Week 3 Written Communication Faisal AlSager

Business Writing Steps 1. Planning and Preparation 2. Writing 3. Editing

How much effort should you put in each? ✤ Planning and preparation: 25% ✤ Writing: 25% ✤ Editing: 50% ✤ This percentage can differ depending on the type of the document written

Planning and Preparation ✤ The purpose of writing ✤ The outline (introduction, body, conclusion) ✤ Headlines ✤ Topic sentences ✤ For better planning: Use Mindmaps

The Purpose of Written Communication ✤ Every written communication should serve its own set of purposes ✤ You must know what the purpose of writing is before you start to write ✤ Examples of purposes: ✤ To sell goods or services ✤ To collect and overdue account ✤ To obtain a job ✤ To build good will by expressing appreciation ✤ To obtain good will while denying a request

A Clear Purpose ✤ Sometimes the purpose of your communication is very clear ✤ Sometimes it’s not. Example: “I’m going to blast that company!” which means he wants a replacement for a defective appliance he bought from that company

Questions to Define the Purpose ✤ Who is going to read this? One person or several? A clerk or a responsible manager? ✤ What do I want him/her to do, or say, or decide? ✤ What sort of feeling must I produce in him/her in order to persuade him/her to do as I wish? ✤ What has the reader asked me to tell him/her? ✤ What does he/she intend to with what I tell him/her?

Writing ✤ According to studies and researches, it’s better to write by completely disabling the editing process. We should write first, and leave the editing to the end. Why? Because writing is a creative right-brain task and editing is an analytical left-brain task ✤ Exercise!

Editing ✤ This process should take most of our effort ✤ Editing is not associated with grammar and spelling only; it’s a process of reviewing the whole written document ✤ We edit to ensure: completeness, coherent

Effective Business Writing ✤ For a business writing to be effective, it has to be: ✤ Clear: clarify purpose and understand audience ✤ Coherent: logical structure and accessible format ✤ Concise: keep the writing concise and to the point