1. Completing Business Messages
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, you will be able to do the following:
Discuss the value of careful revision and list the main tasks involved in completing a business message
List four writing techniques you can use to improve the readability of your messages
Describe the steps you can take to improve the clarity of your writing and to make your writing more concise
Explain how design elements help determine the effectiveness of your documents
List eight tips for improving message quality through careful proofreading
Discuss the most important issues to consider when distributing your messages
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2. Beyond the First Draft Content & Readability Clarity & Conciseness
Working Draft
First Draft
Final Draft
After you have completed a first draft, you may be tempted to breathe a sigh of relief, send the message on its way, and move on to the next project. Resist the temptation. Successful communicators recognize that the first draft is rarely as tight, clear, and compelling as it needs to be. Careful revision can mean the difference between a rambling, unfocused message and a lively, direct message that gets results.
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3. The Three-Step Process
Analyze Situation
Gather Information
Select Medium
Get Organized
Revise
Produce
Proofread
Distribute
Adapt to
the Audience
Compose
the Message
Planning
Completing
Writing
Your business messages may not require a sophisticated design or high-tech enhancements, but they can still benefit from rigorous attention to detail in the third step of the three-step writing process.
Planning business messages. To plan any message, first analyze the situation by defining your purpose and developing a profile of your audience. With that in mind, you can gather information that will meet your audience’s needs. Next, select the right medium (oral, written, or electronic) to deliver your message. With those three factors in place, you are ready to organize the information by defining your main idea, limiting your scope, selecting an approach, and outlining your content. Planning business messages is the focus of Chapter 4.
Writing business messages. Once you have planned your message, adapt to your audience with sensitivity, relationship skills, and style. Then you are ready to compose your message by choosing strong words, creating effective sentences, and developing coherent paragraphs. Writing business messages is discussed in Chapter 5.
Completing business messages. After writing your first draft, revise your message to make sure it is clear, concise, and correct. Next, produce your message, giving it an attractive, professional appearance. Proofread the final product for typos, spelling errors, and other mechanical problems. Finally, distribute your message using the best combination of personal and technological tools. Completing business messages is discussed this chapter.
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4. Revising the Message Type of Message Choice of Media Conciseness
Content
Clarity
Readability
Type of Message
Choice of Media
The revision task can vary somewhat, depending on the medium and the nature of your message. For informal messages to internal audiences via electronic media, the revision process is often as simple as quickly looking over your message to correct any mistakes before sending or posting it. However, do not fall into the common trap of thinking that the fundamentals of good writing are unimportant. These qualities can be even more important in electronic media, not less, particularly if these messages are the only contact your audience has with you.
With more complex messages, try to put your draft aside for a day or two before you begin the revision process so that you can approach the material with a fresh eye. Then start with the “big picture,” making sure that the document accomplishes your overall goals before moving to finer points such as readability, clarity, and conciseness.
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5. Evaluate the Message Content Organization Style and Tone
When you begin the revision process, focus your attention on content, organization, style, and tone.
To evaluate the content of your message, make sure it is accurate, relevant to the audience, and complete. Once you are satisfied with the content of your message, you can review its organization by asking the following questions:
Are all the points covered in the most logical order?
Do the most important ideas receive the most space and the greatest emphasis?
Are any points repeated unnecessarily?
Are details grouped together logically?
With the content in place and effectively organized, next consider whether you have achieved the right style and tone for your audience. Is your writing formal enough to meet the audience’s expectations, without being too formal or academic? Is it too casual for a serious subject?
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6. Review for Readability
Flesch-Kincaid
Grade Level Score
Flesch Reading
Ease Score
Once are satisfied with the content, organization, style, and tone of your message, make a second pass to look at its readability. During this process, you might use one of the many indexes that have been developed to measure readability.
The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score computes reading difficulty relative to grade-level achievement. Thus, a score of 10 suggests that a document can be read and understood by the average 10th grader. Most business documents score in the 8–11 range. A similar scoring system, the Flesch Reading Ease Score, ranks documents on a 100-point scale; the higher the score, the easier the document is to read. Both of these measurements are built into Microsoft Word, making them easy to use for most business communicators.
Readability indexes offer a useful reference point, but they are all limited by what they can measure: word length, number of syllables, sentence length, and paragraph length. They ca not measure any of the other factors that affect readability, such as audience analysis, writing clarity, and document design.
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7. Increasing “Skim” Value
Sentences
Headings
Listed Items
Paragraphs
Beyond using shorter words and simpler sentences, you can improve the readability of a message by making the document interesting and easy to skim. Most business audiences—particularly influential senior managers—tend to skim documents looking for key ideas, conclusions, and recommendations. If they determine that a document contains valuable information or requires a response, they will read it more carefully when time permits.
Four techniques will make your message easier to read and easier to skim: varying sentence length, using shorter paragraphs, using lists and bullets instead of narrative, and adding effective headings and subheadings.
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8. Vary Sentence Length Create interest Promote readability
Emphasize points
Enliven your writing
Appeal to readers
Although good business writers use short sentences most of the time, too many short sentences in a row can make your writing choppy. Conversely, if all your sentences move at the same plodding gait, you are likely to lull your reader to sleep. Varying the length of your sentences is a creative way to make your messages interesting and readable. By choosing words and sentence structure with care, you can create a rhythm that emphasizes important points, enlivens your writing style, and makes information more appealing to your reader.
Each sentence length has its advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, try for a mixture of sentences that are short (up to 15 words), medium (15–25 words), and long (more than 25 words).
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9. Keep Paragraphs Short Break Up Thoughts Boost Readability
Emphasize Ideas
Most business readers are put off by large blocks of text, so the optimum paragraph length is short to medium in most cases. Unless you break up your thoughts somehow, you will end up with lengthy paragraphs that are guaranteed to intimidate even the most dedicated reader. Short paragraphs, generally 100 words or fewer, are easier to read than long ones, and they make your writing look inviting. You can also emphasize ideas by isolating them in short, forceful paragraphs.
However, do not go overboard with short paragraphs. In particular, be careful to use one-sentence paragraphs occasionally and only for emphasis. Furthermore, if you need to divide a subject into several pieces in order to keep paragraphs short, be sure to help your readers keep the ideas connected by guiding them with plenty of transitional elements.
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10. Use Lists and Bullets Show sequence of ideas Heighten visual impact
Emphasize key points
Simplify complex subjects
Provide visual breaks
Expedite skimming process
An effective alternative to using conventional sentences is to set off important ideas in a list—a series of words, names, or other items. Lists can show the sequence of your ideas, heighten their impact visually, and increase the likelihood that a reader will find key points. In addition, lists help simplify complex subjects, break up a page or screen visually, and ease the skimming process for busy readers.
Regardless of the format you choose, the items in a list should be parallel; that is, they should all use the same grammatical pattern. For example, if one list item begins with a verb, every item should begin with a verb. If one item is a noun phrase, every item should be a noun phrase.
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11. Headings and Subheadings
Descriptive
Headings
Informative
Organization
Attention
Connection
A heading is a brief title that tells readers about the content of the section that follows. Subheadings are subordinate to headings, indicating subsections within a major section. Headings and subheadings serve these important functions:
Headings show your reader (at a glance) how the document is organized. They act as labels to group related paragraphs together and organize lengthy material into shorter sections.
Informative, inviting, and in some cases intriguing, headings grab the reader’s attention; making the text easier to read, and helping the reader find the parts he or she needs to read.
Using headings and subheadings together helps readers make the connection between main ideas and subordinate ones so that they can understand your message more easily. Moreover, headings and subheadings visually indicate shifts from one idea to the next.
Headings fall into two categories. Descriptive headings, such as “Cost Considerations,” identify a topic but do little more. Informative headings, such as “A New Way to Cut Costs,” guide readers to think a certain way about the topic. Whatever headings you choose, keep them brief and use parallel construction throughout the entire document.
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12. Editing for Clarity Long Sentences Hedging Sentences
Faulty Parallelism
Dangling Modifiers
Once you have reviewed and revised your message for readability, use the following guidelines to make sure that your message is clear:
Break up overly long sentences. Do not connect too many clauses with coordinating conjunctions. Long, complicated sentences are difficult to read and understand.
Rewrite hedging sentences. Sometimes you have to use phrases such as it may be or it seems that to avoid stating a judgment as a fact. Nevertheless, when you have too many such “hedges,” you come across as being unsure of what you are saying.
Impose parallelism. When you have two or more similar (parallel) ideas to express, use the same grammatical pattern for each related idea. Parallelism can be achieved by repeating the pattern in words, phrases, clauses, or entire sentences.
Correct dangling modifiers. Sometimes a modifier is not just an adjective or an adverb but an entire phrase modifying a noun or a verb. Be careful not to leave this type of modifier dangling with no connection to the subject of the sentence.
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13. Editing for Clarity Long Noun Sequences Camouflaged Verbs
Sentence Structure
Awkward References
Reword long noun sequences. When nouns are strung together as modifiers, the resulting sentence is hard to read. You can clarify the sentence by putting some of the nouns in a modifying phrase. Although you add a few more words, your audience will not have to work as hard to understand the sentence.
Replace camouflaged verbs. Avoid changing verbs into nouns and adjectives, which then require the use of another verb just to get your point across. To enliven your messages, use verbs instead of noun phrases.
Clarify sentence structure. Keep the subject and predicate of a sentence as close together as possible. When a subject and predicate are too far apart, readers have to read the sentence more than once to figure out who did what. Likewise, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases usually make the most sense when they are placed as close as possible to the words they modify.
Clarify awkward references. Business writers sometimes use expressions such as the above-mentioned, as mentioned above, the aforementioned, the former, the latter, and respectively. These words cause readers to jump from point to point, which hinders effective communication. Instead, use specific references, even if you must add a few more words.
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14. Editing for Conciseness
Unnecessary
Words
Long Words
or Phrases
Redundancies
“It is/There are”
Starters
Once you have edited your sentences for clarity, focus on conciseness. Three-fourths of the executives who participated in one survey complained that most written messages are too long. Use the following guidelines to write concisely:
Delete unnecessary words and phrases. Some combinations of words have more efficient, one-word equivalents. In addition, avoid the clutter of too many or poorly placed relative pronouns (who, that, which). Even articles can be excessive (such as repeating the in a list of items).
Shorten long words and phrases. Short words and phrases are generally more vivid and easier to read than long ones.
Eliminate redundancies. In some word combinations, the words tend to say the same thing. For instance, “visible to the eye” is redundant because visible is enough, without further clarification.
Recast “It is/There are” starters. If you start a sentence with an indefinite pronoun, such as it or there, odds are that the sentence could be shorter and more active.
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15. Evaluate, Edit, and Revise the Work of Others
Help the Writer
Succeed
Understand the
Writer’s Intent
At many points in your career, you will be asked to evaluate, edit, or revise the work of others. Before you dive into someone else’s work, recognize the dual responsibility that doing so entails.
First, unless you have specifically been asked to rewrite something in your own style, remember that your job is help the other writer succeed at his or her task, not to impose your writing style or pursue your own agenda. In other words, make sure your input focuses on making the piece more effective, not on making it more like something you would have written.
Second, make sure you understand the writer’s intent before you begin suggesting or making changes. If you try to edit or revise without knowing what the writer hoped to accomplish, you run the risk of making the piece less effective, not more.
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16. Revising with Technology
Spell Checker
Thesaurus
Revision Marks
Cut and Paste
Grammar Checker
Style Checker
Commenting
Search and Replace
Use technology when it is time to revise and polish your message.
Avoid drudgery and minimize errors with word-processing functions such as cut and paste and search and replace. Software tools such as revision marks and commenting can keep track of proposed editing changes electronically and provide a history of a document’s revisions.
In addition to the many revision tools, four software functions can help to bring out the best in your documents.
A spell checker compares your document with an electronic dictionary, highlights unrecognized words, and suggests correct spellings.
A computer thesaurus gives you alternative words, just as a printed thesaurus does.
The grammar checker can perform some helpful review tasks and highlight items you should consider changing, such as passive voice, long sentences, and frequently misused words.
A style checker can monitor your word and sentence choices and suggest alternatives that might produce more effective writing.
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17. Producing the Message Production Quality Effectiveness Professionalism
Importance
Now it is time to put your hard work on display. The production quality of your message—the total effect of page design, graphical elements, typography, screen presence, and so on—plays an important role in its effectiveness. A polished, inviting design not only makes your document easier to read but also conveys a sense of professionalism and importance.
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18. Design for Readability
Consistency
Balance
Restraint
Detail
Design affects readability in two important ways. First, if done carefully, design elements can improve the effectiveness of your message. If done poorly, design elements can act as barriers, blocking your communication. Second, the visual design itself sends a nonverbal message to your readers, influencing their perceptions of the communication before they read a single word.
Effective design guides your readers through your message, so be sure that your business documents are based on the following elements:
Consistency. Throughout a message, be consistent in your use of margins, typeface, type size, and spacing. Also be consistent when using recurring design elements, such as vertical lines, columns, and borders.
Balance. To create a pleasing design, balance all visual elements; that is text, artwork, and white space.
Detail. Pay attention to details that affect your design and thus your message. For instance, headings and subheadings that appear at the bottom of a column or a page can confuse readers when the promised information does not appear until the next column or page, and narrow columns with too much space between words can be distracting.
Restraint. Strive for simplicity in design. Do not clutter your message with too many design elements, too much highlighting, or too many decorative touches.
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19. Design Techniques White Space Margins Justified Type Typefaces
Type Styles
Design
Techniques
You can make both printed and electronic messages more effective by understanding the use of white space, margins, line justification, typefaces, and type styles.
White space provides visual contrast for your readers, and gives them a resting point. White space includes the open area surrounding headings and margins, the vertical space between columns, the space created by ragged line endings, and indents or extra space between paragraphs.
Margins define the space around your text and between text columns. They are influenced by the way you place lines of type, which can be set (1) justified (flush on the left and flush on the right), (2) flush left with a ragged right margin, (3) flush right with a ragged left margin, or (4) centered.
Justified type is frequently used in magazines, newspapers, and books because it can accommodate more text in a given space. However, without special attention from experienced designers, justified paragraphs often have awkward gaps and variable spacing between words and letters.
Typeface refers to the physical design of letters, numbers, and other text characters. Serif typefaces (such as Times New Roman) have small cross lines (serifs) at the ends of each letter stroke, and are commonly used for text. Sans serif typefaces (such as Arial) have no serifs. They are ideal for display treatments that use larger type.
Type style refers to any modification that lends contrast or emphasis to type, such as boldface, italics, underlining, and other highlighting and decorative styles.
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20. Multimedia Documents Level of Skills Tools Time and Cost Content
Message
Structure
Compatibility
Multimedia documents can convey large amounts of information quickly, engage people in multiple ways, express emotions, and allow recipients to personalize the communication process to their own needs. To design and create multimedia documents, you need to consider the following factors:
Creative and technical skills. Depending on what you need to accomplish, creating and integrating multimedia elements can require some creative and technical skills. Fortunately, many basic tasks, such as adding video clips to a web page, have gotten much easier in recent years.
Tools. The hardware and software tools needed to create and integrate media elements are now widely available and generally affordable.
Time and cost. Even though the time and cost of creating multimedia documents have dropped dramatically in recent years, you still need to consider these elements. Make sure that the time and money you plan to spend will be paid back in communication effectiveness.
Content. If you have the skills, time, and tools, you might be able to create graphics or other media elements. If not, you will need to find these items and secure the right to use them.
Message structure. Multimedia documents often lack a rigid linear structure from beginning to end. You must plan for readers to take multiple, individualized paths through the material.
Compatibility. Some multimedia elements will require specific software on the recipient’s viewing device. Another challenge is the variety of screen sizes and resolutions, from oversize LCD monitors to tiny mobile phone displays.
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21. Production Technology
Templates and style sheets
Page setup features
Column and paragraph formatting
Numbered and bulleted lists
Information in tables
Pictures, text boxes, and objects
By improving the appearance of your documents, you will improve your readers’ impressions of you and your messages. The following are some production technology features that you can use:
Templates and style sheets. You can save a tremendous amount of time by using templates and style sheets for print and online documents.
Page setup. Use page setup to control margins, page orientation, and the location of headers and footers.
Column formatting. Most business documents use a single column of text per page, but multiple columns can be an attractive format for documents such as newsletters.
Paragraph formatting. Paragraph formatting controls can enhance the look of your documents. You can offset quotations by increasing margin width around a single paragraph, compress line spacing to fit a document on a single page, or use the “hanging indents” feature to offset the first line of a paragraph.
Numbered and bulleted lists. Let your word processor or online publishing system do the busywork of formatting numbered and bulleted lists.
Tables. Use tables to display any information that lends itself to rows and columns: calendars, numerical data, comparisons, and so on.
Pictures, text boxes, and objects. Your word processor will accept a wide variety of pictures (using industry-standard formats such as JPEG or GIF). Text boxes are small blocks of text that stand apart from the main text (great for captions, callouts, margin notes, and so on). Objects can be anything from a spreadsheet to a sound clip to an engineering drawing.
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22. Format for Business Letters
Letterhead
Stationery
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx
Date
Inside
Address
Salutation
The
Message
Complimentary
Close
Signature
Block
Formal business letters usually follow certain design conventions.
Most business letters appear on letterhead stationery, which includes the company’s name and address and other contact information. The first thing to appear after the letterhead is the date. Next comes the inside address, which identifies the person receiving the letter. After that comes the salutation, usually in the form of Dear Mr. or Ms. and then that person’s Last Name. The message comes next, often running several paragraphs and sometimes running over to a second page. After the message is the complimentary close, usually Sincerely or Cordially. Last comes the signature block: space for the signature, followed by the sender’s printed name and title.
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23. Format for Memos Memo Title Headings The Message XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XX: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
XXXX: xxxxxxxxxx
XXXXXXX: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Memo
Title
Headings
The
Message
Memos have largely been replaced by , IM, and other electronic media in many companies, but they are still used in the workplace. Most memos begin with a title, such as Memo, Memorandum, or Interoffice Correspondence. Four headings usually follow: To, From, Date, and Subject (Re:, short for Regarding, is sometimes used instead of Subject). Memos usually do not include a salutation, complimentary close, or signature, although signing your initials next to your name on the From line is standard practice in most companies.
Bear in mind that memos are often distributed without sealed envelopes, so they are less private than most other message formats.
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24. Proofread the Message Writing Errors Design Flaws Layout Problems
Production Issues
Proofreading is the quality inspection stage for your document, your last chance to make sure that your document is ready to carry your message—and your reputation—to the intended audience. Even a small mistake can diminish your message, so take proofreading seriously.
Look for two types of problems: (1) undetected mistakes from the writing, design, and layout stages; and (2) mistakes that crept in during production, anything from computer glitches such as missing fonts to broken web links to problems with the ink used in printing. Be particularly vigilant with complex documents and complex production processes that involve teams of people and multiple computers. Strange things can happen as files move from computer to computer, especially when many fonts and multimedia elements are involved.
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25. Proofreading Advice Make Multiple Passes Use Perceptual Tricks
Focus on High Priorities
Maintain Your Distance
Practice Vigilance
Remain Focused
Work With Printouts
Take Your Time
Proofreading should be a methodical procedure in which you look for specific problems. Here is some advice from the pros:
Make multiple passes. Go through the document several times, focusing on a different aspect each time. For instance, look for content errors the first time, then layout errors the second time.
Use perceptual tricks. To keep from missing things that are “in plain sight,” try reading pages backward, placing your finger under each word and reading it silently, covering everything but the line you are currently reading, and reading the document aloud.
Double-check high-priority items. Double-check the spelling of names and the accuracy of dates, addresses, and calculations.
Give yourself some distance. If possible, do not proofread immediately after finishing the document; let your brain wander off to new topics, then come back fresh later on.
Be vigilant. Try to block out distractions, and focus as completely as possible on your proofreading task. Avoid reading large amounts of material in one sitting, and try not to proofread when you are tired.
Stay focused. Concentrate on what you are doing.
Review electronic documents on paper. Some people have trouble proofreading web pages, online reports, and other electronic documents on screen.
Take your time. Quick proofreading is not careful proofreading.
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26. Distributing Messages
Cost Concerns
Convenience
Time Constraints
Security and Privacy
With the production phase finished, you are ready to distribute the message. As with every other aspect of business communication, your options for distribution multiply with every advance in technology. When planning for distribution, consider the following factors:
Cost. This is not a concern for most messages, but for lengthy reports or multimedia production, it might well be. Printing, binding, and delivering reports can be an expensive proposition, so weigh the cost versus the benefits before you decide.
Convenience. How much work is involved for you and your audience? Although it is easy to attach a document to an message, things might not be so simple for the people on the other end.
Time. How soon does the message need to reach the audience? Do not waste money on overnight delivery if the recipient will not read the report for a week.
Security and privacy. The convenience offered by IM, , and other technologies needs to be weighed against security and privacy concerns.
Distribution technologies continue to advance, so be on the lookout for new ways to put your messages into the hands of your audience.
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27. Completing Business Messages
This concludes the PowerPoint presentation on Chapter 6, “Completing Business Messages.” During this presentation, we have accomplished the following learning objectives:
Discussed the value of careful revision and listed the main tasks involved in completing a business message
Listed four writing techniques you can use to improve the readability of your messages
Described the steps you can take to improve the clarity of your writing and to make your writing more concise
Explained how design elements help determine the effectiveness of your documents
Listed eight tips for improving message quality through careful proofreading
Discussed the most important issues to consider when distributing your messages
For more information about these topics, refer to Chapter 6 in Business Communication Today.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall