Chapter 5
Writing Business
Messages
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Learning Objectives
1. Being sensitive to audience needs
2. Building strong audience relationships
3. Controlling your style and tone
4. Choosing strong words for a message
5. Composing effective sentences
6. Writing unified, coherent paragraphs
7. Using technology to format messages
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Adapting to Your Audience:
Being Sensitive to
Audience Needs
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The “You” Attitude
Writing Speaking
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Practice Etiquette
•Respect
•Diplomacy
•Tactfulness
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Positive Emphasis
•Avoid Negative Language
•Substitute Euphemistic Terms
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Bias-Free Language
•Gender
•Race
•Ethnicity
•Age
•Disability
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Summary of Discussion
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Adapting to Your Audience:
Building Strong Relationships
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Establish Credibility
Honesty Objectivity
Awareness Expertise
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Establish Credibility
Endorsements Performance
Sincerity Confidence
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Company Image
Communication
Style
Communication
Guidelines
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Summary of Discussion
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Adapting to Your Audience:
Controlling Style and Tone
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Conversational Tone
•Don’t confuse texting and writing
•Avoid stale and obsolete language
•Avoid preaching and bragging
•Be careful with intimacy and humor
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Plain Language
Read It!
Understand It!
Take Action!
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Use the Right Voice
Active Passive
Direct Indirect
Assertive Diplomatic
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Summary of Discussion
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Composing Your Message:
Choosing Powerful Words
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Selecting Words
•Correct Words
•Effective Words
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Understanding Words
•Denotation
•Connotation
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Balancing Words
Concreteness Abstraction
Tangible Concepts
Objective Qualities
Visualization Characteristics
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Finding Precise Words
Powerful Familiar
Words Words
Clichés & Technical
Buzzwords Jargon
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Summary of Discussion
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Composing Your Message:
Writing Effective Sentences
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Sentence Types
•One Main Clause
Simple •One Subject & Verb
•Two Main Clauses
Compound •Join By Conjunction
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Sentence Types
•One Main Clause
Complex •A Dependent Clause
Compound •Two Main Clauses
Complex •A Dependent Clause
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Using Sentence Style
Emphasize Key Thoughts
Use More Words Position the Words
Sentence Subjects Dependent Clauses
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Summary of Discussion
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Composing Your Message:
Crafting Unified, Coherent
Paragraphs
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Paragraph Elements
Topic Sentence
Support Sentences
Transitional Elements
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Paragraph Options
•Illustration
•Classification
•Cause & Effect
•Problem & Solution
•Compare & Contrast
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Summary of Discussion
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Using Technology to Compose
and Shape Your Messages
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Format with Technology
• Style sheets and sets, templates, and
themes
• Boilerplate and document components
• Auto-correction and auto-completion
• File merge and mail merge
• Endnotes, footnotes, tables of contents,
and indexes
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Summary of Discussion
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Chapter 5
Writing Business
Messages
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