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© 2015 McGraw-Hill Education.
“Communication is a major and essential part of business.”
Understanding the Writing Process and the Main Forms of Business Messages
chapter
two
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In Chapter 2 you will begin to understanding both the writing process and the main forms of messages business people use. These tools are important for writing the critical documents that will be required of you throughout your career.
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Learning Objectives
The writing process and effective strategies
The main types and purposes of business messages
Letters
Memorandums
Text messaging
Instant messaging
Social networking
The inverted pyramid structure for writing
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You can point out that this chapter will cover advice that applies to writing all kinds of documents, as well as specific advice on the shorter forms of business communication, or “messages”: letters, memos, email, text messages, and instant messaging.
Here may be a good place to discuss the evolution of business communication genres. Email, once considered “cutting edge,” is now considered standard. Consider asking students with workplace experience which type their company relied on the most.
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The Writing Process
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Before discussing this section, you might ask students to reflect on (write about) their usual process of writing. (If they have trouble doing so, ask them to think about/describe how they tackled a recent writing task.) This exercise can help them see that this chapter contains helpful advice for them—advice that will make their writing more effective and the process itself less stressful.
The writing process diagram helps students see that the process of writing falls roughly into three stages:
Planning, drafting and revising
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Planning Activities
planning the message and determining goals
analyzing the audience
gathering information
analyzing and organizing the information
choosing a form, channel, and format
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Planning the message is a step many writers skip, but it is essential to crafting an effective message. Knowing one’s goals and audience is critical in achieving the primary goal of all business communication: meeting the reader’s needs. Students may resist this step, but continually encouraging them to plan their messages or allowing class time for planning may help them see its value.
Determining Goals: In determining goals, writers should ask themselves what a reader should think, feel, do, or believe as a result of reading a message. The writer’s communication goals are very much connected, then, to the writer’s business goals.
Audience Analysis: Analyzing the audience is key to any successful business message. Writers will ask several questions: Who is my audience? Who will be affected by what I write? What organizational, professional, and personal issues or qualities will affect the audience’s response to my message? What organizational, professional, and personal issues or qualities do I have that affect how I will write my message? What is my relationship with my reader? Am I writing to my superior? My colleagues? My subordinates? Clients?
Gathering information: Solving a communication problem can be viewed as part of solving a larger business problem. In other words, figuring out what to say often involves, as well, figuring out what to do. For example, in addition to going over the sample scenario provided in the text, you can ask your students the following: If, as a manager, you wanted to write an effective message to employees about leaving the parking spaces near the company’s front door available for the customers, what things would you have to figure out before you could write this message?
Analyzing and organizing information. Once writers have collected what looks like sufficient information (though they may find later in the process that they need more), they need to analyze it and organize it.
Choosing a form, channel, and format: The medium is not just a container for the message; whether one anticipates writing a letter, email, brochure, Web page, or some combination of these, and how one anticipates they should look, will significantly affect the planning of the message.
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Drafting Tips
- avoid perfectionism
- keep going
- use any strategies that will keep you working productively
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Listing students’ favorite drafting/writing strategies would be appropriate at this point.
Making the following points is helpful:
- It is very important that you are flexible when preparing your drafts. Drafts are the first stages of a long writing process. They are not final documents, so do not distract or slow yourself down too much by trying to make the first draft perfect.
- Instead, use strategies that will enable you to pull your material together fairly easily and quickly into a reasonably well-organized, complete draft.
- Avoid spending too much energy perfecting the early parts of the draft. It can make you forget important pieces and purposes of the later parts.
- Keep moving with your draft; have an understanding that you will draft relatively quickly, you can always go back and revise.
You may want to try the drafting strategy discussed by writer Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones. It’s called Keep Your Hand Moving and is good for breaking through perfectionism. You could give students a quick in-class business writing assignment, set a timer, and tell them that they cannot put down their pens or stop writing for 15 minutes. Even if they can think of nothing to say, tell them to write down “I have nothing to say” and all other thoughts running through their minds. The idea here is to break through writer’s block and keep the hand moving, regardless of the thoughts that arise.
This can be a great, sometimes humorous, class icebreaker.
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- revision
- editing
- proofreading
The Writing Process
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Writing is work. That’s why they often call writing classes “workshops.”
It is probably safe to say that the most common flaw in students’ writing processes is that they do not revise enough. Impress upon them the importance of devoting time to this stage. Even very experienced writers, and famous authors, take a good bit of time to review and polish important documents.
You may want to make the following points:
Rewriting is a very valuable aspect of the writing process. Remember to break your rewriting down into three “levels of edit:” revision, editing, and proofreading to help you rewrite more effectively. With revision, you look at top-level concerns. Did you include all necessary information? Is the pattern of organization logical and effective as possible? Does the overall meaning of the message come through? Is format appropriate? Did you use basic formatting guidelines—formatting by genre and techniques such as use of white space? Focus on style by examining sentences and word choice. When proofreading make sure to pay attention to particular mechanical and grammatical elements—spelling, typography, punctuation, or any grammar problems that tend to give you trouble.
Students may not realize or know how to distinguish revising and editing from proofreading. You may bring an example or have students bring drafts and illustrate the differences among (and the necessity of) these three steps in the process.
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Why Format?
Avoid an intimidating document.
Use formatting devices to enhance readability and comprehension:
White space
Headings
Short paragraph “chunks”
Typographical emphasis
(e.g., bold, italics)
Bulleted lists
Diagrams and pictures
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Readable formatting is hugely important in business writing. Business readers are almost always very busy and are therefore impatient. And modern media has trained us in general to expect and prefer quick access to information. Any documents that come close to looking like the bad examples in your text will run a risk of being misunderstood or, more likely, ignored. Look at good examples and ask students why they work better than the bad ones.
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Business Message Forms
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There are many different types of business messages and each has its own unique traits and purpose. As you’ll see, every business communication situation requires analysis to determine which type of message will be used.
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Letters
- most traditional form
- used to correspond outside organization
- not as formal as they once were
- letters are a strategic means to achieve a business goal
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These are the oldest form dating from the earliest civilizations—Greek, Egyptian, Chinese.
The genre implies a certain formality, and certainly, letters are the most formal of the business writing forms we discuss.
Before the digital method of messaging arrived, letters were the dominant form of business messaging used for external readers— the people outside the organization. Letters are relatively formal and follow standardized forms. Remember that you want to put your and your company’s best foot forward by choosing the letter format complete with an attractive company letterhead and elements of courtesy. The format of the business letter should include: date, inside address, salutation, body, and complimentary close. While some formality is required, you should view your letter correspondence as an exchange between real people, not unduly formal, impersonal writing.
Early emphasis was on a stilted word choice (the “old language of business”). Now the emphasis is on selecting an effective structure and strategy and on using wording that will build rapport between the writer and the reader.
For instance, in the past, if writers did not know the reader’s name, wrote to a mass audience, or wrote to someone whose gender could not be determined by the reader’s name (e.g., Pat Smith), they might have used a salutation such as “To Whom It May Concern,” “Dear Sir/Madame,” or “Dear Ladies and Gentlemen.” These expressions are now considered stiff and old fashioned. More modern options include “Dear Human Resources” or “Dear Pat Smith.”
Students may discuss what types of letters they receive and draw conclusions about when sending a letter might be appropriate (vs. an email or other type of communication). You may want to ask students to bring in direct mail letters or another type of letter for analysis during this class or the next.
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Letter Format
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Students may already be familiar with some kind of letter format. If not, students should review this chapter for examples. Many times students will ask which format is the “right” one. It’s important for students to realize that any could be correct but that their companies may dictate format.
This letter is in full block format. Emphasize the basic elements: date, inside address, salutation (Dear Ms. Taylor), body, and complimentary close (Sincerely yours). Other items sometimes needed are attention line, subject line, return address (when letterhead is not used), and enclosure information. Exhibit 2-5 presents one option for formatting a letter. More options are presented in Appendix B.
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Memos
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Memorandums are internal letters. Email has taken over much of their function; however, even though students may think that everyone in a workplace has access to an email, this may not necessarily be the case. For example, in one local hospital, housekeepers, custodial staff, nursing assistants, and some nurses do not have access to email other than in a lounge with a general access computer. In some manufacturing firms, line workers may not have the need for email. These employees are not likely to check their email as they work throughout the day or even regularly before or after work or on breaks.
Their distinctive form contains information such as: date, to, from, subject (though not necessarily in that order). Large organizations often include additional information such as: Department, Plant, Location, Territory, Store Number, and Copies to on their memorandum stationary.
A memo posted in a highly visible location would be a better communication channel for these employees than email. In addition, some memos are actually reports.
Also, some companies will consider more serious information or “hot news,” such as that concerning changes in company policies or recent layoffs, more appropriate for memo than email form.
Are memos becoming obsolete as email becomes the standard? When might someone want to send a memo vs. an email?
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Memo Format
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Sample memo format in this chapter. Note to students that the word “Memo” is always on the top and that the rest of the structure resembles an email. However, memos are on paper and more formal.
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Emails
advantages
quick, low cost
eliminates telephone tag
speeds up decisions
provides written record
disadvantages
not confidential
can be misunderstood or used to avoid difficult live conversations
may not communicate writer’s emotional intent
may be ignored
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The growth of email in the workplace has been phenomenal. It has several advantages:
Eliminates telephone tag
Saves time
Speeds up decision making
Is cheap
Provides a written record
But there are disadvantages:
Not confidential
No authentic signature
Doesn’t show emotions
May be ignored
Questions for possible discussion:
Ask students how they think email has changed the workplace. Can they think of other advantages and disadvantages? Should email be used by employees who sit right next to each other, in place of in-person chats or team meetings? Have they ever received a particularly unprofessional email? How did they respond?
You may also want to bring “bad” work emails in and have students evaluate them.
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Email Contents
subject line
is short (5 – 7 words)
captures the main point
is capitalized as you would book or article titles
beginning
name of the recipient
generic greeting
formal salutation
purpose
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Discuss types of relationships when each type of greeting is important. Should a professor be addressed by his/her first name? How would a student know? If a student doesn’t know for sure, what should he/she assume?
When writing an informal job inquiry over email, should you address the person by his/her first name or use courtesy titles (Ms., Mr., etc.)? What do your students think?
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Email Structure
general organization
important information first
additional information in descending order of importance
other options
direct approach
indirect approach
business report format and structure
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Content should be organized carefully.
Short, simple messages usually are best in a top-down order (most important to least important). This way, if the reader is scanning for information, he or she does not need to scroll to find your most important information.
Ask students when they might use the direct vs. indirect approach. When stating bad news, for instance, which approach would they use? When might they use business report format in an email?
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the closing
informal
writer’s name
no name
more formal
“Thanks,” “Regards”
formal
“Sincerely”
signature block
Email Structure
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The formality of the closing depends on the formality of the message and the relationship between the reader and the writer. Including a signature block with a title, company name, phone number, fax number, or other helpful contact information can be beneficial to the reader.
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Email Style
informal writing
retains some casual qualities (personal pronouns, contractions)
is conversational
example: “I’ve read your excellent proposal. I predict the administrators will approve it.”
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Casual language is acceptable between friends. It uses contractions, slang, mechanical emphasis devices, and everyday conversational talk.
Informal language is right for most messages. It uses short sentences, some contractions and personal pronouns, and good conversational tone.
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- formal writing
- maintains distance between writer and reader
- avoids personal references and contractions
- example: “The proposal is excellent. The executives are likely to approve it.”
Email Style
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The formality of email language depends on the relationship between writer and reader. Ask students when they might send a formal vs. informal email. Encourage them to come up with specific scenarios and audiences.
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Email Style
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The writing of email messages involves following the instructions given in previous chapters. These can be summarized under four considerations.
Conciseness
Make the messages short, leaving out unnecessary information and writing economically. Keep sentences and paragraphs short. Use words economically. Paraphrase previous messages concisely. Quote selectively.
Clarity
Practice the techniques of readable writing—short and familiar words, concrete language, word precisions, short sentences, etc.
Courtesy
Practice courtesy, build goodwill (use the techniques in Chapter 4: you-viewpoint, positive language, conversational tone, etc.)
Especially avoid “flaming.”
Correctness
How one communicates is a part of the message. Even if the writer uses poor grammar and spelling and succeeds in communicating his/her message, the writer compromises his/her professional image when a message contains grammar, spelling, and mechanical errors.
Further, errors in grammar, mechanics, and spelling can make a message unclear, which means that the reader will have to contact the writer for clarification. This means that the writer will have to send the message again, which wastes both the writer’s and the reader’s time.
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Email Etiquette Checklist
Is your message needed?
Is your message for routine or for sensitive material?
Is your message spam?
Is your recipient list correct?
Has everyone necessary been copied? (Don’t offend by omission.)
Have you proofread carefully?
Does your signature avoid offensive quotes?
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Email is a sensitive medium and its quick execution and delivery time leave it open to errors. Because it’s informal and still being defined as a genre, it’s vulnerable to etiquette errors. These slides illustrate how to avoid such errors.
Ask students if they can remember a time they made one of these errors or received an email with an etiquette error.
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Top 10 Email Mistakes
using vague subject lines such as “meeting”
hiding the main point
using the “bcc” field to be sneaky in communication
not deleting strings of replies unnecessary to the recipient
ignoring grammar and mechanics
sending long emails
creating long paragraphs
not avoiding emotion
using email when it’s not the best communication channel
forgetting that email is a permanent record
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Ask students to use this checklist before turning in assignments. Discuss, briefly, “hot button” words that may show emotion/attitude. Ask students to brainstorm some of these or think of a time when they made this mistake or were on the receiving end.
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Texts and IM
- used for promotions, brand awareness, customer relations
- typical max of150 characters
- tips
cover all critical information
keep it short
strive for clarity
maintain a conversational tone
adapt messages to the audience
keep language and content professional
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Many individuals use text and instant messaging in the workplace as a quick and efficient means of communication. When using such short messages, writers must be especially careful to ensure messages are not only concise but clear. A helpful activity may be to have students write one message in two ways: once as an email and once as an instant message.
Text and instant-messaging are still used much more for non-business rather than business purposes.
But it is seeing growing use in business use—for quick “emails” to co-workers, promotions, brand awareness, customer relations, and such. Clearly, as the so-called “millenials” join the workforce, use of text messaging will increase.
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Uses of Text
A sense of urgency:
when your boss is in a meeting and you need to reach him or her
when your team is meeting off-site and you need to discuss logistics en route
when you need to schedule a meeting with someone right away
when you have a time-sensitive message for hard-to-reach, off-site team members
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Some ways that texts are used in business. Ask students to name scenarios when it would be appropriate to send a text and when it would not.
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Which Text Is Best?
(keep to 77 characters)
1. Marina Smith is a vegetarian. Where shall we take her to lunch today? Zach.
2. Marina Smith is a vegetarian. Shall we go to 1) Fish House, 2) Souplantation, 3) Mandarin House? All are available at noon. Zach.
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Ask students which text is best and why.
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What Is IM?
- like a typed phone conversation that is text-based rather than voice-based
- needs to be adapted to the audience
- formality should be determined by your relationship with the reader
- often impromptu, but should maintain a professional tone and style
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IM, or instant messaging, is really popular in some organizations. Others don’t use it at all or it’s used by only certain departments. You should type the same way you would talk if it were a phone conversation. Remember that instant messaging must be adapted to the audience and that a professional tone and style should be maintained.
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when two company sites need to communicate about a deadline-sensitive project.
to connect with telecommuting workers
relied on for internal use in some smaller companies, more than email
Uses of IM
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Some ways that instant messaging is used in business.
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Social Media Examples
Facebook, MySpace
Twitter, LinkedIn
personal and corporate blogs
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Ask students to volunteer to show their pages. Or find profiles of anonymous people in Facebook or MySpace or show anonymous Twitter posts and ask the students for critique. Remind students that if this anonymous person is so accessible to them, they, too, can be this accessible.
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Social Media Uses
external communication with customers or clients
publicity or product promotion
internal communication
evaluate potential employees
Reminder: Nothing on these sites is confidential. Your employer (or a potential employer) may view them.
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Consider asking students what activities they’ve used Facebook and other social media sites for in the workplace.
Students may also be interested in discussing ethical issues involved when employers use applicants’ social networking pages to screen applicants.
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Reppler, a social media monitoring service, found that more than 90% of recruiters and hiring managers have visited a candidate’s profile.
69 percent rejected (and 68 percent hired) a candidate based on profile.
Social Media Warnings
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It may also be interesting to mention that the social site RateMyProfessor.com has been used to make hiring decisions for new faculty. Knowing this, would students change their reviews at all? This could certainly lead to rich conversation.
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Print vs. Online Writing
Web readers read an average of 20% of words on the page (Jakob Nielson, usability expert).
Nielson notes that Web text is non-linear.
Bulleted lists and quick chunks of information are preferred.
When users visit websites, they do so to “do something.”
Bottom line information should be shared right away.
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There are significant differences between print and online writing. Jakob Nielsen, noted usability expert, has found the following:
- Web readers read an average of 20 percent of the words on a page
- Print text can be distinguished from Web text in that print text tends to be linear, while Web text is nonlinear. When people read print documents, they often start at the beginning and continue reading until they reach end.
- Online readers scan for relevant information and may be diverted by links or other features of the display in their search.
- In addition, he says that when people look for information they do so not necessarily to read what an author has to say about an issue but to accomplish a specific task (e.g., locate a statistic, fill out a form). Online text, then, needs to facilitate the reader’s ability to find and use information.
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Inverted Pyramid
Source: “Inverted Pyramid Writing,” G oogle Images , Google, 2009, Web, 24 May 2013.
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Web writing expert Janice Redish advocates organizing Web pages in the inverted pyramid style, where the main point is presented first, followed by supporting information and then by any historical or background information. This style has been used by journalists for decades.
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116 PART 3 Basic Patterns of Business Messages
THE PROCESS OF WRITING Writing researchers have been studying the composing process since the 1970s. ! ey have found, not surprisingly, that each person’s way of developing a piece of writing for a given situation is unique. On the other hand, they have also drawn several conclu- sions about the nature of the process and about strategies that can help it. Familiarizing yourself with these " ndings will help make you a more deliberate, e# ective writer.
As Figure 6–1 shows, preparing any piece of writing involves three stages: planning, dra! ing, and revising . ! ese stages can be de" ned roughly as " guring out what you want to say, saying it, and then saying it better. Each of these stages can be divided into various speci" c activities, which the rest of this section describes. However, as the arrows in the " gure suggest, business writers should not think of the three stages as strictly chrono- logical or separate. In practice, the stages are interrelated. Like the steps for solving busi- ness communication problems described in Chapter 1, they are recursive. For example, a writer in the planning stage may start writing pieces of the dra$ . Or he or she may " nd when dra$ ing that gathering more information is necessary. Or he or she may decide that it’s necessary to revise a piece of the document carefully before continuing with the dra$ - ing. An undue emphasis on keeping the stages separate and chronological will hinder the success of your messages. Allow yourself to blend these stages as necessary.
A good rule of thumb for student writers is to spend roughly a third of their writing time in each of the three stages. A common mistake that writers make is to spend too much time on dra$ ing and too little on the other two stages, planning and revising. Pre- paring to write and improving what you have written are as critical to success as the dra$ - ing stage, and careful attention to all three stages can actually make your writing process more e% cient. Once you have become an experienced business writer, you will be able to write many routine messages without as much planning and revising. Even so, some planning and revising will still be essential to getting the best results with your messages.
Planning the Message Chapter 1 presents a problem-solving approach to business communication. As Fig- ure 1–4 indicates, you need to develop a de" nition of the problem that you are trying to solve. Once you have de" ned your problem, you can plan your message by answering several questions regarding your context and audience. As you plan written documents in particular, you can make the planning process more manageable by thinking about it in " ve smaller steps: determining goals; analyzing your audience; gathering and col- lecting information; analyzing and organizing the information; and choosing the form, channel, and format the document will take.
Planning a good message takes time. ! e reason is that you have a lot to consider when writing to an audience you may not know all that well. ! e investment of your time pays
LO1 Describe the writing process and effective writing strategies.
Figure 6–1
Message Planning Checklist
Planning • Determine goals • Analyze the audience • Gather and collect data • Analyze and organize information • Choose a form
Drafting • Be flexible • Keep going • Use your own favorite strategies
Revising • Revise contents, structure, and format • Edit sentences and words • Proofread
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