1. 5 Organizing and Drafting Business Messages Business Communication:
Process and Product, 8e
Mary Ellen Guffey and Dana Loewy
Instructor PowerPoint Library, 8e
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

2. Learning Objective 1
Apply Phase 2 of the 3-x-3 writing process, which begins with formal and informal research to collect background information.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. © MelisendeVector.com/Fotolia

3. Informal Research Methods
Search company digital or other files.
Talk with the boss.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. © mostafa_fawzy/Fotolia, © Ogerepus, Fotolia, © arrow/Fotolia
Interview the target audience.
Conduct an informal survey.

4. Formal Research Methods
Access electronically.
Search manually.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. © Tonis Pan/Fotolia, © Marina Zlochin/Fotolia, © Edvard Molnar/Fotolia
Investigate primary sources.
Conduct scientific experiments.

5. Learning Objective 2
Explain how to generate ideas and organize information to show relationships.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. © vladgrin/Fotolia

6. Brainstorming to Generate Ideas
Tips for Product Brainstorming
Encourage out-of-box thinking.
Set a goal perhaps 100 ideas; focus on quality rather quantity.
Require participation.
Establish time
limits.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. © Sergej Khackimullin/Fotolia
Define problem.
Write ideas.
Organize and classify ideas

7. Grouping Ideas to Show Relationships
Group similar ideas.
Organize into lists or outlines.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. © Sergej Khackimullin/Fotolia, © iQoncept/Fotolia

8. Tips for Efficient Outlining
Define the main topic (purpose of message) in the title.
Divide the main topic into 3 to 5 major components.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Break major component into exclusive subpoints (no overlapping).
Use details, illustrations, and evidence subpoints.

9. Organizing Ideas Into Strategies
Use the Direct Strategy for receptive audiences.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Use the Indirect Strategy for unreceptive audiences.

10. Learning Objective 3
Compose the first draft of a message using a variety of sentence types and avoiding sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and comma splices.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

11. Achieving Variety With Four Sentence Types
1. Simple sentence (one independent clause)
2. Compound sentence (two independent clauses)
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
3. Complex (one independent and one dependent clause)
4. Compound-complex (two independent clauses and one dependent clause)

12. Three Common Sentence Faults
1. Avoid fragments (broken-off parts of sentence).
Fragment:
seems boring. When compared with Twitter.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Revision:
seems boring when compared with Twitter.

13. Three Common Sentence Faults
2. Avoid run-ons (two independent clauses without coordinating conjunction or semicolon)
Run-on:
He’s addicted to social media he posts updates constantly.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Revision:
He’s addicted to social media, and he posts updates constantly.
Revision:
He’s addicted to social media; he posts updates constantly.

14. Three Common Sentence Faults
3. Avoid comma splices (two clauses joined without proper punctuation)
Comma splice:
He prefers a tablet, she prefers her laptop.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Revision:
He prefers a tablet; she prefers her laptop.
Revision:
He prefers a tablet; however, she prefers her laptop.
Revision:
He prefers a tablet; but she prefers her laptop.

15. Prefer Short Sentences
8 words
100%
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
15 words
90%
19 words
80%
28 words
50%

16. Learning Objective 4
Improve writing techniques by emphasizing important ideas, employing active and passive voice effectively, using parallelism, and preventing dangling and misplaced modifiers.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. © peshkova/Fotolia

17. Achieving Emphasis
Emphasize important ideas by using vivid and specific words.
GENERAL
VIVID, SPECIFIC
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
She has a new gadget.
Lisa loves her new iPad.
That skyscraper is tall.
The Burj Khalia in Dubai is 2,723 feet tall.

18. Achieving Emphasis Label the main idea. Unlabeled Labeled
Explore the possibility of leasing a site, but also hire a consultant.
Explore the possibility of leasing a site, but, most importantly, hire a consultant.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

19. Achieving Emphasis
Emphasize the most important idea by placing it first or last in a simple sentence and by making it the sentence subject.
Unemphatic
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Emphatic
Labor lawyers say that companies should review their internship programs because most often they are illegal if interns are not being paid for their work.
Most internship programs are illegal if interns are not paid.

20. Passive Voice Effectively
Using Active and
Passive Voice Effectively
Use active-voice verbs for clear expression.
We lost money.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. © Volodymyr Vasylkiv/Fotolia
Use passive-voice verbs to de-emphasize the performer or to be tactful.
Money was lost (by us).

21. Use Active Voice for Directness, Vigor, and Clarity
Indirect and Less Clear in Passive Voice
Direct and More Clear
in Active Voice
A customer service blog was started last year.
Rosario started a customer service blog last year.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
The economy is expected to improve.
The government expects the economy to improve.
Performance reviews were completed.
The manager completed performance reviews.

22. Use Passive Voice to Emphasize the Action, Not the Doer
Less Tactful in
Active Voice
More Tactful in
Passive Voice
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
We cannot grant you credit.
Credit cannot be granted.
The hospital cannot admit patients without insurance.
Patients without insurance cannot be admitted.
Our CEO missed his estimate on this quarter’s profits.
Quarterly profits missed their estimates.

23. Use Parallelism to Achieve Balance
Lacks Parallelism
Illustrates Parallelism
We focus on money– earning it, investing it, and how to spend it.
We focus on money– earning it, investing it, and spending it.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Applicants are interested in work environment and how they can advance their careers.
Applicants are interested in work environment and career advancement.

24. Use Parallelism to Achieve Balance
Lacks Parallelism
Illustrates Parallelism
Our peanut butter spread (a) is all natural, (b) contains no hydrogenated oil, and (c) there’s no need to stir.
Our peanut butter spread (a) is all natural, (b) contains no hydrogenated oil, and (c) requires no stirring.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

25. Avoid Dangling Modifiers
Not This
But This
Walking down the street, our sign is easy to see.
Walking down the street, people can easily see our sign.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
To enroll, an application must be sent by April 1.
To enroll, you must send an application by April 1.

26. Avoid Misplaced Modifiers
Not This
But This
An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be strangulation by the coroner.
An autopsy by the coroner revealed the cause of death to be strangulation.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Never pet, play with, or give commands to a person using a guide dog without permission.
Without permission, never pet, play with, or give commands to a person’s guide dog.

27. Learning Objective 5
Compose effective paragraphs using three classic paragraph plans and apply techniques for achieving paragraph coherence.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

28. Drafting Effective Paragraphs
Arrange paragraphs in one of these plans:
Direct Plan
Main sentence followed by supporting sentences (best for defining, classifying, illustrating, and describing ideas).
Pivoting Plan
Limiting sentences, main sentence, supporting sentences (for comparing and contrasting).
Indirect Plan
Supporting sentences, main sentences (for describing causes followed by effects).
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

29. Drafting Effective Paragraphs
To build paragraph coherence, link ideas with one of these techniques:
Sustain the key idea by repeating a key expression or a similar word throughout a paragraph.
Dovetail sentences by connecting the beginning of each new sentence with a word from the end of the previous sentence.
Use a pronoun in one sentence to refer to a noun in the previous sentence.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

30. Drafting Effective Paragraphs
Use transitional expressions to build coherence for special effects:
To Add or Strengthen
To Show Cause and Effect
To Suggest Control
additionally
consequently
by contrast
again
as a result
conversely
also
for this reason
on the contrary
likewise
therefore
on the other hand
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

31. Drafting Effective Paragraphs
Use transitional expressions to build coherence for special effects:
To Show Time
or Order
To Clarify
To Contradict
after
for example
actually
before
in other words
however
earlier
for instance
instead
finally
I mean
rather
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

32. Drafting Effective Paragraphs
Compose short paragraphs.
Paragraphs with eight or fewer printed lines are most readable.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

33. End
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. © MelisendeVector.com/Fotolia