COLLEGE COMPOSITION

CM107 UNIT 9 READING

Effective Professional Communication

Almost every job in any professional field will require you to write, whether during the hiring process itself, or as you perform your job duties. You may write to potential and current customers, to your supervisors, or people you supervise on the job, and communicating effectively to these various audiences can be challenging. The following Reading will familiarize you with some of the most important skills needed for success in your Unit 9 Assignment and for communicating effectively on the job.

Purpose of Professional Writing

The main purpose of professional writing is to convince. For example, as a professional writer, you often find yourself explaining the value of a complex idea in order to obtain agreement among readers. Or, you find yourself crafting a document intended to persuade people and rouse them to action.

In other respects, professional writing is much like any other form of writing that includes pre-writing or brainstorming, writing and revising. The most important aspects of professional writing are clear and concise writing and getting the message across in the best way. As with all writing, it is important to keep the audience in mind when coming up with the best format to get the message across.

Audience

The most important concept to keep in mind when writing for professional reasons is who your target audience is. You need to tailor your writing to fit different audiences in different situations. If you address the document's specific target audience in terms it understands, your document will have a better chance of achieving its goal.

Every professional document has a purpose. You could be trying to persuade your boss that you are due a raise in one instance, and trying to persuade the HR Department that the company picnic would have more participation if it were held at a lake in another instance. In both instances, the language and way you would approach each is going to differ.

Academic Writing vs. Professional Writing

Unlike academic writing, where ideas are explored and length is encouraged, professional writing needs to be clear and concise. Professional writing takes place in many forms, as categorized in internal and external communications; the major differences between academic writing and professional writing are as follows:

1. Writing at work focuses on problem solving.

2. Work-related writing targets multiple audiences with different perspectives.

3. Writing at work may be read by unknown readers.

4. Writing produced at work can be used indefinitely and can be used in legal proceedings.

CM107 UNIT 9 READING

5. The format for work documents varies greatly from the format for academic documents.

Memos and E-mails

Memos and emails are two of the most common forms of communication used in professional settings. Writing memos and e-mails in a professional setting is slightly different than writing to a friend or family member. The biggest difference is that in a workplace setting, the writing must be professional or semi-formal. A big misconception about e-mailing in professional settings is that formality is not important. Grammar and composition are both important aspects. However, should you receive an email of memo which contains compositional and grammatical flaws, it may be rude or unwise to point these out to the author. Memos and e-mails have a similar approach. The purpose of both is to get a certain message across. This section will cover deciding when it is appropriate to use either a memo or e-mail, content, pre-writing techniques, and effectiveness.

Memos

The memo or memorandum has a few types. The memos can be short notes, reports, plans or proposals. The standard memo is most effective when attempting to inform many people within the same organization of upcoming events, changes, thoughts, or ideas.

Most memos will have four basic elements:

● The "to" line

● The "from" line

● The date line

● The subject line

Note: When writing your subject line, make sure it is called something accurate, unique and specific. Name your memo something informative.

The first sentence of your memo you should clearly state your purpose. Be concise and direct.

Example Memo Header:

To: All Department Heads at Performance Property Management From: Joan Alexander, Human Resource Director Date: May 10, 2017 Subject: Revisions to Vacation Policy

CM107 UNIT 9 READING

Use headings throughout your memo to help the reader decide what they want to read and understand the information they are being presented. Headings can also help the reader understand the purpose of the section (i.e. summary).

If your memo has a lot of information or if it is really long, you may consider summarizing the memo. This can help readers understand the body of the memo, allow readers to skip information that is not relevant to them or to remind the reader of the memos main points. A good memo will record the clear main ideas and every important decision.

Keep in mind your audience when writing your memo. You may need to provide background information or explain the events that led to the situation to which the memo is regarding.

E-mails

Emails are fast, cheap, easy to use and digital. Because of its widespread use, here are some things to keep in mind when writing "professional" emails.

● Use an appropriate level of formality.

● Keep messages brief. If you are replying to an email, don't repeat information from the email, instead establish a general context of the email. Also, if sending the email to more than one person, you may want to consider blocking the original author's name for privacy's sake (BCC = Blind Carbon-Copy).

● Be careful when writing. Because email is often informal, it is easy for them to become sloppy. Make sure you read your email before sending it.

● In formal professional email, avoid the use of characters to create emotion faces, such as :), Orz, or > <.

● Use the subject line. All professional emails should have a subject so the reader can decide quickly whether or not they need to read the email.

● Don't use all capital letters or use annoying backgrounds. Keep your emails simple. Try to stay away from using italics, bolds or underlining. Even if your email supports these options, others may not.

● Don't forward a message without the permission of the author.

● Above all, have something to say. Don't send emails just for fun or just to reply agreeing with the writer (unless this is requested or expected). In other words, don't send a message just to feel like you are part of the conversation.

● Remember, if you are writing a memo or email during working hours or on a company computer, the company OWNS this material (and has the fully legal right to inspect it). Avoid overtly personal and/or sensitive content in your email while at work. If you are concerned about this possibility, look into message encryption.

CM107 UNIT 9 READING

Voice in English Writing

Languages have different levels of formality that vary with the purpose, the audience, and the situation. Generally, written English is more formal than spoken English because the person has more time to think about what to say. Formal writing uses fewer personal pronouns and less colloquial language, or slang. Another important difference is the use of grammatical voice.

"Voice" has two meanings in writing. "Voice" can be defined as "how the writer's personality and attitude toward the topic are revealed to the audience." Voice, in this definition, is what makes one writer sound different from another. "Voice" is also a grammatical term; for clarity, it may be referred to as "grammatical voice." There are two voices discussed in this section: the active voice and the passive voice.

Active and Passive Voice Sentences

Most English sentences are written with active, passive, or neuter verbs, such as "to be" verbs. The active and passive voices are the two main voices in English, but some sentences may also be considered to be in the middle or mediopassive voice. Voice is the relationship between the subject and the verb in a clause or the transfer of action.

● In the active voice, the subject performs the action. The subject of an active-voice construction is known as an agent. A clause with an active, transitive verb will be in the form of subject-verb-object.

Example: The student finished the exercise.

● In the passive voice, the subject receives the action. The subject of a passive-voice construction is known as a patient. An active voice clause can be passivized, or recast in the passive voice (for example, to increase formality), by making the object of the active clause the subject of the passive clause. "The exercise" is the object in the sentence above. The verb will be "was finished." For a passive verb, the tense and subject-verb agreement are always shown through the auxiliary verb "to be." The main verb is always the past participle. The subject of the active voice sentence can be included in a prepositional phrase with "by."

Example: The exercise was finished by the student.

Active Voice Passive Voice

The teacher referred to "voice" as a grammatical term.

"Voice" was referred to as a grammatical term by the teacher.

The man yelled at the waiter. The waiter was yelled at by the man.

Millions of people lived in the houses. The houses were lived in by millions of people.

CM107 UNIT 9 READING

Intransitive verbs can be used in the passive voice when a prepositional phrase is included.

Intransitive verbs without prepositional phrases cannot be passivized. There is no word to become the subject of the sentence.

Active voice: Millions of people lived.

Passive voice: ? was lived.

Linking verbs (such as being verbs) are intransitive verbs that can never be used in the passive voice. They do not show action and are thus neither active nor passive. They are called neuter verbs.

Use of the Passive Voice

Converting an active-voice clause to a passive-voice clause may not change technical meaning, but can be done for altered formality or emphasis as well as change the connotation of the text. Linguistic studies have found high percentages of passive verbs in formal writing. The passive voice can emphasize an agent, a patient, or an adverb. It can be used for narrative flow and continuity in conversations.

Emphasizing the agent: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.

The passive voice emphasizes Shakespeare by putting his name at the end, the most emphatic part of a sentence.

Emphasizing the patient: Jamey was fascinated by Language Arts.

The passive-voice construction emphasizes Jamey more effectively than the active- voice equivalent "Language Arts fascinated Jamey."

Emphasizing the adverb: That is strictly prohibited.

Because a passive verb consists of two words, an adverb becomes emphatic when placed between "to be" and the past participle.

The passive voice can be used to eliminate first- and second-pronouns in formal writing.

Active voice: I hope that....

Passive voice: It is hoped that....

In formal writing, the writer may want to alternate between sentences in the first person and passive sentences in which the pronoun is implied to prevent the monotony caused by starting too many sentences with "I."

Research studies are described in the passive voice. Research is intended to be objective, without the biases of the researchers conducting the experiments. An experiment should be the same no matter who performs it.

Active voice: I collected samples from the subjects.

Passive voice: Samples were collected from the subjects.

A sentence in the imperative mood can be rewritten in the passive voice to make it more formal or less harsh.

Active voice: Do not smoke.

Passive voice: Smoking is prohibited.

CM107 UNIT 9 READING

Active voice: Avoid contractions in formal writing.

Passive voice: Contractions should be avoided in formal writing.

The examples above for first- and second-person pronouns make use of the institutional passive, which omits the agent. In writing and speech, almost eighty-five percent of passive sentences are in the institutional passive.

As you work on your Unit 9 Assignment, consider the importance of voice and how to best address your audience in a professional setting.

(Reading from Rhetoric and Composition, https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/

Rhetoric_and_Composition/Writing_in_Business#Purpose_of_Business_Writing)