- Revise first drafts
- Write regularly
- Break big jobs into small chunks
- Focus on purpose, audience
- Choose from several different strategies
- Use rules flexibly
- Finish a draft before editing text
Four Basic Composing Activities
- Plan – analyze, gather
- Write – transform ideas into words
- Revise – evaluate, get feedback, change
- Edit – correct grammar, typos
More About Composing Activities
Don’t have to do in 1-2-3 order
Don’t have to finish one to start another
Don’t have to use all activities for every message
Brainstorm, Plan, and Organize
When content isn’t obvious—
- Brainstorm
- Freewrite
- Cluster
- Talk to audiences
Writing Good Business and Administrative Documents
- Closer to conversation
- Varies by audience
- Contains easy-to-read words, sentences, and paragraphs
- Attention to visual impact
- Less formal than academic writing (except reports)
Half-Truths about Style
- Write as you talk
- Never use I
- Never use You
- Never begin sentence with And or But
- Never end sentence with preposition
- Big words impress people
Ten Ways to Make Your Writing Easy to Read
As you choose words—
- Use accurate, appropriate, and familiar words
- Avoid technical jargon; eliminate business jargon
As you write and revise sentences—
- Use active voice most of the time
- Use verbs—not nouns—to carry weight of sentence…
Mary’s kindness was much appreciated by all her colleagues. Mary’s colleagues appreciated her kindness - Eliminate wordiness
As you write and revise sentences—
- Vary sentence length and structure
- Use parallel structure
Mary likes hiking, swimming, and to ride a bicycle. - Put readers in your sentences
As you write and revise paragraphs—
- Begin most with topic sentence
- Use transitions to link ideas
Organizational Preferences in Writing Style
- Good writing varies by organization
- Preferred style should be used
- When preferred style is bad
Ask about poor examples you find
Recognize that a style may serve a purpose
Revise, Edit, and Proofread
Revise – change content, organization, and tone to satisfy purposes and audiences
Edit – change mechanical flaws, grammar errors
Proofread – correct typing errors
Use Feedback
- Ask for feedback you want
Approach Benefits Tone Grammar
Heed comments, even if you disagree
Rephrase
Give more details
Document sources
Why Design Matters
- Saves time and money
- Reduces legal problems
- Builds goodwill
- Attractive pages look friendly, easy to read
- Grouping ideas shows structure
Design: Part of Writing
- Think about design at each step
- As you plan, think about audience
- Skilled or busy?
- Read straight through or skip around?
- As you write, use lists, headings.
- Use visuals to convey numerical data clearly
- Get feedback from your audience
- As you revise, check the design guidelines that follow
Design and Conventions
- Vary widely by audience, geographic area, industry, or department
- Change over time
- Violating is risky
- Presents incorrect interpretations
- Signals author is unreliable or unknowledgeable
Page Design Guidelines
- Use white space
- Use headings
- Limit words in all capital letters
- Use no more than two fonts per document
- Justify margins selectively
- Put key items at top left or bottom right
- Use a grid for graphic unity
- Use highlighting, decorative devices, and color in moderation
Designing Brochures
- Use this process to create effective brochures
- Determine your objectives
- Identify your target audiences
- Identify central selling point
- Choose image you want to project
- Identify objections; brainstorm ways to deal with them
- Draft text to see how much space it takes
- Select visuals to accompany text
- Experiment with different papers and layouts
- Make every choice a conscious one
- Color – Font – Layout – Paper
- Polish prose and graphics
Portions attributed to Locker, Kitty O. and Donna Kienzler. Business and Administrative Communication, 9/e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2010.
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