Written Communication

Notes Memos Email Letters Reports Web sites Promotional Materials Other written documents

Notes, Memos, and Emails

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What are notes?

Informal personal messages

Why would you write by hand?

Gives message a personal touch

When do you write notes?

Congratulations or thank you

Notes, Memos, and Emails

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What are memorandums?

Written messages to people within the same organization; usually never go through the postal system Most common form of written communication

What are the 3 main parts?

Heading Subject line Message

Compose a Memo
Assignment: Using the handout, write a memo notifying the sales staff of changes in the schedule.
Email me a copy of your completed memo.

NicholsMichelleR@gmail.com

Notes, Memos, and Emails

What is electronic mail?
Communication technology that send memos from one computer directly to another.
Oh my!

Why send email?

Efficient, low cost, speedy, 24 hour access, multiply audiences, print, save, etc.

Notes, Memos, and Emails

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What are 6 basic guidelines for email?

Keep paragraphs short Keep messages on one screen (no scrolling) DO NOT USE ALL CAPS, it means you are YELLING :-O Respond with enough information so the reader knows what you are talking about Dont send stupid messages. We are busy! Dont use email to give bad news. It is NOT ACCEPTABLE to fire someone or breakup with someone over email!

Notes, Memos, and Emails

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Create an email address at www.gmail.com.

IF you have an account with your name as the address, you may use it. If not, you will need to create a new one.

Use the email and memo guidelines to send an email to: 3 classmates inviting them to a party (request) 2 classmates persuading them to buy your 1 classmate instructing them to bring junk mail, ads, or sale papers on Friday to class COPY ME ON REPLIES! NicholsMichelleR@gmail.com

Parts of a Business Letter

There are seven standard parts of a business letter.
Heading return address Date when letter was written Inside Address mailing address of reader Salutation the greeting Body message of the letter (paragraphs) Complimentary Close used to end message Signature Block
Signature Senders typed name and title (optional)

The Purpose of Written Communication

Think now; write later.

Before one can begin to plan the How, he or she has to understand the
Why of business writing.
The writer cannot decide what is the most appropriate form of presentation unless he has establish what purposes a written communication is to serve for both the writer and the reader. Frustration may be caused, if the writer fails to think carefully about the purpose of business writing. A good example of the failure to think about purposes is in p,14.

Demonstrating your ability.

It is the most important for young and inexperienced writer.

Writing conveys more than your ability to write well. It demonstrates your ability to think, to analyze, and to make sound of judgement.
bad writing results from bad thinking. Some questions one might ask and think about as he or she tries to identify the purposes of any written communication:

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Who is going to read your message- one person? more? a clerk? a manger?
What I want the reader to do or decide?

What kind of feeling must I produce in the reader in order to persuade him to do as I wish?
What has the reader asked me to tell him? What does he intend to do with what I tell him?

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Techniques of Business Letters

What the business letter is: a message that attempts to influence its reader to take some action or attitude desired by the writer. The central purpose of business letters is to get the readers agreement. In general the purposes of business letters fall into three categories: To get action ( paying a bill) To build good will ( granting or refusing a request) To supply information or reasoning ( giving facts about your products or about a situation; or providing the reasoning when you have to say no.

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 Sometimes the purpose is less tangible. This occurs when your purpose is to get the reader to accept a refusal as fair, to maintain an attitude of good will, to decide that your company is efficient, responsible, sympathetic .etc.

The best test of how well you achieve your purposes is to ask yourself how successfully they gain agreement from readers.
For instance, the successful sales letter should get agreement from the reader that a product or service is worth buying; the collection letter should convince the debtor that payment of his bill is the wisest policy.

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The Writers Responsibility: It is to think before you write. You must think about the answers to two questions: What am I trying to accomplish in this letter? How can I best accomplish this purpose with my reader? In page 93-4, Two letters are the best example to show evidence of careful thought from the writer about what he or she wants their letter to accomplish.

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Basic Qualities of Business Letters

The you attitude.

A tone adapted to the reader

Beginning and ending letter

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The you attitude

We delude ourselves by thinking that everyone is interested in our problems, wishes, products. In writing a letter, it is a good principle to forget yourself and go back to one of the fundamentals of all communication- remember your reader. If I want to persuade you to do something, the best way is for me to show you how and why you benefit from doing it.

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A tone adapted to the reader

It is important to talk the readers language, and to write to the reader as if he or she were a human being instead of a depersonalized name. The use of such highly specialized language or of supposedly impressive terminology is one of the worst faults of business correspondence.

The writer will do well not to dumb down or dress up their language but instead to keep it clear, simple, and sincere.

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You have certain clues from the correspondence itself; you should then try to form a mental image of your reader, such clues as The type of business he is in, if any. His position. His reason for writing. What he wants to know. The kind of language he uses. Information in the letter itself.

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Communicating in writing
Writing something can seem very easy, but effective written communication is another matter. When communicating in writing it is important to be aware of the following:

Communicating in writing
Key messages for example the subject of an email or an inclusion of a heading immediately after the salutation in a letter. Grammar and spelling what ever the subject or type of communication it is important to have the correct grammar and spelling. Mistakes convey an unprofessional image to the reader and can also create confusion if they do not understand what you have written. Structure ensure the content is logical and well presented.

Communicating in writing
Relevant information ensure important information is easy to find. Do not loose it within a mass of other details. Use, bold, underline or italics to ensure important facts are not missed Reviewing and proofreading own written work do this in addition to spell checker and grammar checks. Very important when reusing previous material.

Communicating in writing
Conveying alternative viewpoints it is important to show where one view starts and ends. You may include an introduction to explain the purpose and a summary to go over the main points covered. Reviewing and editing documents created by others e.g. other team members or quotations from outside suppliers. When editing the track changes tool can be used.

Communicating in writing
Note taking involves summarising a communication and may involve - Handwriting key points on a new sheet of paper - Adding to the main message, i.e. writing in the margin, underlining or using a highlighter pen for important facts - Inserting comments into electronic documents

General Principles of Writing

Short sentences
Long sentences are always hard to read. The three line rule.

Short paragraphs
No paragraph should ever be more than a third of a page, single-spacedleast of all the first paragraph. Long paragraphs can never be reader-friendly.

If possible, use first person and the active, not passive, tense. Avoid royal we if you are the only author.

General Principles (cont.)

Use verbs rather than nouns whenever possible; e.g.,
We conclude not Our conclusions are. We observed not Observations were made. These results imply that not One implication of these results is. The Trick: Hunt down and kill as many nouns as you can that end in -ion.

Avoid a right justified margin unless required to do so. Use a serif font except in graphs, tables or text of very small font size.