Completing Business Messages Notes

Completing Business Messages Revising Your Message: Evaluating the First Draft The three-step writing process: revising your message to achieve optimum quality and then producing, proofreading, and distributing it. Careful revision improves the effectiveness of your messages and sends a strong signal to your readers that you respect their time and care about their opinions. Typing errors and other glitches might seem unimportant, but audiences often equate the quality of your writing with the quality of your thinking. The scope of the revision task varies depending on the medium and the nature of your message. Do not fall into the common trap of thinking that you do not need to worry about grammar, spelling, clarity, and other fundamentals of good writing when you use digital formats. o These qualities can be especially important in digital communication, particularly if these messages are the only contact your audience has with you. o First, poor-quality messages create an impression of poor-quality thinking, and even minor errors can cause confusion, frustration, and costly delays. o Second, assume that anything you write for digital channels will be stored forever and could be distributed far beyond your original audience. Whenever possible, put your first draft aside for a day or two before you begin the revision process so that you can approach the material with a fresh eye. Evaluating Your Content, Organization, and Tone When you begin the revision process, focus on content, organization, and tone. To evaluate the content of your message, make sure it’s accurate, relevant to the audience’s needs, and complete. Review its organization by asking yourself these questions: o Are all your points covered in the most logical and convincing order? o Do the most important ideas receive the most space and greatest emphasis? o Are any points repeated unnecessarily? o Are details grouped together logically, or are some still scattered through the document? Consider whether you have achieved the right tone for your audience. Spend a few extra moments on the beginning and end of your message; these sections usually have the greatest impact on the audience. Evaluating, Editing, and Revising the Work of Other Writers When you evaluate, edit, or revise someone else’s work, your job is to help that person succeed, not to impose your own style. Make sure you understand the writer’s intent before you begin suggesting or making changes. ask yourself the following questions as you evaluate someone else’s writing: o What is the purpose of this document or message? o Who is the target audience? o What information does the audience need? o Are there any special circumstances or sensitive issues that the writer had to consider (or should have considered)? o Does the document provide this information in a well-organized way? o Does the writing demonstrate the “you” attitude? o Is the tone of the writing appropriate for the audience? o Can the readability be improved? o Is the writing clear? If not, how can it be improved? o Is the writing as concise as it could be? o Does the page or screen design support the intended message? Revising to Improve Readability After checking the content, organization, and tone of your message, make a second pass to improve readability. Four powerful techniques for improving readability are varying your sentence length, using shorter paragraphs, replacing narrative with lists, and adding effective headings and subheadings. Varying Your Sentence Length Using a variety of sentence lengths is a good way to maintain reader interest and control the emphasis given to major and minor points. Each sentence length has advantages. o Short sentences can be processed quickly and are easier for non-native speakers and translators to interpret. o Medium-length sentences are useful for showing the relationships among ideas. o Long sentences are often needed to convey complex ideas, to list a number of related points, or to summarize or preview information. Each sentence length also has disadvantages. o Too many short sentences in a row can make your writing choppy and disconnected. o Medium sentences lack the punch of short sentences. o Long sentences (more than 25 words) are usually harder to understand than short sentences because they are packed with information; they are also harder to skim when readers are just looking for a few key points in a hurry. Keeping Your Paragraphs Short Large blocks of text can be intimidating, even to the most dedicated reader. Short paragraphs (of 100 words or fewer) are easier to read than long ones and they make your writing look inviting. You can also emphasize an idea by isolating it in a short, forceful paragraph. Use one-sentence paragraphs only occasionally and only for emphasis. If you need to divide a subject into several pieces in order to keep paragraphs short, use transitions to help your readers keep the ideas connected. Using Lists and Bullets to Clarify and Emphasize A list can be more effective than conventional sentences and paragraphs. Lists can show the sequence of your ideas, heighten their impact visually, and increase the likelihood that readers will find your key points. Lists simplify complex subjects, highlight the main point, enable skimming, and give readers a breather. When creating a list, you can separate items with numbers, letters, or bullets (a general term for any kind of graphical element that precedes each item). o Bullets are generally preferred over numbers, unless the list is in some logical sequence or ranking, or specific list items will be referred to later on. Make your lists easy to read by making all the items parallel Lists have a “lead-in,” which is an introductory phrase or complete sentence at the top of the list to introduce the list items. Lists can be constructed in three ways: o A lead-in plus a series of complete sentences, punctuated as sentences o A complete sentence lead-in plus a series of fragments o An introductory phrase lead-in plus a series of parts that complete one sentence Adding Headings and Subheadings A heading is a brief title that tells readers about the content of the section that follows. Chapter 5: Completing Business Messages Subheadings indicate subsections within a major section; complex documents may have several levels of subheadings. Headings and subheadings help in three important ways: they show readers at a glance how the material is organized, they call attention to important points, and they highlight connections and transitions among ideas. Descriptive headings, such as “Cost Considerations,” identify a topic but do little more. Informative headings, such as “Redesigning Material Flow to Cut Production Costs,” tell your reader about the content. Well-written informative headings are self-contained, which means that readers can skim just the headings and subheadings and understand them without reading the rest of the document. Make the levels of classification easy to distinguish so that the headings reinforce the organization. Editing for Clarity and Conciseness After you have revised your message for readability, your next step is to make sure your message is as clear and as concise as possible. Editing for Clarity Make sure every sentence conveys the message you intend and that readers can extract that meaning without reading it more than once. To ensure clarity, look closely at your paragraph organization, sentence structure, and word choices. Break Up Overly Long Sentences: If you find yourself stuck in a long sentence, you’re probably trying to make the sentence do more than it can reasonably do, such as expressing two dissimilar thoughts or peppering the reader with too many pieces of supporting evidence at once. Rewrite Hedging Sentences: Hedging means pulling back from making an absolutely certain, definitive statement about a topic. Granted, sometimes you have to write may or seems to avoid stating a judgment as a fact. However, when you hedge too often or without good reason, you come across as being unsure of what you are saying. Impose Parallelism: Making your writing parallel means expressing two or more similar ideas using the same grammatical structure. Doing so helps your audience understand that the ideas are related, are of similar importance, and are on the same level of generality. Parallel patterns are also easier to read. You can impose parallelism by repeating a pattern in words, phrases, clauses, or entire sentences. Correct Dangling Modifiers: Sometimes a modifier is not just an adjective or an adverb but an entire phrase modifying a noun or a verb. Be careful not to leave this type of modifier dangling, with no connection to the subject of the sentence. Reword Long Noun Sequences: When multiple nouns are strung together as modifiers, the resulting sentence can be hard to read. See if a single well-chosen word will do the job. Replace Camouflaged Verbs: Watch for words that end in -ion, -tion, -ing, -ment, -ant, -ent, -ence, -ance, and -ency. These endings often change verbs into nouns and adjectives, requiring you to add a verb to get your point across. Clarify Sentence Structures: Keep the subject and predicate of a sentence as close together as possible. Similarly, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases usually make the most sense when they are placed as close as possible to the words they modify. Clarify Awkward References: Try to avoid vague references such as the above-mentioned, as mentioned above, the aforementioned, the former, the latter, and respectively. Editing for Conciseness Chapter 5: Completing Business Messages Many of the changes you make to improve clarity also shorten your message by removing unnecessary words. Readers appreciate conciseness and are more likely to read your documents if you have a reputation for efficient writing. Delete Unnecessary Words and Phrases: To test whether a word or phrase is essential, try the sentence without it. If the meaning does not change, leave it out. Replace Long Words and Phrases: Short words and phrases are generally more vivid and easier to read than long ones. Also, by using infinitives (the “to” form of a verb) in place of some phrases, you can often shorten sentences while making them clearer. Eliminate Redundancies: In some word combinations, the words say the same thing. For instance, “visible to the eye” is redundant because visible is enough without further clarification; “to the eye” adds nothing. Recast “it is/there are” starters: If you start a sentence with an indefinite pronoun such as it or there, odds are the sentence could be shorter and more active. As you make all these improvements, concentrate on how each word contributes to an effective sentence and how each sentence helps to develop a coherent paragraph. Producing Your Message The production quality of your message—the total effect of page design, graphical elements, typography, screen presence, and so on—plays an important role in its effectiveness. A polished, inviting design not only makes your document easier to read but also conveys a sense of professionalism and importance. Designing for Readability Design affects readability in two important ways. First, if used carefully, design elements can improve the effectiveness of your message by making it easier to read and by guiding readers through the content. o In contrast, poor design decisions—such as using distracting background images behind text, pointless animations, or tiny typefaces—act as barriers to communication. o If used poorly, design elements can act as barriers, impeding your communication. Second, the visual design sends a nonverbal message to your readers, influencing their perceptions of the communication before they read a single word. The quality of your document design, both on paper and onscreen, affects readability and audience perceptions. Whenever you are making your own design decisions, pay careful attention to these elements: o Consistency: Throughout each message, be consistent in your use of margins, typeface, type size, spacing, colour, lines, and position. Being consistent from message to message is beneficial as well. This helps audiences recognize your documents and know what to expect. o Balance: Balance is an important but sometimes subjective design issue. One document may have a formal, rigid design in which the various elements are placed in a grid pattern, whereas another may have a less formal design in which elements flow more freely across the page—and both could be in balance. Like the tone of your language, visual balance can be too formal, just right, or too informal for a given message. Try to balance the space devoted to text, visuals, and white space. o Restraint: Strive for simplicity. Do not clutter your message with too many design elements, too many colours, or too many decorative touches. o Detail: Pay attention to details that affect readability. You can make your printed and electronic messages more effective by understanding the use of white space, margins and line justification, typefaces, and type styles. White Space Any space free of text or artwork is considered white space. These unused areas provide visual contrast and important resting points for your readers. White space includes the open area surrounding headings, margins, paragraph indents, space around images, vertical space between columns, and horizontal space between paragraphs or lines of text. These text-free zones make pages and screens feel less intimidating and therefore increase the chance that people will read them. Margins and Justification Margins define the space around text and between text columns. In addition to their width, the look and feel of margins are influenced by the way you arrange lines of text, which can be set in the following ways: Justified, which means they are flush, or aligned vertically, on both the left and the right Flush left with a ragged-right margin Flush right with a ragged-left margin Centred Justified type needs to be used with care and is not a good choice for most routine business documents. o First, it creates a denser look because the uniform line lengths decrease the amount of white space along the right margin. Second, it produces a more formal look that is not appropriate for all situations. Third, unless it is formatted with skill and attention, justified type can be more difficult to read because it can produce large gaps between words and excessive hyphenation at the ends of lines. In contrast to justified type, flush-left, ragged-right type creates a more open appearance on the page, producing a less formal and more contemporary look. Centred type is rarely used for text paragraphs but is commonly used for headings and subheadings. Flush-right, ragged-left type is rarely used. Typefaces Typeface refers to the physical design of letters, numbers, and other text characters. (Font and typeface are often used interchangeably, although strictly speaking, a font is a set of characters in a given typeface.) Typeface influences the tone of your message, making it look authoritative or friendly, businesslike, or casual, classic, or modern, and so on. Serif typefaces have small crosslines (called serifs) at the ends of each letter stroke. Sans serif typefaces, in contrast, lack these serifs. Serif typefaces are commonly used for body text; sans serif typefaces are commonly used for headings. For most documents, you should not need more than two typefaces, using one to make captions or other text elements stand out. Type Styles and Size Type style refers to any modification that lends contrast or emphasis to type, including boldface, italic, underlining, and colour. Use any type style sparingly. Overusing a style reduces its effectiveness and can make the text harder to read. In particular, avoid long passages that are underlined, in italics, or in all-capital letters. Resist the temptation to reduce the type size to squeeze in text or to enlarge it to fill up space. Type that is too small is hard to read, whereas extra-large type often looks unprofessional. Designing Messages for Mobile Devices Follow these steps to format that content for mobile devices: Think in small chunks: Remember that mobile users consume information one screen at a time, so try to divide your message into independent, easy-to-consume bites. If readers have to scroll through a dozen screens to piece together your message, they might miss key points or just give up entirely. Make generous use of white space: White space is always helpful, but it is critical on small screens because readers are trying to get the point of every message as quickly as possible. Keep your paragraphs short (four to six lines) and separate them with blank lines so the reader’s eyes can easily jump from one point to the next. Format simply: Avoid anything that is likely to get in the way of fast, easy reading, including busy typefaces, complex graphics, and complicated layouts. Consider horizontal and vertical layouts: Most phones and tablets can automatically rotate their screen content from horizontal to vertical as the user rotates the device. A layout that does not work well with the narrow vertical perspective might be acceptable at the wider horizontal perspective. Proofreading Your Message Proofreading is the quality inspection stage for your documents, your last chance to make sure that your document is ready to carry your message—and your reputation—to the intended audience. Your credibility is affected by your attention to the details of mechanics and form. Look for two types of problems: (1) undetected mistakes from the writing, design, and layout stages and (2) mistakes that crept in during production. Be particularly vigilant with complex documents and production processes that involve teams of people and multiple computers. The types of details to look for when proofreading include language errors, missing material, design errors, and typographical errors. Proofreading should be a methodical procedure. Here is some advice from the pros: Make Multiple Passes: Go through the document several times, focusing on a different aspect each time. For instance, look for content errors the first time and layout errors the second time. Use Perceptual Tricks: To keep from missing errors that are “in plain sight,” try reading pages backward, placing your finger under each word and reading it silently, covering everything but the line you’re currently reading, or reading the document aloud. Focus on High-Priority Items: Double-check names, titles, dates, addresses, and any number that could cause grief if incorrect. Get Some Distance: If possible, do not proofread immediately after finishing the document; let your brain wander off to new topics and come back fresh later on. Stay Focused and Vigilant: Block out distractions and focus as completely as possible on your proofreading. Avoid reading large amounts of material in one sitting and try not to proofread when you are tired. Review Complex Digital Documents on Paper: Some people have trouble proofreading webpages, online reports, and other digital documents on screen. If you have trouble, print the materials so you can review them on paper. Take Your Time: Quick proofreading is not careful proofreading. Distributing Your Message With the production finished, you are ready to distribute your message. You often have several options for distribution; consider the following factors when making your choice: Cost: Cost is not a concern for most messages, but for multiple copies of lengthy reports or multimedia productions, it might well be. Be sure to consider the nonverbal message you send regarding cost as well. Convenience: Make sure your audience can conveniently access the material you send. Time: How soon does the message need to reach the audience? Do not waste money on overnight delivery if the recipient won’t read a report for a week. Security and Privacy: The convenience offered by digital communication needs to be weighed against security and privacy concerns. For the most sensitive messages, your company will probably restrict both the people who can receive the messages and the means you can use to distribute them. In addition, most computer users are wary of opening attachments, particularly word processing files. As an alternative, convert your documents to PDF files using Adobe Acrobat or an equivalent product.