells what is and what can
be done rather than what isn’t and what can’t be done.
 Also avoid phrases such as you apparently are unaware of, you did not provide, you
misunderstood, and you don’t understand.

5. Expressing courtesy
 Maintaining a courteous tone involves not just guarding against rudeness but also avoiding words
that sound demanding or preachy. Expressions such as you should, you must, and you have to
cause people to instinctively react with Oh, yeah? One remedy is to turn these demands into
rhetorical questions that begin with Will you please . . . .
 Giving reasons for a request also softens the tone.
 Use good manners in person and in writing. For example, don’t be presumptuous by issuing orders
or setting the time for a meeting with a supervisor. Use first names only if given permission to do
so.
 6. Avoid gender-, age- and disability-biased language
 Awareness and sensitivity are key.
 Be cautious about expressions that might be biased in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, age,and
disability.
 Generally, you can avoid gender-biased language by choosing alternate language
for words involving man or woman, by using plural nouns and pronouns, or by changing
to a gender-free word (person or representative). Avoid the his or her option.
 Avoid expressions that are demeaning or subjective such as spry old codger. Avoid patronizing
references

7. Plain and familiar language

 avoid a big word that conveys your idea efficiently and is appropriate for the audience. Your goal is
to reject pompous and pretentious language
 be selective in your use of jargon. Jargon describes technical or specialized terms within a field.
These terms enable insiders to communicate complex ideas quickly, but to outsiders they mean
nothing.
 don’t forget secondary audiences: Will those potential receivers understand
any technical terms used?

8. Precise, vigoruous words

 Strong verbs and specific nouns give receivers more information and keep them interested.

CHAPTER 3: Organizing and Drafting Business Messages

1. Research
- Informal research
+ Search the company profile
+ Talk with the boss
+ Interview the target audience
+Create an informal survey
+Brainstorm
- Formal research
+Primary sources
+Secondary sources
2. Organize ideas to show relationship
group similar items togetherplace ideas in a strategic sequence
+ Two simple techniques can help you organize data: the scratch list and the outline.
+The beauty of preparing an outline is that it gives writers a chance to organize their thoughts before
becoming bogged down in word choice and sentence structure.

- Structuring ideas into strategies

In the direct strategy, the main idea comes first, followed by details, explanation, or evidence. In the
indirect strategy, the main idea follows the details, explanation, and evidence. The strategy you select is
determined by how you expect the audience to react to the message
+ Expect the reader to be pleased, mildly interested, or neutral—use the direct strategy. Explanations and
details follow the direct opening. Getting to the main idea quickly is important. This direct method, also
called frontloading (3 advantages)
++ Saves the reader’s time.
 ++ Sets a proper frame of mind
++ Reduces frustration
they do not address a sensitive subject that will upset the reader.

+ Expect the audience to be uninterested, unwilling, displeased, or perhaps even hostile, the indirect
strategy
is more appropriate. This approach works well with three kinds of messages: (a) bad news, (b) ideas that
require persuasion, and (c) sensitive news
Benefits:
++ Respects the feelings of the audience
++ Facilitates a fair hearing
++ Minimizes a negative reaction.

- Writing a draft with powerful sentence

+ Simple sentence
+ Compound sentence
+ Complex sentence
+ Compound-complex sentence
- 3 common sentence faults
+ A fragment is usually a broken-off part of a complex sentence. Fragments often can be identified by the
words that introduce them—words such as although, as, because, even, except, for example, if,
instead of, since, such as, that, which, and when.
+ A second serious writing fault is the run-on (fused) sentence. A sentence with two independent clauses
must be joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, or, nor, but), by a semicolon (;), or separated into two
sentences. Without a conjunction or a
semicolon, a run-on sentence results.
+ A third sentence fault is a comma splice. It results when a writer joins (splices together) two independent
clauses with a comma. Independent clauses may be joined with a coordinating conjunction (and, or, nor,
but) or a conjunctive adverb (however,
consequently, therefore, and others).
- Short sentences: try to form sentences that average 20 words.

- Writing techniques:
+ Creating Emphasis: Achieving Emphasis Visually/through styles
+Use vivid, not general, words
+Label the main idea
+Place the important idea first or last
 + Give the important idea the spotlight.
+ De-Emphasizing When Necessary: Use general words, Subordinate the bad news,
+ Using the Active and Passive Voice Effectively
+ Creating Parallelism: use similar structures to express similar ideas
+ Dodging Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers: A dangling modifier occurs when the word or phrase it
describes is missing from its sentence, A misplaced modifier occurs when the word or phrase it describes is
not close enough to be clear
Introductory verbal phrases are particularly dangerous; be sure to follow them immediately with the words
they logically describe or modify.

CHAPTER 4: REVISING BUSINESS MESSAGES

1. Revising for conciseness
- Slashing Wordy Expressions.
- Purging Long Lead-Ins.
- Dropping There is/are and It is/was Fillers.
- Rejecting Redundancies
- Eliminating Empty Words.
- Microblogging is a term you probably won’t hear very often, but chances are you have posted a short
message today. As its name suggests, microblogging refers to messaging on sites such as Twitter,
Tumblr, or Plurk; some would include Facebook’s
status update feature, Snapchat, and other services.
- Tips for Writing Concise, Effective Business Tweets.
■ Include only main ideas focused on useful information.
■ Choose descriptive but short words.
■ Personalize your message if possible.
■ Use hashtags so that your tweets are categorized around topics and easier to find.
■ Be prepared to draft several versions striving for conciseness, clarity, and, yes, correctness.

2. Ensuring message clarity

- Keeping It Short and Simple
- Dumping Trite Business Phrases: some business writers repeat trite expressions. These are stale overused
phrases that have lost their vigor.
- Cutting Clichés: Clichés are expressions that have become exhausted by overuse. Many cannot be
explained, especially to those who are learning the language or are new to writing.
- Shunning Slang and Buzzwords:
+ Slang is composed of informal words with arbitrary and extravagantly changed meanings. These words
quickly go out of fashion because they are no longer appealing when everyone begins to understand them.
+ Equally unprofessional and imprecise are buzzwords. These are technical expressions that have become
fashionable and often are meant to impress rather than express.
- Rescuing Buried Verbs: Buried verbs are those that are needlessly converted to wordy noun expressions—
nominalizations.Sometimes called zombie nouns because they cannibalize and suck the life out of active
verbs.
- Curbing exuberance: exuberance—over-the-top intensity or enthusiasm—with words such as very,
definitely, quite, completely, extremely, really, actually, and totally.
- Choosing Clear, Precise Words

3. Improving readability with strategic document design

- Making White Space Work for You
- Understanding Margins and Text Alignment
- Choosing Appropriate Typefaces
- Selecting Type Fonts and Sizes
- Enhancing Comprehension With Numbered and Bulleted Lists
- Improving Business Messages With Headings
 4. Catching errors with careful proofreading
- Spelling
- Grammar
- Punctuation
- Names and numbers
- Format

5. Evaluating the effectiveness of your message

CHAPTER 5: SHORT WORKPLACE MESSAGES AND DIGITAL MEDIA

1. Writing digital email messages and memos

- Deskop computers are being obsolete
- Mobile powerful devices access data and applications stored in the cloud
- VPN (virtual private network)
1.1. Email
- Most workplace messages
- Most effective digital tool for Internet-using worker
- Growth in volume
- Replace paper memos for many messages inside organizations and some letters to external audiences.
- Complaints:
+ E-mail overload: Someone blame email for eliminating the distinction between work life and home life
urgency to be available 24/7
+ An everlasting evidence: After deletion, files still leave trails on server Messages are also backed up on
other servers traceable and recoverable by forensic experts. Long forgotten messages : turn up in court
cases as damaging and costly evidence
Organizations can monitor their staff’s personal accounts
- When email is appropriate:
+ Short, informal messages
+ Cover document when sending attachments
+ not a subsitute for F2F conversation/telephone call
- Composing professional email

+ Draft a Compelling but Concise Subject Line: Summarize the purpose of the message clearly and make
the receiver want to
open the message. Try to include a verb. In some instances the subject line can be the entire message.
Also be sure to adjust the subject line if the topic changes after a thread of replies emerges. Subject lines
should appear as a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters—never in all lowercase letters or all
caps.
 + Include a Greeting: salutation. The greeting sets the tone for the message and reflects your audience
analysis. For friends and colleagues, try friendly greetings. For more formal messages and those to
outsiders, include an honorific and last name . When a given name is gender-neutral (unisex), and the
gender of identity is not known, omit the honorific.
+ Organize the Body for Readability and Tone
+ Close Effectively: include an action statement with due dates and requests, include full contact
information in a signature block
- Controlling your inbox
+ checking your e-mail at set times, such as first thing in the morning and again after lunch or at 4 p.m. To
avoid being distracted, be sure to turn off your audio and visual alerts
+ the two-minute rule. If you can read and respond to a message within two minutes, then take care of it
immediately. For messages that require more time, add them to your to-do list or schedule them on your
calendar.
- Reply efficiently with down-editing
+ down-editing. This involves inserting your responses to parts of the incoming message. After a courteous
opening,
your reply message will include only the parts of the incoming message to which you are responding.
+ use a different font color for your down-edits.

1.2. Memos