Chapter 5

Writing Business Messages

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Learning Objectives1. Being sensitive to audience needs2. Building strong audience relationships3. Controlling your style and tone4. Choosing strong words for a message5. Composing effective sentences6. Writing unified, coherent paragraphs7. 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

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SpeakingWriting

Practice Etiquette

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•Respect•Diplomacy•Tactfulness

Positive Emphasis

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•Avoid Negative Language•Substitute Euphemistic Terms

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Bias-Free Language

•Gender•Race•Ethnicity•Age•Disability

Summary of Discussion

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Adapting to Your Audience: Building Strong Relationships

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Establish Credibility

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Honesty Objectivity

Awareness Expertise

Establish Credibility

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Endorsements Performance

Sincerity Confidence

Company Image

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CommunicationStyle

CommunicationGuidelines

Summary of Discussion

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Adapting to Your Audience: Controlling Style and Tone

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Conversational Tone

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• Don’t confuse texting and writing

• Avoid stale and obsolete language

• Avoid preaching and bragging

• Be careful with intimacy and humor

Plain Language

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Read It!Understand It!Take Action!

Use the Right Voice

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Active Passive

Direct

Assertive

Indirect

Diplomatic

Summary of Discussion

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Composing Your Message: Choosing Powerful Words

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Selecting Words

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•Correct Words•Effective Words

Understanding Words

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•Denotation•Connotation

Balancing Words

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AbstractionConcreteness

Concepts

Qualities

Characteristics

Tangible

Objective

Visualization

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PowerfulWords

FamiliarWords

Clichés &Buzzwords

TechnicalJargon

Finding Precise Words

Summary of Discussion

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Composing Your Message: Writing Effective Sentences

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Sentence Types

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Simple • One Main Clause• One Subject & Verb

Compound • Two Main Clauses• Join By Conjunction

Sentence Types

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Complex • One Main Clause• A Dependent Clause

CompoundComplex

• Two Main Clauses• A Dependent Clause

Using Sentence Style

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Emphasize Key Thoughts

Use More Words

Sentence Subjects Dependent Clauses

Position the Words

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

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• Illustration•Classification•Cause & Effect•Problem & Solution•Compare & Contrast

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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