WRITING BUSINESS MESSAGES.docx

WRITING BUSINESS MESSAGES.docx

《WRITING BUSINESS MESSAGES.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《WRITING BUSINESS MESSAGES.docx（23页珍藏版）》请在冰豆网上搜索。

WRITINGBUSINESSMESSAGES

CHAPTER5:

WritingBUSINESSMESSAGES

CHAPTEROUTLINE

OrganizingYourMessage

WhatGoodOrganizationMeans

WhyGoodOrganizationIsImportant

HowGoodOrganizationIsAchieved

DefinetheMainIdea

LimittheScope

StructureYourMessage

StartwiththeMainIdea

StatetheMajorPoints

IllustratewithEvidence

ChooseBetweentheDirectandIndirectApproaches

Routine,Good-News,andGoodwillMessages

Bad-NewsMessages

PersuasiveMessages

ComposingandShapingYourMessage

ControllingYourStyleandTone

UseaConversationalTone

UsePlainEnglish

SelectActiveorPassiveVoice

SelectingtheBestWords

UseFunctionalandContentWordsCorrectly

DenotationandConnotation

AbstractionandConcreteness

FindWordsThatCommunicate

CreatingEffectiveSentences

TheFourTypesofSentences

UseSentenceStyletoEmphasizeKeyThoughts

DevelopingCoherentParagraphs

ElementsoftheParagraph

TopicSentence

RelatedSentences

TransitionalElements

FiveWaystoDevelopaParagraph

UsingTechnologytoComposeandShapeYourMessage

WritingEffectiveE-MailMessages

OrganizingYourE-MailMessages

ComposingYourE-MailMessages

CreatingEffectiveE-MailSubjectLines

PersonalizingYourE-MailMessages

LECTURENOTES

OrganizingYourMessage

Relyonorganizationtomakeyourmessagesmeaningful.

ForU.S.andCanadiancommunicators,goodorganizationgenerallymeanscreatingalinearmessagethatproceedspointbypoint.

Themostcommonorganizationproblemsinclude

Takingtoolongtogettothepoint

Includingirrelevantmaterial

Gettingideasmixedup

Leavingoutnecessaryinformation

Goodorganizationisimportantbecausemisinterpretedmessagesleadto

Wastedtimereadingandrereading

Poordecisionmaking

Shatteredbusinessrelationships

Goodorganizationhelpsyoucommunicatemoreeffectively:

Youwon’twastetimeputtingideasinthewrongplacesorcomposingmaterialyoudon’tneed.

Youcangetsomeadvanceinputfromyouraudience.

Youcanuseyourorganizationplantodividethewritingjobamongco-workers.

Goodorganizationhelpsyouraudience

Understandyourmessage

Acceptyourmessage

Savetime

Goodorganizationisachievedby

Definingthemainidea

Limitingthescope

Groupingsupportingpoints

Selectingeitheradirectorindirectapproach

Yourtopicisthebroadsubjectofyourmessage:

themainideaisthecentralpointthatsumsupeverything.

*SeeTransparencies5and6fordocumentsthatcanbeusedtopracticedifferentiatingtopic,purpose,andmainidea.

Trytodefineamainideathatwillestablishagoodrelationshipbetweenyouandyouraudience.

Thescope（lengthanddetail）ofamessagemustmatchthemainidea.

Stickwiththreeorfourmajorpoints（fiveatmost）,regardlessofhowlongyourmessagewillbe.

Scopedependson

Thenatureofyoursubject

Youraudiencemembers’familiaritywiththetopic

Youraudience’sreceptivitytoyourconclusions

Yourcredibility

Theamountanddepthofinvestigationyoucanconduct

Groupyourpointsinthemostlogicalandeffectivewayby

Constructinganoutlinesothatyoucancommunicateinasystematicway

Insertingtransitionssothatyouraudiencecanseetherelationshipsamongyourideas

Typesofoutlinesinclude

Thebasicoutlineformat（numbersorlettersidentifyeachpointandareindentedtoshowwhichitemsareofequalstatus）

Theorganizationchartformat（showingthoughtsasboxesorganizedintodivisions,similartothechartsthatshowanorganization’smanagementstructure）

Todevelopanoutline,youusually

Startwiththemainidea（supportedorexplainedbyabsolutelyeverythinginthemessage）

Statethemajorpoints

Illustratewithevidence

Yourmajorsupportpointswillbesuggestedbyoneofthefollowing:

Thenaturalorderofyoursubject（basedonsomethingphysical,thestepsinaprocess,thedescriptionofanobject,orachronologicalchain）

Themajorelementsofyourargument（basedonalineofreasoning）

Themoreevidenceyouprovide,themoreconclusiveyourcasewillbe.

Provideenoughsupporttobeconvincingbutwithoutthemessagebecomingboringorinefficient.

Tomaintainaudienceinterest,varythetypeofdetail:

Factsandfigures

Exampleorillustration

Description

Narration

Referencetoauthority

Visualaids

ForaU.S.orCanadianaudience,youmustdecidewhetheryourmessagewillbedirectorindirect:

Thedirectapproachisdeductive:

themainideacomesfirst,followedbyevidence.

Theindirectapproachisinductive:

theevidencecomesfirst,followedbythemainidea.

Yourchoiceofdirectorindirectapproachdependson

Audiencereaction:

Directwhenaudiencewillbereceptive

Indirectwhenaudiencewillresist

Messagelength

Directforshort,positivemessages

Indirectforlongermessages

Messagetype

Directforroutine,good-news,andgoodwillmessages

Indirectforbad-newsandpersuasivemessages

ComposingandShapingYourMessage

Whencomposingyourmessage,tryto

Putyouroutlineasideforadayortwo（giventhetime）toreviewitwithafreshperspective

Improveyouroutline（rearranging,deletingandaddingideas）,aslongasyoudon’tlosesightofyouroriginalpurpose

Writedownyourideasasquicklyasyoucan（worryaboutrevisingorrefininglateron）

Styleisthewaywordsareusedtoachieveacertaintone（theimpressionmadebyyourwords）.

Controlyourstyleandtoneby

Usingaconversationalapproach

UsingplainEnglish

Selectingactiveorpassivevoice

Toachieveaconversationaltone,tryto

Avoidobsoleteandpompouslanguage

Avoidintimacy

Avoidhumor

Avoidpreachingandbragging

Strivefortheappropriatelevelofformality

Tohelpyouraudienceunderstandyourmeaning,useplainEnglishwheneverappropriate,includingwhenaddressinginterculturalaudiences.

Usetheactivevoiceto

Produceshorter,strongersentences

Makeyourwritingmorevigorous,concise,andgenerallyeasiertounderstand

Thepassivevoiceisbestinsomecases:

Whenyouneedtobediplomatic

Whenyouwanttoavoidtakingorattributingthecreditortheblame

Whenyouwanttoavoidpersonalpronounstocreateanobjectivetone

Thewordsyouchoosetousemustbecorrectandsuitable:

Usefunctionalandcontentwordscorrectly.

Findwordsthatcommunicate.

Functionalwordsexpressrelationshipsandhaveonlyoneunchangingmeaninginanygivencontext（includingconjunctions,prepositions,articles,pronouns）.

Contentwordsaremultidimensional,andthussubjecttovariousinterpretations（includingnouns,verbs,adjectives,andadverbs）.

Contentwordshavetwomeanings:

Thedenotativemeaningistheliteralordictionarymeaning.

Theconnotativemeaningincludesalltheassociationsandfeelingsevokedbytheword.

Wordsthatarehighinconnotativemeaningshouldbeavoidedinbusinesscommunication.

Awordmaybe

Abstract（expressingaconcept,qualityorcharacteristic）

Concrete（standingforsomethingyoucantouchorsee）

Blendabstracttermswithconcreteonestobeaseffectiveaspossible.

Whenyoucomposebusinessmessages,trytothinklikeawordsmith:

Choosestrongwords.

Choosefamiliarwords.

Avoidclichés.

Usejargoncarefully.

InEnglish,thesenseofwordsisdeterminedbytheirorder.

Fourtypesofsentencesare

Simple:

onemainclause（subjectandpredicate）

Compound:

twomainclauses

Complex:

onemainclausewithoneormoresubordinateclauses

Compound-complex:

twomainclauses,atleastonewithasubordinateclause

Theclearestwritingmixesallfoursentencetypes,usingthosethatmatchtherelationshipofideas.

Youcanemphasizekeyideasby

Choosingasentencestylethatgivesthatideathemostspace

Addingaseparate,shortsentencetoaugmentthethought

Makingathoughtthesubjectofasentence

Placingthekeyideaeitheratthebeginningortheendofasentence

Aparagraphisagroupofsentencesallrelatedtothesamegeneraltopic.

Aparagraphismadeupofseveralelements:

Topicsentence（introducingthesingletopicofthesentence）

Relatedsentences（explainingthetopicsentence）

Transitionalelements（showingtherelationshipamongsentencesandbetweenparagraphs）

Establishtransitionsby

Usingconnectingwords

Echoingawordorphrasefromapreviousparagraphorsentence

Usingapronounthatreferstoanounusedpreviously

Usingwordsthatarefrequentlypaired

Developaparagraphinoneoffiveways:

Comparison

Contrast

Causeandeffect

Classification

Problemandsolution

Composingmessagesisgreatlyaidedbyword-processingprograms,whichautomatemanytextentryandrevisiontasks.

Usingawordprocessor,youcancreateandstoreboilerplateparagraphsformultipledocuments.

WritingEffectiveE-MailMessages

Usethefirstfewlinesofane-mailmessagetotellthereader

Whatyouneed

Whatyou’reproviding

Whatyouwanthimorhertodo

Whenreplyingtoamessage,quoteonlytheinformationorquestiondirectlyrelevanttoyourreply.

Makeyoure-maileasytofollow:

AvoidlinesthatrunoffscreenorwrapoddlybyusingtheEnterkeytolimitlinelength.

Avoidstyled（bold,italic）text.

Useshort,focused,logicallyorganizedparagraphs.

Trytolimite-mailtoonescreen.

Howformalyoumakeyourmessagedependsonyouraudienceandpurpose.

Makeyoure-mailmessagesmoreeffectiveby

Makingyoursubjectlineinformative

Personalizingyoure-mailmessage

SPECIALFEATURES

BeatingWriter’sBlock:

NineWorkableIdeastoGetWordsFlowing（p.119）

1.Amongmethodsofprocrastinationthatstudentsmightlistaremakingtrivialphonecallsorvisitingwithofficemates,makinglistsofthingstodo,gettingsomethingtodrinkoreat,doingchores,runningerrands—anythingthatcanbeusedtokeepfromstartingtowork.Methods