Written Assignment

CHECKLIST Revising Business Messages

A. Evaluate content, organization, style, and tone.

• Make sure the information is accurate, relevant, and sufficient.

• Check that all necessary points appear in logical order.

• Verify that you present enough support to make the main idea convincing and interesting.

• Be sure the beginning and end are effective.

• Make sure you’ve achieved the right tone.

B. Review for readability.

• Consider using a readability index but be sure to interpret the answer carefully.

• Use a mix of short and long sentences.

• Keep paragraphs short.

• Use bulleted and numbered lists to emphasize key points.

• Make the document easy to scan with headings and subheadings.

C. Edit for clarity.

• Break up overly long sentences and rewrite hedging sentences.

• Impose parallelism to simplify reading.

• Correct dangling modifiers.

• Reword long noun sequences and replace camouflaged verbs.

• Clarify sentence structure and awkward references.

D. Edit for conciseness.

• Delete unnecessary words and phrases.

• Shorten long words and phrases.

• Eliminate redundancies.

• Rewrite sentences that start with “It is” or “There are.”

• Is the writing clear? If not, how can it be improved?

• Is the writing as concise as it could be?

• Does the design support the intended message?