Seminar on

TECHNIQUES OF EMPHASIZING IN

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

By
Sangeetha Jayakumar (Roll No.
19) Shiji Prem (Roll
No. 21) Sunitha Varghese
(Roll No. 27)
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Communication

Communication is defined as the exchange of

message(s) like encoded information,
thoughts, ideas, opinions, facts, emotions etc
between or among two or more persons.

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WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

 The word ‘write’ has been derived from old

English word ‘writan’ which meant to scratch,
draw or inscribe.
 Written Communication refers to anything in
writing meant for others to read and understand.

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Salient Features of Written
Communication

 A creative activity - an activity that requires

conscious and creative effort
 Time factor
 Fewer cycles than face-to-face oral
communication

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Advantages of Written
Communication
 Leaves documentary evidences
 Usually better planned
 Clarity of expression and lesser chance to twist later
 Less distance related barriers
 Promote uniformity in policies and procedures in working of an
organization
 Proper assignation of duties and responsibilities
 Access to large audience through mass mailing/copies etc

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Disadvantages of Written
Communication
 Lengthy Process
 Delayed feedback
 Tends to be more formal and rigid
 Need not always two way
 Possibilities for different interpretations due to cultural reason
 More chances to go unnoticed

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When to use Written
Communication?
 When documentary evidences are required
 When the communicator wants to extent
himself in time & space, permitting
communication across temporal and spacial
boundaries
 When reliability and validity of message are
very important

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The need for effect in written
communication in business
 Written Communication within a business requires
clarity.
 Build goodwill effect through written messages is a
good business practice.
 Letters and email messages ensure the success of
written messages.
 Getting the desired effect is a matter of writing skill
and of understanding people.

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Techniques to get the effect for
writing
 Conversational style
 You-view point
 Accent on positive language
 Courtesy

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Conversational style
Write in conversational language
 Conversational language mean language that resembles
conversation.
 Writing in conversational language is not easy, for we tend to
be stiff and formal.

Example:
 Enclosed herewith is the brochure about which you make

enquiry.
( Stiff and Dull)
 Enclosed is the brochure you asked about.(Conversational)

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Conversational style contd. …

Avoid rubber stamps while writing conversational

vocabulary
 Expressions from the old language of businesses are rubber
stamps.

Example:
 This is to advise that we deem it a great pleasure to approve

subject of your request as per letter of the 12th August (Dull and
Stiff)
 Yes, you certainly may use the equipment you asked about in

your letter of August 12( Friendly and Conversational)

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You-Viewpoint
 Writing from the you-viewpoint (also called you-attitude) is a
technique for building goodwill in writing messages.
 It is a technique for persuasion and for influencing people

favorably.
 The you-viewpoint emphasizes the reader’s interests. It is an

attitude of mind involving more than the use of you and yours.
 Even a bad news situation can benefit from you-viewpoint

wording.
Examples:
 We have been quite tolerant of your past due account and must

now demand payment. (We-Viewpoint)

 If you are to continue to enjoy the benefits of credit buying, you

must clear your accounts now. (You-Viewpoint)

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Accent on positive language
 Of the many ways of saying anything, each has a unique meaning.
 Positive words are usually best for message goals because they
create a goodwill atmosphere.
 Negative words stir up resistance and hurt goodwill but that
doesn’t mean that there is no place for them in business writing.

Examples:
 You failed to give us the fabric specifications of the chair you

ordered. (Negative)
 So that you may have the one chair you want, will you please

check your choice of fabric on the enclosed card? (Positive)

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Courtesy
 Courtesy is the major contributor to goodwill in business documents.
 It produces friendly relations between people.
 Courtesy involves the preceding goodwill techniques and other
techniques like

 Singling out and write directly to one reader means writing for one
situation.
 Refraining from preaching (lecturing) because preaching occurs when the
writer is trying to convince the reader of something.
 Doing a little more than you do for the reader which build goodwill.
 Expressing anger in messages destroys goodwill and hence avoid anger.
 Being sincere adds efforts to be courteous and avoid exaggeration that
are obviously insincere.

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Meaning of Emphasize

Emphasize – “a stress laid on a word or words to

indicate special meaning or importance”
(Oxford English Reference Dictionary, 1995)

 To emphasize means:
 attaching importance or significance

 placing words and ideas in key positions to give

them special weight and prominence

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Need for Emphasizing

 To project core idea

 To highlight the central idea
 To make communication effective
 To assimilate point of view of both sender and
decoder
 To establish purpose
 To ensure attention and retention

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A few tips for Emphasizing

 Things like italics, bold, underscores, caps,

different size type, alternate fonts, color etc., can
act as emphasizing techniques.
 Used in excess, any emphasizing technique or
combination of these techniques can lose their
ability to emphasize and become busy and
distracting.
 Used in excess, any emphasizing technique or
combination of these techniques can cause readers
to be reluctant to read a text.

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A few tips for Emphasizing contd. …
 A carefully planned functional relationship must exist
between the text that is emphasized and the emphasizing
technique that is used.
 Emphasizing techniques must be used consistently to
prevent readers from becoming confused.
 To promote consistency, writer must use a style guide or
style sheet, which records all the decisions about how to
use emphasizing techniques.
 To help readers understand the highlighting scheme,
writer must include a brief section somewhere in the
document (usually in the preface) explaining the usage of
emphasizing techniques.

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Emphasizing Techniques

Emphasizing by Emphasizing by
Position Sentence Structure

Emphasizing by Emphasizing by
Space Mechanical Means

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Emphasizing by Position

 The beginnings and endings of a unit of written

communication carry more emphasis than the center parts
 Place central idea in the beginning and ending

Above points are applicable to :

o Sentence

o Paragraph

o Message

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Emphasizing by Position contd. …

Beginning and ending

of the message Beginning and
ending of the
sentence

Beginning and ending

of the paragraph

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Emphasizing by Position contd. …

“2-no-1” scheme
“My wife Joan finds me adorable,”
Don said.

“My wife Joan,” Don said, “finds

me adorable.”

Example:
“The Bush administration tried to legitimize torture by defining it out of
existence, according to a report released by the Justice Department
Thursday.”

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 Emphasizing by Space

 Giving more space to central idea

 The more space one gives a topic, the more
emphasis the topic receives

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Emphasizing by Sentence Structure

 By placing important information in short , simple

sentence(s) so that it will not have to compete with other
information for the reader’s attention
- If a thought or an idea is to be given a stand or
prominence, it can be conveniently placed in the
pattern of a short simple sentence
 By casting important material in independent clauses and
the less important information relegated to subordinate
structures

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 Emphasizing by Sentence Structure –
An
example
Consider two items of information :
1. Company lost money last year.
2. Company’s sales reached a record high volume.
These information can be presented in three different ways
a. The company lost the money last year. The loss occurred in spite of
record sales.
(both facts are given equal emphasis)
b. Although the company enjoyed record sales last year, it lost money.
(emphasis on lost money)
c. The company enjoyed record sales last year, although it lost money.
(emphasis on sales increase)
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Emphasis by Mechanical Means

 Bolding, italics, letter type

 Quotation mark
 Changing the size
 Coloring and drawing
 Lines and arrows
 Laying out

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Emphasis by Mechanical Means contd. …
1. Bolding, italics, letter type
 With bolding technique, the emphasized text strongly
stands out from the rest.
e.g., Do not turn off the computer before shutting it
down.
 Some common uses of bold are:
- Headings
- Commands
- Table or figure titles
- Column and row heading in tables

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Emphasis by Mechanical Means contd. …
Bolding, italics, letter type
 In italics technique the text is written such that the
vertical orientation of all letters is slanted to the right.
Example: Do not turn off the computer before shutting it down.
 some of the standard uses for italics are:
- Table titles
- Row and Column headings
- Headings
- Figure titles and labels
 Different letter types can be used for emphasizing.
Example: Arial, Times New Roman etc

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Emphasis by Mechanical Means contd. …
2. Quotation mark

 Either single (‘’) or double quotes (“ ”) may be used.

Examples
a. Bill said, ‘ I can hear a noise in the basement’.

b. The policeman asked Bill, “ Did you say, ‘I heard

a noise in the basement’ ? ”

c. Have you seen ‘ Stars wars’ ?

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Emphasis by Mechanical Means contd. …
3. Changing the size
 The size of the letters can be changed for emphasizing.
Example

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Emphasis by Mechanical Means contd. …
4. Colouring and Drawing

 It is easy to use colour in online information. It's

common to see hypertext links using color.
- web pages typically use blue for new links and
purple for links the user has already explored

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Emphasis by Mechanical Means contd. …
5. Lines and Arrows
 Lines and arrows can be used for emphasizing in written communication.
Example

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Emphasis by Mechanical Means contd. …
6. Laying out
 Emphasis can be done by proper laying out of the

written matter.
Example

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THANK YOU

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