mgmt essay

Effective Business Communication Confusion is the ENEMY!

Step ONE - Write Well

If you write well - you will be understood. Your goal is rarely to get the readers to agree with you - but you always want the reader to UNDERSTAND what

you have written. Understanding is the KEY to successful communication.

Remember what I have said since day ONE: Do Better! You are smart people.

How do I know this? Because you are in an advanced communication class, an upper level student, about to

graduate from this university! Your writing must ALWAYS show this statement is true.

Your writing must always be excellent. NO MORE EXCUSES!

It is time you start caring about your writing and the image you create.

Your writing says a lot about you and your abilities, so always strive to do your best.

Why do you need to write well? Your writing is a reflection of you and your abilities.

DO NOT be a “good enough” person.

Good enough is NOT good enough. Consider this email I received from a student:

Dear prof Metz

I have to work on monday please let me know what i have to do to make up the quiz I will miss. I will be class on weds.

thanks, Jennifer

This is a POORLY written email. Obviously, this writer dis not care about this email or the image it would create. (Easy writing errors, grammar errors, lazy writing, incorrect email format - how much longer would it have taken this person to correct these errors? )

Do not be this kind of writer. You are always being judged!!!

THREE KEYS to Writing Well You must do these three things for every

business document you create:

1. Have something to say!

2. Write “IT” well.

3. Make “IT” look good. If you can do these three things, your business writing will be effective and impressive! Why? Because many people cannot do these things. Or, they choose NOT to do these things because this takes time, effort, and commitment .

Let’s discuss how to do this in detail.

Have Something to Say!

When you decide to write anything, you do so because you have something to say. Why did Shakespeare write Hamlet? To torture high school students? NO! He had something to say about grief, and revenge, and family, and love, and life and death.

Why did George Lucas write Star Wars? To make billions? No, but a happy benefit. He had something to say about good vs. evil, loyalty, friendship, and courage.

When writing for the business world, you should have something important, interesting, or valuable to say.

Business people are extremely busy; they do not want to spend valuable time going through memos or emails that are unimportant. Therefore, before you write something, be sure you have a clearly established reason for writing.

WHY Are You Writing? What do you want? What do you have to say?

ALWAYS BE CLEAR

• Always have something to say. Never send any written document (in the business world) unless it is important, informative, or necessary.

• Make sure you know what you want your writing to accomplish. Do you want to entertain? Do you want to inform or educate? Do you want a response from the reader?

• You always want to be understood - this is the most important part of business writing!

This is my PURPOSE Once you have decided you have something interesting and important to write about, you must tell the reader!

Announce your purpose (topic) early and clearly!

In essays, this is called a “thesis” - in paragraphs this is called a “topic sentence.” (Remember English 101?)

We are NOT writing essays, so we will use the term purpose, intention, idea, or focus. They are all basically the same. It is what you want to say in your document.

Please send me a copy of the syllabus.

I want to schedule a meeting next Tuesday.

The Christmas party has been cancelled due to budget constraints.

State your purpose early in your document, and say it clearly! You should tell the reader exactly what you want in the first couple of sentences. And, it should be clearly understood.

Look at this email I received - what is the problem with it?

Dear Professor Metz,

How are you? I have a question regarding our last assignment which was handed out on the Wednesday I was absent. Remember, I told you that I would be absent due to a conference I had to attend for work. I can get you a copy of my travel schedule if you need it, or I can get a note from my supervisor, which will explain my absence in detail.

Thanks, John

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uh...what happened to your question? Get to the point early:

Dear Professor Metz,

How are you? I missed last Wednesday’s class; is the email assignment still due by Friday?

See how important it is to state your purpose quickly? This way you will NOT forget to make your point.

Have you already made this mistake when writing an Email?

Good Afternoon Mr. Metz, 

The enemy of all effective communication is confusion. A comma slice is when the writer combines two complete sentences only with a comma. For example, “I will graduate in the spring, I’m excited.” The correct way to fix this comma splice is, “I’m excited that I will graduate in the spring.” There is no length in how much the student has to write, as long as the writer is concise, detailed, and clear with their writing. By using phrases like “I think,” “I believe,” and “In my opinion” makes the writer sound weak, and unsure about himself. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to make the lecture video for all of us, I very much appreciate it. 

Kind Regards, 

Good afternoon,

1.The enemy of all communication is confusion. 2. A comma splice is when you combine two complete sentences with only a comma. 3. Example of a comma splice: My name is Natalie Rivera, I am a mother to a 9 month old boy. 4. As long as your writing is clear and informative the length is determined by the writer. 5. You should never use phrases such: I think, I believe, I feel, and In my opinion because they make you sound weak, and unsure of yourself. 

Best,

Where did these writers go wrong? I have NO IDEA what their emails are ABOUT. They never clearly stated what their email would be detailing, explaining, or discussing. Have something to say AND TELL the reader!

Avoid confusion…tell the reader what you want - what

your email is about!

Hello Professor Metz,

Here is the extra credit from the rules to writing hand out. <<<<— SEE THIS? This is what the email is ABOUT. 1. What is the enemy of all communication ? Confusion is the enemy of communication. 2. What is a comma splice? A comma splice occurs when a writer tries to combine two complete sentences using only a comma. 3. Send me an example of a comma splice and then fix the comma splice in an appropriate way. Jimmy listened to the presentation carefully, his friend was dozing off. Jimmy listened to the presentation carefully. His friend was dozing off. 4. How long do the papers in this class have to be? Papers should be long enough to convey the required information. 5. Why should you NEVER use phrases like these in your writing: I think, I believe, I feel, In my opinion? Phrases like those are unnecessarily wordy and do not add anything of value.

Regards,

The Subject Line : Email & Memo Using the Subject Line will help you state your purpose…

BUT that is not “good” enough • When writing an email or memo, you will use the subject line to announce your

purpose (or hint at it any way.)

• This is not enough though; you will also have to restate your purpose in the first couple of lines in the email or memo.

MEMO

To: A. CEO

From : Alan Bozeman

Subject: Creating a New Ad Campaign for 2015 < - this HINTS at the MEMO’S purpose

Date: January 19, 2015

The focus group we created has come up with some very exciting and cost-effective ideas for the 2015 advertising campaign. < - this clearly states the MEMO’S intentions

EMAIL: Subject Line: Mgmt. 306 Syllabus Request < - tell the reader what you want

Dear Professor Metz,

Please send me a copy of the Management 306 class syllabus. < - tell the reader in the body of the email

To avoid confusion - Be Relentlessly CLEAR!!! This takes practice and effort.

• Emails are a good way to improve writing - especially clarity! Why? Because emails should be direct, concise, clear, and important!

• If your emails are clear, your OTHER writing will be, too - memos, letters, resumes, reports, etc.

• Every business document must make a point, state a clear purpose, be brief but effective, use a good tone, and have VERY FEW writing errors.

• The point? Practice your writing skills using emails. • We will do this later this quarter. • Special Note: If and when you send me emails this quarter

for whatever reason, they better be well-written. If not, you will hear about it!!!

Be clear and then make it more clear, so the reader is SURE to understand you…like

this:

- Move that thing. (Ugh.)

- Can you please grab that thing there and move it outside? (Hmmm)

OR

- Jim, please move the brown CSUSB trash can, which is on your left, out into the hallway. (Now it is clear.)

Business Writing: Communicate by using clear language and word choice

Business Writing has changed over the years. It is no longer a stiff, overly formal, bureaucratic style.

Effective writing for the business world has become a more casual, conversational style. WHY? Because the world is smaller, so your readers are a new diverse group. You must be sure ALL readers will be able to understand your writing.

This has many benefits for the reader and the writer.

We will go over these benefits and discuss some of the KEYS to becoming a successful business writer.

Understand?

Is this writing too elevated? Is the writer (me) trying too hard to impress the reader? Yes. So, the communication is lost and the writer has failed. Check out the next slide for the translation.

Countless wordsmiths conclude mistakingly that in order to denote accurately, they must access immense or massive diction in order to impress and win-over individuals who might partake in their musings. Perhaps this was once the case, but as humanity continues its slow shriveling inward espousing dialog clearly has become the primary objective!

Use PLAIN English If you see this (PE?) on your paper, you did

NOT. Many writers think to write “well” they have to use big words. They have been told that using a thesaurus ( a book of really big words which very few people use or understand) is important when writing in the business world. This may have been true in the past, but in the 21st century, as the world continues to shrink, writing clearly is the most important aspect of writing well.

Which paragraph do you like? The “fancy” one which uses big words? Or this one, which is easier to read?

To communicate, you do not have to use big, fancy, rarely-used words. Use words and ideas you use EVERY DAY!

Write the way you talk? Well, nah.

• Many claim business writers should write the way they talk. This is true, to a certain degree. We are going to change this idea a bit: I want you to write the way you speak. What’s the difference between talking and speaking?

• Here’s the difference: when we talk we usually use slang, curse words, abbreviations, euphemisms and other very common language.

• We usually use this type of language when talking to friends, some family members, co-workers, and some others.

- However, when we speak, we elevate our language a bit. We speak with employers, parents, business professionals, clients, and people we want to impress.

• Note: we never want to elevate our language so much that we sound pompous, arrogant, or stuffy. This will have negative effects. Worse, the writing can become confusing and hard to follow.

• There are some professions that DO try to use confusing, vague language. Why? Because they do not want to be clear and direct because it hurts them. What professions might benefit by making its writing sound extremely elevated and stuffy and CONFUSING? - Lawyers? Politicians? Salespeople? Hmmm?

Remember: Confusion is the Enemy Many writers think the goal of writing is to gain approval or get the reader to agree with the paper’s premise. This is rarely the case, however.

For example, your boss tells you to write a memo to the company’s workforce informing them that the Christmas Party has been cancelled, or raises will be eliminated, or jobs will be cut. Your goal is NOT to get the reader to agree with your memo; your goal is to get them to understand the memo.

You are writing to tell people that a fun event will be cancelled. They are NOT going to agree with this decision, are they? Who cares! Do they understand what you have written? If so, your writing is effective. It has to make a point, be well written, and look good!

OK, so how do you avoid confusing your readers?

What leads to confusion?

Writing that is hard to read can lead to confusion - this includes awkward looking fonts. Additionally, these fonts can be distracting and cause the reader undue stress.

So, make it look good! Make it look good!

And, if you ever have to hand write anything, be sure your writing is neat and legible.

Sentence Length - long sentences can be confusing

Some writers think they have to write really long sentences to be taken seriously even though the opposite may, in fact, be true because readers do not like to read long sentences in any situation as long sentences do not give readers a chance to pause and digest the information that was given to them by the writer who probably did have something important to say but, sadly, the information was lost amid the long and winding and ultimately confusing collection of words that the writer put together in an attempt to impress the reader with how well he or she can write and the length of the sentences he or she can create.

Sentence Length - long sentences can be confusing, so make them shorter…correct

punctuation is the key!

Some writers think they have to write really long sentences to be taken seriously. The opposite may, in fact, be true. Readers do not like to read long sentences. Long sentences do not give them a chance to pause and digest the information that was given to them. The writer probably did have something important to say. But, sadly, the information was lost amid the long and winding and ultimately confusing collection of words. Bad writers put together long sentences to impress the reader with how well they can write and the length of the sentences they can create.

Wordiness, Slang, Abbreviations These Cause Confusion

• In my opinion, I believe that the reason why people use too many words is because they really have very little to say.

• People who have little to say use many words. • Slang is rare at this level, unless writers do not

realize they are using slang.

• He got most of his education in NY City. • Avoid abbrevs because they are confusing.

Write “it” so the reader can understand “it”

OK, so what does this mean exactly? It means write well!

If you want your reader to understand your ideas, follow your logic, and appreciate your writing, you must find a style that is easy to read.

This is what we will be spending the next few months going over. How do you become a better writer?

These are the essential elements of good writing:

Be clear and specific, be organized, use an effective tone, be aware of your audience. We will discuss all of these things this semester - stay tuned!

Make “IT” Look Good

• In the business world, appearance can mean everything. This is why potential employees wear suits, comb their hair, shave, wear some make-up. Do these superficial changes make a person more qualified? Smarter? No, but they do show effort, pride, and professionalism.

• Your business writing has to do this as well. All business documents (emails, memos, letters, resumes) have a clearly defined STRUCTURE. Without a professional looking document, your document may never be read.

• OUR NEXT FUN LECTURE WILL SHOW YOU WHAT LOOKS GOOD...and what does not.