Lecture 3: Communicate in Writing Communicating in the IT Industry Lecture 3: Communicate in Writing Zatil Ridh'wah Hj Darot

Learning objectives Communicate in writing Following guidelines and procedures Identifying and conveying key messages in writing Reviewing and proofreading own written work Reviewing and editing documents created by others Note taking

Following guidelines and procedures You should always take care with written documents because they are a permanent record of what you have said. Many _____________have guidelines and procedures for sending information by email or in other written formats. This is to protect both the reputation of the company and __________________ Organisations may also require their employees to use certain templates for documents, to ensure they comply with company standards.

templates

Identifying and conveying key messages in writing When writing any kind of document it is important that you get the message across in a clear and unambiguous way. Before you start writing, make sure that you are clear about the key messages that you are trying to communicate. You will then be able to lay out the document in a logical fashion. For example, in a report for an assignment you need to be clear about what the report should cover. You ______________________report with an introduction, sections which cover the assignment tasks in a sensible order (usually the order they are listed in the assignment brief) and a conclusion.

Different types of written documents have different styles and purposes. For example, formal letters have a defined structure (with address, __________________________close). Emails are less formal and have no fixed salutation or close. Whatever type of document you are producing, you need to ensure the following: Your document is clear and gets the message across. Technical explanations can be difficult to put in writing, so bullet points are often better than a long, complex explanation. You can also use subheadings to help your readers find information quickly on the page.

The spelling and grammar are correct. Poor spelling and grammar in business emails and letters look very unprofessional. Even in informal communications like personal emails, it is good practice to check and correct your spelling and grammar. Your __________________. When sending emails in a business context, the standards are not the same as when sending personal communications. Use of emoticons is not appropriate. Neither is text in capitals, such as ‘DO YOU UNDERSTAND?’, which looks as if you are shouting.

Reviewing and proofreading own written work Always make sure your written communications are correct and professional by reviewing and proofreading your work before __________________it. Spelling and grammar checkers will only find some errors; the rest you must check for yourself. For instance, if you use a word that is correctly spelt but appears in the wrong context, the spell checker will not highlight it. For example, you could easily type ‘What country are you form?’; the spell checker would not pick up this error because it recognises ‘form’ as a correct spelling.

Many people find it easier to proofread printed documents than text appearing on a computer screen. _________________– it’s all too easy to read what you meant to write rather than what you actually wrote.

Reviewing and editing documents created by others Another excellent way to check your work is to ask someone else to read it through. It’s much easier to _________in other people’s work than in your own, so before you hand in an assignment, swap it with a friend to check for errors in each other’s work.

You can add comments to a document using the Review tab on the Ribbon You can add comments to a document using the Review tab on the Ribbon. You can also turn on the Track Changes feature, which allows you to see all the edits made to a document: new text is shown underlined and _____________ visible but is struck through; a black bar in the margin shows where changes have been made. An example of work that has been edited using Track Changes is shown in Figure 1.1.

Once you have edited the document with Track Changes switched on, you or someone else can review each editing change and accept or reject it. Books and magazine articles are often written in this way – the author’s work is edited by someone else ____________ using Track Changes and adds comments that the author then reviews.

Note taking Note taking is an extremely useful skill to develop, for the purposes of both your education and your later working life. It’s very difficult to remember what is said during __________, meetings and training sessions, so notes can really be helpful.

BTEC Level 2 First IT Student Book Unit 1 CITI references BTEC Level 2 First IT Student Book Unit 1 CITI